Questions Kids Ask

The Lord's Supper is one of those moments in church life that can be difficult to understand for kids. Talking about blood is normally not something we do much unless one of our children is literally bleeding, so to think of Jesus' blood and it's symbolism in the cup that we take is a little weird. Not to mention, SNACK TIME! Bread and juice? Of course every kid wants in on that. Listen in to hear how Brittany and her family have talked about this ordinance with their kids. Featured resource: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/preventing-metoo-begins-pre-school-4-books-help-talk-kids/

Katie Orr joins us to talk about understanding God as our perfect Father, even if and especially if a child's earthly father is absent or not the best example of godly love and care. Although this is probably not a question your kids will ask directly, it is an important conversation for you to begin with them to help them understand that when they hear God referred to as Father, He is the only perfect parent - loving, providing, protecting, and caring perfectly for them. Don't forget to get the 30% coupon for Katie's FOCUSed15 Bible Study Training: https://resources.katieorr.me/focused15-bible-study-training?coupon=QKA

With historical evidence - both inside the Biblical text and outside it - we can certainly confirm that Jesus was a person who lived in a certain time of history from the town of Nazareth. What must be taken on faith is the rest of the story: that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, took on the wrath of God for sin on the cross, died, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven. Indeed, it is the greatest story ever told but is also foolishness to those who don't believe. It seems crazy! But it's true. And we can help our kids be ready for the questions they may have or be asked that revolve around Jesus' existence, Personhood, and ultimately deity.  Get Devotional Doctrine here: https://www.gospelproject.com/doctrine-book/

Danielle Bell has been serving in children's ministry for 21 years, and is currently at Dawson Family of Faith in Birmingham, Alabama. She recently adopted an adorable little girl from the foster system, and is passionate about helping people serve kids and families within the foster system well. In this episode, we talk about why foster care matters, what you can do to help, how you can educate your kids on why some kids are adopted and also calm any fears they have about them being "taken away" and adopted to another family, and what it looks like on the daily to do all the things as a single mom of a two year old. 

Jamie Ivey and her husband, Aaron, worship pastor at The Austin Stone Community Church, live in Austin, Texas with their four kids and two dogs.  Through her podcast, The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, she uses a raw a nd intimate approach to connect with her audience. Jamie’s prayer and hope is for God to use her words to encourage and show others that they are not alone, while constantly pointing them to Jesus.  Today we talk about discipline and how it's so difficult with our kids, why we continue to sin even after we become a Christian, and why confession is so important and not talked about enough in our churches and our families.  Jamie tells a story about finding out one of her kids was using an app in a way that she didn't approve, and how she didn't handle the situation like she wished she had. Make sure to listen in, as there's so much wisdom there. Today's featured resource is If You Only Knew by Jamie Ivey. If you've ever felt like a fraud in your Christian life or wondered how people would respond

Today's guest is Jana Magruder. Jana is the Director of LifeWay Kids and brings a wealth of experience and passion for kids ministry, education, and curriculum writing. She and her husband, Michael, along with their three children reside in Nashville, TN. Why do we pray? If God really is in control and is all-knowing, shouldn't He know what we need and what we would ask for if we were praying anyway? God is in control and God does know. In fact, He knows BETTER than we do about what we need, but prayer is still SO valuable. There's so mystery about it - but we know two things for sure: Prayer changes our hearts and prayer has the power to really change things. We see God answer prayer over and over again in Scripture and He does the same for us.

Dorena Williamson is a bridge buider, speaker, writer, and worship leader who knows the power and beauty of racial awareness. She and her husband, Dr. Chris Williamson, planted Strong Tower Bible Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and have spent more than twenty years ministering to its richly diverse faith community. Dorena and Chris have four children. Dorena joins us today to talk about race, how to talk with kids about the difficult past of American slave trade and oppression, relearning history, and celebrating diversity in all the world because God has created it and it is good! 

Prayer is the most important weapon we have against the enemy, and the Bible even says that Jesus intercedes for us while He sits at the right hand of the Father. Yet, there are often questions about the nature of prayer. Because it's a conversation with a God who we cannot see who knows all things and is entirely in control it seems like it may be pointless to voice our needs, our gratitude, and our worship because God already knows what we are going to pray before we pray it. Still, we see prayer as unbelievably powerful throughout Scripture. Prayer changes things - and we can be a part of what God is doing in the world by having a vibrant prayer life.  

Why would God, if He knew Adam and Eve would sin, put a tree in the garden that would sentence them to death if they ate from it?  We know God is sovereign, and there also is need for humanity to obey. A love without choice is not love at all, so God gave us the opportunity to obey out of love. And yet, Jesus was not God's plan B. Even as consequences were being discussed of Adam and Eve's sin, God tells them that there will come a time when a Messiah will come to redeem what had been done and make all things right again.

It can be easier to help kids understand how Jesus is the same us - how He was born, was a child, and had all the experiences we have, but it's much more difficult to help kids understand how He is different - that He is God and He is sitting at the right hand of the Father today interceding for us. In this episode, we talk about how we should speak truth in as bite-sized portion for our kids as possible, but not watering it down so that it has a different meaning. We want our kids to know what is true, even if it's hard to comprehend.  

Trillia Newbell is the author of Enjoy, Fear and Faith, United, and God’s Very Good Idea. She's been published in Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, and more. Trillia is married to Thern and they reside with their two children near Nashville, TN. You can find her at trillianewbell.com and follow her on twitter at @trillianewbell.  Today, she joins us to talk about what kids can do when they are sad. There are so many great passages in Scripture that we can run to when we feel sad - and it should be a great encouragement that even Jesus felt sad! Jesus is God, who came as a baby and grew and experienced life just as we do. He was sad, hungry, tempted, happy, and tired. He understands, and today He sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us before God.  Listen in to hear more.  

The work of translation cannot be emphasized enough. We want God's Word to be carried to every tribe and tongue so that they may read His Word for themselves in the language that they speak and even think in so that the Word of the Lord may dwell richly within them and also so that they might understand the gospel. We are so blessed to have so many translations of the Bible in English, and as we discover more manuscripts and have more archaeological evidence, we get closer, not farther away from what we know the original Greek/Hebrew text said. So which translations should we use with kids? Why do translations choose different words but are using the same original text? Listen in to hear.

Sometimes God asks us to do things that are uncomfortable or challenging. We see it throughout Scripture, but we don't want it to be true of us. And, even when we step out in faith and do the hard things God has called us to do, it doesn't always work out like we hope. But, God is always in control and obedience s always what is most satisfying and brings the most peace, even when obedience leads us into difficult situations.  Today's featured resource is CentriKid Camps. Learn more at centrikid.com

If you are listening on April 4th, make sure to check out the #MLK50 live stream here: https://live1.thegospelcoalition.org This event is put on by the ERLC, which Dan Darling works with, and I am so thankful they have made this event on racial reconciliation available for all of us online. Today's episode covers some topics that some find controversial. Ultimately, we want kids to know that God loves everyone and hopes that they will follow Him, but He also knows that not all people will. There are particular rights that are afforded to His children. These concepts of theology - of being children of God and as the Bible says, His chosen people should not point us to arrogance but to fall on our knees in worship!

Today, we're not talking about a specific question kids are asking, but rather how we can help kids build a framework for the whole story of Scripture. We'll talk about explaining creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration as a good foundation to build upon as they learn the stories in Scripture and realize that it all points to Jesus' sacrifice for our sin and ultimately, the end of the story, or His return to make things good like they were before sin entered the world.  I hope that this will help you understand Scripture better, and will also help your kids! Join us here to jump into the conversation.

Good Friday was a traumatic day - full of difficulty, pain, and shame for Jesus. Good Friday was the day that He carried His cross up to Golgatha and was crucified. Jesus was completely innocent of sin, but took on God's wrath on the cross so that we might be able to have a right relationship with God. Through His death, He paid for our sin with His blood, and through His resurrection, He guaranteed that the debt had been paid and sin and death had been ultimately defeated - and that one day all who trust Him will be raised just like He was raised.  Good Friday may not seem good - like a day at the amusement park, zoo, or pool might be to our kids, but it is good because of what it purchased for us. Ultimately, through Jesus' death on the cross, the separation between God and man that sin caused was removed. The temple veil was torn, and all who trust Jesus were then allowed to have a right relationship with God without the need to go through a high priest for forgiveness of sin and prayer. Instead, Jesus act

As we read the Old Testament and all the times God promised to send a Messiah, Jesus' entrance into the world can seem like it took FOREVER. We read from Adam and Eve to Noah to David and on into the minor prophets, and God's people were yearning all along for a Savior, waiting on His arrival. Then, between the books of Malachi and Matthew were 400 years of silence, and God's people were just waiting. Why did God wait so long?  This is one of those questions that we just don't have Scripture that answers it directly, but we can infer that God was working in hearts all along, pointing them to want to love and obey Him and that Jesus came at God's perfect time. Similarly, many ask today why God is waiting so long to send Jesus back to earth to make all things right, and in the same way, God is being so merciful - giving more time for those who do not trust Him to turn from their wicked ways and obey Him (2 Peter 3:9). We look forward to that day, and we celebrate His entrance into the world as God the Son - God

We talk a lot about what's different from before we were Christians to deciding to follow Jesus, but that doesn't mean it's super easy to talk about with our kids. That's no different for Jamie. Of course, we know that there's no weighting of sin in the Lord's eyes and that even one of the "tiniest" sins is deserving of death (Romans 6:23), there are some sins that do have weighter consequences. In Jamie's life, those "big sins" were premarital sex and abuse of alcohol, and sometimes we don't want to tell our kids because we don't want them to think less of us or to give them permission to do the same - because we want better for them. I don't think we are giving them permission to do what we did, but are instead giving them a picture of the pointing them to a Savior. When we share, our focus has to be not what we did, but what Jesus did. We always point back to the gospel, being confident that we aren't so much sharing our failures, but shining a great big spotlight on our Savior.  Mistakes or failures DO NO

It shows the sin in the world and how sin has broken certain people, and that brokenness twists their minds and hearts that they feel they need to lash out. I hope that this helps my kids understand the profoundness of human need - that sin is constant and everywhere and our need for a Savior is obvious in all aspects of life and in every day. As Christians, what is our appropriate response?  It has to be more than simple social posts, but we can DO something. We can advocate before God that He will do something about it, give, or seek to influence for justice. We rest in the hope that all of this WILL be fixed. We rest in the hope that we have a way to be forgiven of sin because of Jesus and that one day He will return and He will clean up His Kingdom and all will be made right. 

The quick answer is "God's glory," but it has far-reaching implications. Our lives are not for our own enjoyment or our own pleasure, but for Him. Why would God create a world He knew would rebel against Him?  We have to let some tension hang here, as we don't know all the ins and outs of the mind of God, but we know God created us knowing we would fall. He knew He would send Jesus. This question screams His love to us, which drives to His glory. The more we understand His love, the more we understand His glory. God knew the full ramifications of what was happening, and yet He chose to create nonetheless. Creation before the fall shows us what life will be like when Jesus returns and makes everything right again. Heaven by Randy Alcorn is super helpful (AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) to learn more here. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed their work and enjoyed one another. Our relationships that we know today will be changed in eternity, but all relationships, all work, and every moment will point to God's glor