ANXIETY: COPING MECHANISMS FOR CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLE WITH ANXIETY

EMAIL 1

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Subject Line: Are your children struggling with anxiety?

Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),

Due to a global pandemic experience, anxiety is on the rise in children of all ages. Some occasionally experience anxiety, while others are daily. To help introduce the topic, we have a brand new, encouraging, (and short!) video for you that includes some basic starting points on how to help your child.

To view the video, click the link below.

https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/463193419/bf72d1825d

As always, I am here to support you as parents. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to reach out.

(Insert Signature Here)

EMAIL 2

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Subject Line: Ideas on how to help anxious children

Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),

If your child struggles with anxiety on any level,  you are not alone. Anxiety has increased among children, especially since the global pandemic. As some of your biggest fans, we want to support you in the parent journeying.

We have a short, encouraging video that includes a few simple ideas on how to help a child with anxiety. To view the video, click the link below.

https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/463193419/bf72d1825d

If you have any questions, thoughts, or want to talk further about the subject, please reach out.

Cheering you on,

(Insert Signature Here)

VIDEO

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Anyone struggle with anxiety in your family? Check your inbox for a short, encouraging parent video to help!

Learn more from our new parent video on anxiety. Parents, check your inbox for more!

Anxiety can create a loop of worry and fearful thoughts in your child’s head. Learn more in our brief parent video. Check your inbox for more.

ANXIETY: Coping Mechanisms for Children who Struggle with Anxiety. Parents, check your inbox for our new, brief, encouraging video!

VIDEO SCRIPT

If your child struggles with anxiety, you know that this is probably something you need to seek professional help because it is no joke. We all understand that we have some level of anxiety. But for some of us, the anxiety is so real. You know that really annoying song we used to sing? “This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends.” And you just keep singing that over and over again, having that same song in your head over, and over, and over, and over? Yeah. That’s what anxiety can become for our kids, this never-ending song in their heads. But instead of the lyrics of a cheesy song, it’s a fear or a worry that they just simply can’t stop thinking about. And it quite literally grinds their brain down. If you’re a parent of a kid with anxiety, I don’t have to explain any further. You live it almost on a daily basis.

And yes, as I said earlier, professional help is probably something you’ll need to check out to see how they can find some coping mechanisms to help them. Here are some of the things you might discover if you went and sought help. You might discover that you can name that worry and anxiety and separate it from yourself. What that means is for your child, especially when they go through some crisis or some big, huge life moment, your child can help separate my stress, worry, and fear from who I am. It’s so important to separate that from their identity. I am a person, and I am here, and God is with me. And yes, also, there is a loop of worried and fearful thoughts in my head. And I can name those, and they are there, and I can deal with them.

But I am dealing with them; they aren’t dealing with me. The next thing to think through that a licensed professional might help you process with your child is to teach them how to take small steps towards a big fear. One of the things we sometimes do when we have fears is we say, “Conquer your fear, attack your fear.” But for those who struggle with anxiety, the fear is like a huge giant, and telling them to conquer it is like telling someone to charge hell with a water pistol, right? It feels impossible. And that is the reason why we can cope by saying, “Hey, if you have a huge fear of going on our family vacation across the country, then why don’t we take small steps towards that? And maybe this weekend, let’s just drive 30 minutes to go somewhere that’s new. And let’s experience that and build that muscle and help grow towards this thing that we’re afraid of.” You see, there’s a lot of great ways that professionals can help you and your child think through anxiety, especially after crisis.

One of my favorites is for you to be able to insert faith into that, for your child to begin to be able to, like the scripture says, “Be anxious about nothing, but with prayer and petition, present your worries to God.” That idea of leveraging prayer as a way to separate those anxious thoughts and worries and giving them somewhere. One coping mechanism could be that they would literally write them down to get them out of their head and put them somewhere else. But our faith allows us to say those to God, and say, “God, I want to give them to you.” Anxiety, especially after crisis, can feel crushing. But if you struggle with anxiety, a normal day can feel like a crisis every single day. So whether you’re going through crisis or whether you’re just struggling with anxiety, you can find hope when you go seek out those professionals and allow God to use them in the life of your child, to help them bring peace in the midst of all of that crazy anxiety.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIP: 2 UNIQUE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CHILD

EMAIL 1

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Subject Line: Building an Emotional Relationship with your Child

Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),

When your child goes to elementary school, it feels like they grow up overnight. Where did the little toddler go with the messy spaghetti on their face?

As your child develops physically, so does their language, and with it, conversation. At this moment, you have a chance to build an emotional relationship with them. Today, I give you a brief, encouraging video with 2 easy, on-the-go tips to help you learn how to communicate in such a way that you can connect with your child emotionally.

To view the video, click the link below.

https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/451261208/368f6cf39d

As always, I am here to support you as parents. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to reach out.

(Insert Signature Here)

EMAIL 2

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Subject Line: How to Communicate with your Child

Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),

As your child develops over the elementary years, they make lots of discoveries…friends, school subjects, extra-curricular activities, and more. The calendar fills up, car rides begin, and so does the conversation from the back seat. 🙂

If you find yourself in this place, I have an encouraging (short) video for you on how to communicate with your child to build an emotional relationship.

To view the video, click the link below.

https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/451261208/368f6cf39d

If you have any questions or thoughts, please email me.

Cheering you on,

(Insert Signature Here)

VIDEO

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Two simple ways to build a relationship with your child! Check your inbox for a brief, encouraging video just for parents.

2 practical, on-the-go tips to better communicate with your child! Check your inbox for more information on this short video!

Check out our brief, encouraging parent video. Look in your inbox for more information!

Want to build a relationship with your child? Check your inbox for a brief, encouraging video just for parents.

VIDEO SCRIPT

Have you ever heard this statement, children should be seen and not heard? That statement often implies that children should not speak unless someone speaks to them, especially around adults.

One of the things that I love about Jesus was when he came and walked upon this earth that he brought about God’s kingdom. Meaning he came and walked in human form and taught us what God thinks, and feels, and how God sees the world that he created. And one of those that he began to teach on was how he viewed children.

This truth was recorded in the book of Matthew, and I want to read it to you. It says, “One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Jesus. But Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children.'” I love this because what Jesus did at this moment, in the setting that he is in because he was seen as what’s called a Rabbi. So, he’s known as a teacher. And he is a teacher that’s respected by his peers. And he is saying, hey, if you want to know how God views children, he respects them. He values them. And this was like turning everything upside down because, in this setting, children were viewed as second class citizens. They were to be seen and not heard. They didn’t matter. They weren’t valued. They were second class citizens. And Jesus came in and said, God values children. I value children. This moment reflects God’s kingdom.

So as your child moves through 1st grade, 2nd, or 3rd, now is the time to develop communication and listening skills. Because children actually do have something to say. Even at that young age, they do have hearts, and they have souls, and they have things they want to share.

So, I want to give you two simple tips on how to talk with your child through the lens of how God treats them.

One is, be available. And what I mean by that is, as parents, we’re constantly providing, preparing, and doing for them. And sometimes we can be so busy doing for them that we forget to be with them. One of the ways we can show our children respect is just to be with them. Not necessarily be doing their laundry, cooking them meals, or running them to school and back, but it’s climbing on the floor and playing Legos-those Legos that we have stepped on so many times it just hurts. Right? And we’re more about pick up the Legos than just sitting down and playing with the Legos. But being with them is how you build a relationship.

This leads me to the second tip, which is actively listening. Listening is an art form, and it requires active listening, which means we listen wholeheartedly, fully-focused on what they might be saying. Now, they might be talking about Minecraft or something we have no clue what they’re saying, but we actively listen.

We seek to understand our children because we’re showing them respect. And that might seem a little weird, right, for a son or a daughter who is a first-grader or a second-grader who might be talking about what’s on the TV show they just saw or a YouTube channel.

But one of the things that Jesus taught us as parents – I value children. And just because they’re young doesn’t mean that we need to dismiss what they have to say. We can show them respect, just like he did.

And so, I especially love, in this text, the role of the parents- when it says, “parents brought their children to Jesus.” And that’s ultimately what we’re called to do is we want to take them to him. And, by being available and by actively listening, we begin to build a relationship with them.
As parents, we have so much going on. If I could write a job description for us, it would be cruise director, CEO, CFO, chef, Uber driver, peacekeeper at the UN, PE coach, teacher, and so much more. It’s a serious job description, being a parent. It’s no joke.

But, in all the good that we do for our kids, the greatest thing we can do is to be with them, build a relationship with them so they can see what it’s like to interact with someone who loves them completely and wholeheartedly. Because ultimately, that’ll point them to how Jesus feels about them, that he loves them, that he is willing to listen to them, that they’re worth being heard.

So, I hope these two tips help you be effective in how you talk with them. Communication to a relationship is like oxygen to the soul, so when you begin to communicate with your children effectively, you are bringing life into the parent-child relationship.