EMAIL 1
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Subject Line: Building Faith in The Chaos of Life
Dear Parents,
It’s a new season, and if you’re anything like most of us, life hasn’t slowed down; it’s picked right back up! After a brief pause in the usual busyness, the hustle of everyday routines can quickly take over. And in the midst of it all, it’s easy for our relationship with God to move down on the priority list.
We know He’s always there, but carving out the time to build and nurture that relationship often feels like a challenge. Yet, it’s this connection with God that sustains and guides us through every season of life. The good news? Prioritizing your faith doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With a little intention and focus, you can make your relationship with God—and your family’s faith journey—a central part of your life. In this month’s Online Parenting Class, we’re sharing practical, simple steps to help you keep faith front and center, no matter how busy life gets.
We also are providing you with a helpful resource called Focusing on Faith. This resource will guide you through a short devotional to help you evaluate where your faith development is on your priority list. You’ll be guided with Scripture readings and reflection questions.
To watch this month’s video or download the Toolbox Resource, click on the links below.
[ INSERT LINK TO ONLINE PARENTING CLASSÂ VIDEO ]
[ INSERT LINK TO TOOLBOX RESOURCE ]
We are praying for you!
[INSERT LEADER’S SIGNATURE HERE]
EMAIL 2
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Subject Line: Putting Faith First
Dear Parents,
When you think about what matters most in your life, what comes to mind first? Family, friends, work, and your kids’ activities like school, sports, or hobbies likely top the list. Add in your own responsibilities and interests, and it’s easy to feel stretched thin. But what about your relationship with God? Where does it fit in? Oftentimes, we end up trying to squeeze our faith into the little margin we have. We may offer a quick prayer every now and then or attend an occasional church service there, but true spiritual growth often takes a backseat. What if we chose to make faith the cornerstone of our priorities?
When we intentionally focus on deepening our faith, it can transform not just our lives but also the lives of our children. This month’s Online Parenting Class shares practical ways to make faith a top priority for you and your family, helping you take steps toward true and lasting spiritual growth.
I hope you’ll take some time to look over our resources this month. We’ve provided you with a helpful and practical devotional called Focusing on Faith, which will guide you in evaluating where your faith is on the priority list. We’ve also got a helpful parenting article for you titled “Putting Our Faith First.” I hope these resources will be encouraging for you as we all take steps to grow in our faith in this new season.
Be sure to check out all the resources below:
[ INSERT LINK TO M2P PARENTING ARTICLE ]
[ INSERT LINK TO M2P ONLINE PARENTING CLASS VIDEO ]
[ INSERT LINK TO TOOLBOX RESOURCE ]
Don’t ever hesitate to reach out if we can do anything for you!
[INSERT LEADER’S SIGNATURE HERE]
M2P KIDS January Parent Video Script
Happy New Year! We’re hoping that you are seeing this somewhere early in the new year and you are in the early stages of getting back into a familiar routine or maybe you’re starting some new things and new routines. Either way, you’re jumping back into a more normal rhythm of life that most of us live in most of the time. Well, as you step into this new season where you have the chance to reprioritize some things, we have something we want to encourage you to do.
So here it is. When it comes to deciding what you want to focus on in life and how you want to lead your family, we want to encourage you to make faith matter. Our hope is that you would prioritize your faith in God above anything else. We know there are a lot of things that are important to you as you move through life, but we would submit to you that there is nothing more important than your relationship with God and how that impacts your everyday life as well as the life of your kids.
Some of you are already putting your relationship with God at the top of your priority list. If that’s you, keep it up, and hopefully, the rest of what we’re going to share will simply serve as reminders for you. If you’re someone who maybe hasn’t prioritized your faith in the way that you think you should, we hope to give you a few ideas about things you can do to make faith matter in your life.
Here’s the thing … I’m guessing you are hoping that living a life of faith will be a priority for your children. You probably wouldn’t be watching this video if you didn’t. You want for your kids to have a real relationship with God that will guide them along the way. If you’re anything like me, you want your kids to learn and grow in healthy ways and for them to be healthy mentally, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. If this is true for you, there are a few things that you can do to help make that happen.
First, you have to make faith a priority for YOU. You have to make sure that you have your eyes “fixed on Jesus,” as Scripture says. Sure, you have to look at and think about a lot of things as you move through life, but Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God.” How can you do that? You have to regularly carve out time to spend with God. This is not time doing things for God, but time in fellowship with God, getting to know Him better, and being molded and shaped by Him. We spend lots of time on lots of different things in life and those things are molding and shaping us. We need to take the time to be with God, allowing His Spirit to speak to us. Have a daily “quiet time,” or prayer time or devotion. Practice what Psalm 46:10 says and, “Be still and know that He is God.” You would be surprised the impact this can have on your child’s faith. Our kids are always watching us, and so much of what they learn from us is from our example. During the younger years when our kids are really watching what we say and do, it is incredibly important that we model what we want them to learn from us.
Next, be in community. Surround yourself with people who know you for who you are and can encourage you in your relationship with God. Community can be found in a small group, Sunday school class, or even through close friendships with people who share the same beliefs and values that you do. It is so important to have someone to talk to about faith and with whom you can process your questions and struggles. [God created us to be in community, so don’t isolate yourself or your family as you seek to make faith a top priority in your life.]
Make faith a priority for your family together. Yes, faith needs to matter to you, and there are things you need to do personally to grow, but you need to lead your family, and specifically, your kids, to prioritize faith in practical ways. Sometimes, it’s hard to talk about faith at home. We can talk about church, events, and programs, but what about Jesus? We would encourage you to make having conversations about faith a normal and natural part of life at home. Don’t make it weird. Don’t talk about God as “the big guy upstairs” or some distant being. Just have conversations about what God is doing in your life and help your kids be comfortable talking about how God is working in their life.
Another way to prioritize faith for your family is to attend church together. This may seem obvious, but studies have shown that children that attend church with their families regularly are more likely to stick with faith once they graduate from high school and beyond. So don’t look at church as the place where you can take your kids to “fix” them or keep them on the right path, but look at it as a community of people that your family is a part of, a group of people who are trying to grow closer to God together. The best way for your family to really become a part of a church community is to show up consistently.
Finally, as you start a new season hoping to prioritize faith in a different way, help your kids learn how to prioritize faith in their life. You can’t make them do this, but you can put them in situations where faith matters and surround them with people who will point them to a relationship with God. Encourage them to go to Sunday school or attend church events. Help them build relationships with other kids who are trying to grow in their faith. Help them build relationships with church leaders and other significant adults who will point them to Jesus and help them develop a faith that matters to their everyday life. As you focus on making your faith a priority and you model what that looks like, help your kids do the same.
A new season brings the opportunity for a new focus, and our hope and prayer for you and your family is that you would maybe move your faith and your relationship with God to the top of the priority list. If you do, life won’t be perfect, but we think you’ll be glad you did.