EMAIL 1
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Subject Line: Just a Word
Dear Parents,
I think we all know that words are powerful. They set direction, chart courses, and lead us in so many ways. But, as you and your kids head into the new year, what if you didn’t struggle with failed resolutions and unchanged behavior? What if you decided to focus more on formation than behavior modification–for your kids and for yourself? This month we introduce you to a book and idea called My One Word. This process helps you and your kids determine the type of person you want to be as you move along your faith journey. In this month’s Online Parenting Class video, pastor and author Mike Ashcraft shares more about this My One Word concept and how you can utilize it in this new year with your family.
To watch the brief video, click the link below.
[ INSERT LINK TO ONLINE PARENTING CLASSÂ VIDEOÂ ]
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year!
Praying with you and for you as you lead at home.
[INSERT LEADER’S SIGNATURE HERE]
EMAIL 2
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Subject Line: My One Word
Dear Parents,
How would you like to move into this new year with your family having a tool and a process that can truly help everyone in your home grow in their faith? We’re not talking about picking resolutions that focus on behavior modification and rarely work. Instead, we’re talking about a way to look at your life that will frame your entire year and allow God to work in you and your kids even when a failure occurs. Instead of thinking about ways to modify behavior, you could simply pick one word. In this month’s blog article, you’ll be inspired and equipped in some ways to do just that through My One Word. Take a few minutes to check it out. You’ll be glad you started the new year with this quick read.
[ INSERT LINK TO M2P ONLINE PARENTING BLOG ARTICLE ]
And don’t forget to watch this month’s Online Parenting Class video, where pastor, author, and creator of My One Word, Mike Ashcraft, walks you through the process.
[ INSERT LINK TO ONLINE PARENTING CLASSÂ VIDEOÂ ]
Thank you for the honor and privilege you give our ministry in allowing us to walk alongside you and your family in this new year.
In this alongside you,
[INSERT LEADER’S SIGNATURE HERE]
Video Script
Hi parents, Chris Sasser here, and I am excited for the way we’re going to step into the new year at Ministry to Parents. You know, most years, we might pick resolutions, and we know that those never really work. Well, this year, we’re going to encourage you to step into the new year in a new way. Maybe instead of picking some resolutions, you can just pick one word to frame your entire year, and today you’re going to hear from my friend and pastor Mike Ashcraft.
Hey parents. One of the things that happens early on in our children’s lives is they begin to answer “do” questions with “be” answers. From the moment they arrive in kindergarten, they start asking, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” and we begin to answer those questions with, “I want to be a doctor” or “I want to be a teacher” or “I want to be an architect,” and very quickly we begin to sort of make synonymous our vocation with our identity. And this isn’t super harmful because it’s sort of the normal ways that things are kind of progress, but I think we have an opportunity to do something different, something that profoundly shapes not only we interact with our kids in their elementary school years, but really sets a foundation for them to consider how their vocation is going to become an expression of their identity rather than the way to define it. And what kids need, and I think the opportunity for us, years ago we began this process where we stopped picking New Year’s resolutions, we stopped making promises about the kind of changes we were going to make in our lives, and instead we begin to pick a word. We just asked a simple question, “What kind of person you want to become?” You can lead your kids through this right, “What kind of person would you like to become?” “What kind of traits would you like to see in your life and become more readily available, more seeable in your life over the course of a year?” Have them make a list of those things, is it kindness, is it goodness, do they want to become more outgoing? Whatever it might be, just help them make that list. Have those conversations with them, then narrow that list down, and then have them simply pick one word. This is a great exercise, not only kind of envisioning but actually selecting and eliminating because you’re going to have four or five words that you want. You’re going to make them, or force them, or help them pick just one because this is what focus is ultimately about. Then that word will serve as a lens through which you will see your entire life over that year, and what you will see your kid’s life and kind of watch and help them watch what’s happening in them so every time they do something right that that moves in a direction away from the kind of person they want to become, instead of it being a scolding and a, “You got to promise to do better” it becomes, “Hey, what if we realigned our vision with the kind of person that you want to become, that we want to be and experience together?” You use this process with your kids, and over time what they begin to learn and realize is that who they are becoming is far more important than what it is they’re going to do. Your kids are going to grow up with so much pressure to do things, to do more to get into the right schools, to do all the right things, and the reality is God has designed us such that those good and beautiful things come out of the good and beautiful character that He longs to form in our lives. And what we want to do is to provide a way for our kids to see that and to stay focused on that, and to experience God’s promise as he says that “he who began a good work in them is faithful to bring it to completion.” And as parents, we get to help reshape and reframe and just realign our kids to the vision of who it is that they want to become and the kind of work that God wants to do in them.
Well, parents, I know that was incredibly helpful, and I also know that as a parent over the last number of years, taking my kids through this has really given us a lot of things to talk about at home and some ways for me to encourage my kids to step into who they are becoming. So, two things I would encourage you with is, number one, go through the my one word process yourself as a parent because as you continue you to lead your kids, you need to be growing in your own faith, and I promise you this is a tool that will help you do that for the new year. And then, secondly, figure out ways to talk to your kids about this and maybe lead your kids through the My One Word process because, as they step into a new year, they need a different lens on who it is that they can become. For more information, go to myoneword.org. You’ll be glad you did.