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Family Constitution

Some folks today say it’s more spiritual to leave your estate to a nonprofit or some other institution instead of your family. But that’s a broken way of thinking. If your children love Jesus and you’ve trained them to handle money God’s ways, you should have no problem leaving your wealth to the next generation.

But you do have a responsibility to put your kids in a good situation. You’ve got to instill the moral strength to handle the responsibility. You have to make sure wealth will not destroy them and that they will follow God’s plan for it.

One great tool for building those values into the lives of your children is a family constitution. A family constitution defines your family’s values and identifies your family’s dysfunctions. It sets boundaries and essentially tells family members, “You won’t like it outside the boundaries. It’s more fun to be inside.”

While your constitution should fit your family’s unique situation, it needs to begin with a family mission statement. This tells the world who you are as a family. On the Ramsey Family Constitution, we use Joshua 24:15. That pretty much sums it up for us. We’re going to serve the Lord. As long as I can do anything about it, I’m going to use the force of personality and persuasion to move the needle in that direction.

You should build your family constitution on a biblical foundation and guide your family to live out these core principles every day. You also need to create a family council to review and revise the document on a regular basis, and you should include a path of restoration for prodigals who step out of bounds.

If you haven’t already, work with your family members to define what a family constitution means for your family and build it in a way that sets the stage for the legacy to come.

Would you like more information on developing your own family constitution? The Legacy Journey will walk you through the process while providing a biblical framework for safeguarding your legacy and your family’s future.