Your December Resources Are Here!
As families navigate the journey of life together, challenges are bound to come their way. Little ones with their own ideas and priorities grow into teenagers with strong opinions and desires, often leading to conflicts and misunderstandings. The road can often feel difficult for parents striving to maintain relationships and foster family unity. That’s why this month, we’re focusing on equipping and encouraging parents with tools and strategies to parent with grace. When parents learn to embrace God’s grace and forgiveness and extend that same grace to their children and teens, they build stronger relationships and healthier family dynamics. While conflicts and misunderstandings can bruise relationships, learning how to repair and strengthen those connections is a vital skill for every parent.
This month’s resources are designed to inspire a grace-centered approach to family life where parents consistently work to restore relationships with their kids and teens. In the Online Parenting Classes, we challenge parents to first accept God’s grace in their own lives and then practice practical, grace-filled parenting techniques at home. In the Coaching Videos, you will get a few practical tips to help parents restore relationships with their kids and navigate struggles with wisdom and love. This month’s M2P Podcast features registered play therapist Brianna Edwards, who shares specific ways parents and leaders can cultivate a healthy and supportive culture at home. The Toolbox Item is a hands-on exercise inspired by Brianna’s insights, offering parents practical guidance for navigating conflict and fostering meaningful conversations with their children or teenagers. Our Blogs and Social Media content offer a few additional tools to deepen the conversation and provide practical advice to parents.
Our prayer is that these resources will empower you to support the parents and families in your church as they embrace God’s grace and forgiveness and nurture the strong, healthy relationships they long for. Let us know how we can continue to support you as you support parents.
The M2P Team
WHAT IS IT?
This month’s resource is an exercise for parents to help them learn how to better navigate the relational “ruptures” that occur in family life. It gives parents prompts and questions that will help them reflect on how they react when life feels overwhelming, things are hard, and relationships are stressed. We always have a choice in how we handle things, and this tool gives some practical tips and ideas to help parents move to a healthy place as they seek to build strong relationships with their kids and teens.
HOW TO USE IT
- Download Grace and Repair in the Parenting Journey and post it on your website.
- Email parents a copy of the resource and encourage them to set aside some time to read it and pray through how they can use some of the principles in their home.
- Print copies of the resource for parents to grab at church.
Share a copy of the resource with your ministry team and discuss it together.
This month, we’re here to support you as a vital resource for parents facing the relational challenges that come with raising children and teenagers. Life inevitably brings conflicts that can strain family bonds, leaving people hurt and isolated. As followers of Jesus, we know that God’s grace covers a multitude of sins, calling us to both live in His grace and extend it to others. Nowhere is this calling more essential than within the family. When parents learn to offer forgiveness and rebuild relationships, they strengthen the relationships that are most important to them. As a ministry leader, you have the opportunity to equip parents with practical tools to lead well and foster an environment at home where grace overflows and relationships are restored.
This month’s Online Parenting Class highlights a foundational element of our faith: forgiveness. As children and teenagers grow, conflicts naturally arise, with words and actions sometimes causing pain and strain in relationships. In these challenging moments, parents can receive God’s grace and forgiveness for their shortcomings and, in turn, guide their kids and teens toward living in that same grace to restore broken relationships. God calls us to live in unity with one another, and that journey starts at home. When parents and their kids learn to accept and extend God’s grace, relationships strengthen, and families are more able to live with a sense of peace at home that encourages us all.
New blog posts coming this month:
- For Kids’ Ministry Leaders: Why Our Apologies Matter to Children by Amy Diller
- For Kids’ Ministry Parents: Saying, “I’m Sorry!” Says, “I Love You” by Amy Diller
- For Youth Ministry Leaders: Relational Grace by Chris Sasser
- For Youth Ministry Parents: Weathering the Storms by Chris Sasser
To view, click HERE