"Wanna play a game?"
It was Lisa Fletcher’s last-ditch effort to get her two young girls to bed one night 27 years ago. It worked.
"I just told them what I loved about them that day, and they went to bed with grins from ear to ear, and I was shocked," Fletcher of Dallas, Texas, told Fox News Digital.
It was a simple idea inspired by the book "The Blessing" by John Trent and Gary Smalley.
Now, Fletcher is sharing that "game" with the world in her own book. Her first children’s book, "What I Love about You," from Good & True Media, is out in wide release on Tuesday.
It is already the #1 bestseller among "Children's Value" books on Amazon.
The book, issued late last year in a limited release, has touched many people already. Fletcher has received hundreds of pictures and videos of parents playing the "game" with their kids.
"I have absolutely loved hearing from so many people that tell me they are playing the game with not only their kids but also their co-workers, friends and students," Fletcher told Fox News Digital.
"It’s so amazing how such a simple idea that popped into my head 27 years ago when I was just trying to get my kids to go to sleep," she also said, "could make such an impact on my family's life and now so many other families as well."
The board book is an illustrated walk through of real-life events from the Fletcher family past.
"The football team in the book is an actual photo that the illustrator recreated of my son winning the championship," she said.
His team ended up as state football champs, but Fletcher says it was the way her son won that was the best part.
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After every game, she said proudly, her son shook every coach's hand. That was the most important thing to her.
"I was trying to show people the importance of focusing on the character of our kids and not their behavior," she said.
She wanted to include the chaos, too — such as the time her son Robert dented her refrigerator with a T-ball.
That moment is also illustrated in the book.
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"Regardless of how our kids behave all day, we still love their character. We love so many things about them," she said.
Fletcher and her husband live in Dallas now, but are California natives. Like so many others, her family decided to leave the Golden State in the last few years.
She is an Instagram influencer due in part to her daughter Daryl-Ann Denner, who has 1.1 million followers.
Fletcher is a star in her own right, though, as she's pushing 200K followers and has been given the nickname "America’s Mom" by her "fans." She appears in her daughter Daryl-Ann’s posts regularly.
Fletcher even responds to prayer requests — and she takes that very seriously.
"What I love about Instagram is the opportunity to pray for people," she said. "If I ever told someone, 'I'll pray for you,' I immediately do it."
Lisa Fletcher's most important role, however, is mothering five children.
She has four biological children — Daryl-Ann, Danielle, Katie, Robert — as well as Kaylee. The Fletcher family took in Kaylee when she was 14 years old.
Kaylee needed a home after her father took his own life. The first night Kaylee was with the Fletcher family, they played the bedtime game — of course.
Together with her husband Robert, Lisa Fletcher is a grandparent now, too — with four grandchildren.
She is living the "life she always prayed for," she told Fox News Digital.
"All I ever wanted was to have a family and I created that, which is super cool," she said.
The importance of creating this family stemmed from a very "lonely" childhood, she said.
Her single mom was working full time and her dad was absent much of the time. Fletcher realized in her 40s that God has been her "father all along," she said.
The Fletcher family has also faced many financial hardships — but "God has always brought us through," she explained.
One thing: Fletcher does not "love" giving parenting advice.
"No matter the circumstances or trials I was facing with my kids, I chose to look past that and instead focus on their strengths. I would encourage them with what I love about them instead of focusing on their current behavior."
There were certain nonnegotiables, too.
Fletcher said there was never a time when she prioritized being a friend to her kids over what was best for them.
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And she was no pushover. She recalled a time when she spent two hours fighting with her kids over a school "after dark" party.
"They thanked me when they were older because they knew. They found out about [the] stuff that was going on."
She said she’s frequently asked by her friends and followers, "How do I have a better relationship with my teenager?"
"Try telling them what you love about them every day," she said she replies. "It’s hard to have a bad relationship with someone when you're telling them every day what you love about them."
She said she knows she did some other things right, too — such as the game. "The power of life and death is in the tongue," said Fletcher.
Anyone wanting more information about Fletcher's book can visit the publisher's website, goodandtruemedia.com.
And from the mouths of babes, Lisa Fletcher is proved correct.
Not long ago, during lunch with her three-year-old grandson Rhett, this precious little boy turned to her and said, "Grandma, know what I love about you today?"
(For the answers to that — and for Lisa Fletcher's reaction to her grandson — WATCH THE VIDEO at the top of this article. Or click here to see it!)
