← Focus on the Family with Jim Daly
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- [00:01]
Jim Daly
God is at work and he's calling his people to rise in truth. Truth Rising is a powerful new documentary from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center. See how ordinary Christians choose courage in a culture that needs truth. Watch Truth Rising today and find out how you can become an agent of restoration and hope. Visit truthrising.com today. That's truthrising.com.
- [00:31]
Natasha Crane
But the number one thing I would say to any parent who feels overwhelmed is to take one step. If you recognize that this is important and it's something that you have to do because there's nothing more important than raising your kids to know and love the Lord, then do something. Whatever it is, do that one thing. And when you are equipped yourself, then you're in the position to equip your kids with this understanding so that they're better prepared.
- [00:53]
John Fuller
Today, that's Natasha Crane sharing how we can engage our children's tough faith questions with patient guidance and truth. She's our guest today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller.
- [01:07]
Jim Daly
You know, John, so many of us ask that question. If I could talk to God face to face, this would be the question I would ask him. I think one I truly would is what can I do to ensure my boys hold fast to their faith in you? And I'm imagining the Lord might say, well, Jim, put his arm around me. That's actually my job. But you can do some things to help me. And that's what we're going to discuss today. In Deuteronomy 6, we are commanded to teach God's word diligently to our children. So that's it right there. That's kind of the answer to that question. Teach them wisely, but in the end, God is the one who will draw them to him. And we need to remember that. We want to speak to some of those core conversations you need to make sure you have with your children today. And we have a wonderful guest to guide us through this.
- [01:59]
John Fuller
Yeah. Natasha Crane is with us and she's got an MBA and a certificate in Christian apologetics and is a wife and a mom of three younger kids and has written a number of books, including Keeping youg kids on God's 40 conversations to help them Build a Lasting Faith. Of course we have that. And we also have a mobile app and links over to our YouTube channel and ways you can get other resources. All those details are in the episode Show Notes.
- [02:26]
Jim Daly
Natasha, it's great to have you back here at focus.
- [02:29]
Natasha Crane
Hey, thank you so much it's great to be back.
- [02:31]
Jim Daly
You haven't always been, I guess, a formal Christian apologist, but I like the concept that parents need to become that so that they can pass their faith on to their children. But it sounds intimidating. So how and when, I guess, did you realize I don't have enough in the tank to really share with my own children?
- [02:52]
Natasha Crane
Well, this was the day where I look back and that was the aha moment for me of I don't know what I'm doing as a parent. And I think we all have those moments at various times in our parenting. But for me it's like this, this picture in my mind of them lying on this little blanket in our living room.
- [03:08]
Jim Daly
I remember those days.
- [03:09]
Natasha Crane
Yes, exactly. And so these two little four month old babies, they're looking up at me and their eyes are kind of expectantly searching mine as if they're waiting for something. So I go through this mental checklist and I'm thinking, okay, is it time to eat? No. Time to sleep? No, I just changed our diapers. Well, what do you need from me then? And it just kind of hit me like a ton of bricks that, okay, of course parenting is about so much more than taking care of their physical needs. But until that time, those first four months, that's really what most of it was. And I kind of thrived in that zone. I liked it was my controlled home environment. I'm a type A take charge kind of person. And so I liked that it was predictable and that I could just come up with these schedules. You're going to eat here, you're going to sleep here. It was very comfortable to me.
- [03:48]
Jim Daly
That was only four months.
- [03:49]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, it was only four months. Yes.
- [03:51]
Jim Daly
I thought, you know, that kind of thing lasted until they started walking, basically. Then it's like, don't touch that, put that down.
- [03:57]
Natasha Crane
Yes. It happens at different times, of course, but for me that was the moment where I really went, okay, now I don't know what to do.
- [04:06]
Jim Daly
What was that feeling? It was almost like you were out of your element.
- [04:09]
Natasha Crane
Absolutely, I was out of my element.
- [04:11]
Jim Daly
They don't need you right now. They're okay. That's pretty young at four months to have that feeling cross through your head, you know? Yeah, there's nothing I need to give them right now.
- [04:19]
Natasha Crane
Right, exactly. And it kind of goes to that saying, you know, they're not just supposed to be surviving. I have to help them thrive now. And what does that look like? What does that mean for me as a parent? And it wasn't Always gonna be so objective as this is when they need to eat and sleep. Right. There were a lot of decisions I was gonna have to make.
- [04:34]
Jim Daly
Well, t, it's hard, you know, they're listening. It's hard to really express that. It actually is going to get more difficult.
- [04:42]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, don't say that. That's a secret. Don't say that.
- [04:44]
Jim Daly
Changing diapers and feeding them and burping them at 2 in the morning. This is the easy time. Enjoy it.
- [04:50]
Natasha Crane
That's right.
- [04:51]
Jim Daly
You had an experience and I love this. It actually started a conversation as we were looking at the book and the show prep and all that amongst the team here, your swim instruction experience. And we all started sharing ours. I'm sure the listeners would do that. Share your experience teaching your kids how to swim. But what happened? This is so cute. What happened when you were trying to teach your 4 year olds how to swim?
- [05:18]
Natasha Crane
Yeah. So when my twins were four, we went on a family vacation and so we took the opportunity to take them down to the swimming pool and of course, try to get them to learn how to swim. So I'm working with my son. Starfish. Yeah, exactly. I'm working with my son and I keep telling him, okay, now hold your breath and go underwater and kind of swim to me. And he was getting the mechanics of it. He was moving his arms and his legs and everything. But every time he would come up out of the water, water, he's choking and water is coming out of his mouth and his nose and he's crying. And this goes on for a couple of days. And I'm getting more and more frustrated, as I know all parents can understand when they're trying to teach their kids how to swim. And that was another light bulb moment for me because after having told him so many times, hold your breath, I finally looked at him and said, wait a second, buddy, do you know what it means to hold your breath? And he burst into tears and he said, no, I don't know what it means. What does breath mean?
- [06:06]
Jim Daly
That is so awesome. It's like so basic.
- [06:09]
Natasha Crane
Oh, it's so, so basic. Right. But we, we use words all the time without thinking that, you know, our kids don't know what they mean. And, and of course, when they're young, that happens a lot more because they're learning vocabulary and things like that. But I think the principle applies so much as kids get older and we use a lot of words, especially when it comes to faith, that we assume come loaded with this meaning that we know about, but that they haven't really understood yet. So, you know, words like Christianity and faith and salvation, all these things, they don't necessarily get it at the same level.
- [06:38]
Jim Daly
What a beautiful way to express that. You know, kids, depending upon their age, 7, 8, 9 years old, when you say certain things, the Christianese things, they're not necessarily gonna know what you're talking about. No. Mommy, what is breath exactly? How do I hold it?
- [06:54]
John Fuller
Right.
- [06:54]
Natasha Crane
I could just assume that you feel horrible as a parent. Right. I've been putting my kid through this for two days where he's coming up choking and it's all because he's drowning him all day.
- [07:02]
Jim Daly
I know. I can't believe you.
- [07:04]
Natasha Crane
Now you're making it worse.
- [07:05]
Jim Daly
I can remember saying to Trent or Troy, one of them, come on, just hold your breath. Put your head underwater. Come on, we can do this. I was getting frustrated too. Have that fun.
- [07:14]
John Fuller
Never. Oh, no. Five or six times.
- [07:17]
Jim Daly
It's just one of the funniest things to teach your kid how to swim. It's so much fun. Let's jump into these tough questions. And I love the way you've set up your book, Keeping youg Kids on God's side. You know, we're going to get into the whole thing that obviously God ultimately is responsible for drawing your children to him, but that assists to live in a good home where the Lord is lifted up and hopefully there's limited failure in terms of hypocrisy and all those things. Your kids can see your faith in action. That's probably critical, right?
- [07:49]
Natasha Crane
Oh, absolutely. If we're not modeling faith in front of them, then why are they going to have reason to believe that Christianity really matters?
- [07:55]
Jim Daly
I think when you get to the teen years, that's probably the most important thing. That they see your faith, active faith, and you're living it. You know, you're not one thing at church and another thing at home that'll cripple teenagers ability to trust God, don't you think?
- [08:10]
Natasha Crane
Oh, absolutely.
- [08:12]
Jim Daly
All right, so we've picked a few out here. The 40. We can't cover 40 and a half hour, but we're going to do our best. Maybe four.
- [08:19]
Natasha Crane
I can try if you really want.
- [08:20]
Jim Daly
So we just picked the things that we thought were really kind of strategic. The first one that I wanted to cover was this. Do all religions point to the same truth? I mean, this has to be age appropriate. Right, but how do you start answering that question?
- [08:36]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, well, this is a really important question that a lot of times as Christians, we skip over and we don't think about. Because when we teach our kids about Christianity, we assume. Well, we're teaching them truth, right? But a lot of people today make the claim that everything's basically true. It's all pointing to one truth that's all the same for everyone. So they would say, well, yeah, that's great, Christianity is true. But this is true. And this is true. And this is true, too. All these things are true. So if someone's assuming that everything can be true at the same time, they don't really care to hear what you're saying about Christianity being true. It's just one of many truths. So the important thing that we can help our kids understand on this, and I think they can understand it at a pretty young age, is that there are similarities a lot of times between religions. But when you look at the totality of the claims that different religions are making, they cannot logically be true at the same time. They are logically contradictory. So they answer these big questions like, where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? What's the meaning of life? And they do so in a way that cannot be reconciled with anything else. A really simple example that you can share with a child is in Judaism, Jesus was not the Messiah, but in Christianity, Jesus is the Messiah. Those two things simply cannot be true at the same time.
- [09:48]
Jim Daly
Right? That is the crux of the issue.
- [09:49]
Natasha Crane
That is the crux of the issue.
- [09:50]
Jim Daly
Is he the one?
- [09:51]
Natasha Crane
Exactly. And so when all these different religions make logically contradictory claims, we can see by just sitting down with our kids and showing them, well, this is exactly what is taught here, and this is what's taught here. They can see they can't be true at the same time.
- [10:04]
Jim Daly
Go to the question, too, that I had here. If Christianity is the only true religion, why are there so many denominations?
- [10:10]
Natasha Crane
Well, I think it starts with defining a simpler word, which is, what's a Christian? Right. And that sounds so basic. I mean, today, what is a Christian?
- [10:17]
Jim Daly
And so what do you say?
- [10:19]
Natasha Crane
So I say, well, some people would just say it's a follower of Jesus. That's a common definition. But I've asked my kids this question. I said, well, what do you think? What kind of problems might you run into if you say that someone who's a Christian is a follower of Jesus? And my daughter, even at I think she was probably nine when we talked about this, and she said, well, that could mean a lot, lot of different things. You know, someone could claim to be a follower of Jesus and just think that he's a pretty cool guy, that he taught some great morality and not think that he's God. So with this it's important to go back to, well, what did a Christian mean originally? If we go back to Jesus and the time of the apostles and the earliest Christians, what did they believe? What were those earliest core beliefs that they held in common? And so that brings us back to the question of denominations because we can explain to our kids that yes, Christians do have some disagreements on what we would call non essentials, like how do you govern the church and worship style, things like that. But we all come around these core beliefs that go back to the earliest times of Christianity, which are there is one God, that Jesus is God, that he was raised from the dead and that we are saved by grace. And that is the gospel, that we are saved by his grace. So when we help them to understand there is this core Christianity, you can't just follow Jesus in any way and call yourself Christian. I mean you can, but words lose meaning at some point. This is what it means to be a Christian. And here are those essential beliefs and Christian denominations and differ on some of the non essentials. But we all come around these.
- [11:40]
Jim Daly
I think you had a funny story even with this, and this is what's so good. Have a sense of humor with this too. Don't be so buttoned down that you gotta, don't laugh at this, this is serious. But I think this is when you were young you said something that caught your mom and dad's attention.
- [11:55]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, I remember in my small town, even though it was a small town, we had lots and lots of churches and just between my house and the school, in maybe a 10 minute drive you would pass dozens of these churches that were all Protestant denominations. But my mom really know what they were, what the differences were. You have, you know, like you said Presbyterians and Methodists, all these. And I distinctly remember one was called the Free Methodist Church. And in my young mind I thought that that sounded like a pretty good concept. I assumed that it meant that they didn't take offering and I didn't have a lot of allowance at the time. Yeah, it is free. And I thought, you know what, that's a, that's a pretty good deal. Of course my heart needed a little work at that point. But yeah, he didn't want to give.
- [12:30]
Jim Daly
Your 10 cents up.
- [12:31]
Natasha Crane
Exactly. So I'm going to go to the Free Methodist Church and maybe they'll give.
- [12:36]
Jim Daly
Me a hot dog.
- [12:37]
Natasha Crane
Exactly. You never know what you're going to.
- [12:39]
Jim Daly
Get when you go There it's so.
- [12:40]
John Fuller
It is. And this is free Focus on the family. Doesn't cost you anything to listen. And we are glad you're here, but.
- [12:46]
Jim Daly
We'Re grateful to the supporters.
- [12:47]
John Fuller
We are. Yes. Our guest is Natasha Crane, and we're talking about just some of the concepts. Lots of great content in her book keeping your kids on God's 40 conversations to help them build a lasting faith. And we would encourage you to get a copy of this book and this broadcast as well, so you can listen again and go through this maybe with your spouse or in a small group setting at church. It would be a really good tool to go through. Our phone number is 800AFamily and online. We're@focusonthefamily.com broadcast.
- [13:20]
Jim Daly
Natasha, a moment ago you mentioned about the truth of Jesus being who he said he was. I want to come back to that one. Now, you mentioned a study where I think they surveyed 3,000 or so students. What were the outcomes of those interviews and what did those students say?
- [13:39]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, so these sociologists a few years back, they surveyed all these students and they wanted to kind of find out what, just generally speaking, do kids believe as teenagers in America. And what they found is that overwhelmingly kids believed in some notion of God and that he basically wants us to be good people and that good people go to heaven someday. These were kind of the basic elements of it. And they labeled it moralistic, therapeutic deism, kind of a big term. But now it's become a term that gets thrown around a lot in conversations about this. But the main thing that they noted was there is this lack of Jesus in there. Right. They have this.
- [14:12]
Jim Daly
His name didn't come up.
- [14:14]
Natasha Crane
Well, I'm not sure if it didn't come up, but overall, it was more of this broad belief in God that wasn't tied to anything in particular. So there's no exclusivity there. And that's a lot of what people avoid today. And so when they notice that there's no Jesus there, that's the big difference in how we need to be helping our kids think about these things. It's not just raising them to believe that this God exists and we're supposed to be good and then we're going to get zapped up to heaven someday if we're good enough. I mean, that misses the, if you get over the line, exact, that misses the mark of the gospel altogether. But even aside from that, it misses the fact that Jesus is what makes Christianity so unique and that it's all about who Jesus is. Because if he was just a nice guy who had some cool things to say, he has no more authority over our lives than our next door neighbor. And I really emphasize that with my own kids, that it's not just, what did Jesus teach? We hear a lot about that, but it's who is he and how do we know who he is?
- [15:06]
Jim Daly
Yeah, that's so good. And again, you had a funny encounter with your own kids with this one, too, where they responded in a way that kind of caught your attention. What happened?
- [15:15]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, so I was trying to make this point one day with them and talk about how we know that Jesus is who he said he was. And so I just got up all of a sudden and I said, hey, you guys, guess what? It turns out I'm God. I'm the creator of the universe. I'm the one who made you, and you need to listen to everything I say. And I looked at him, I said, well, do you believe me? And my son said, well, no, I don't believe you're God because God would never yell at us. And that was one of those.
- [15:38]
Jim Daly
Boy, there's a good answer.
- [15:39]
Natasha Crane
I know. That was one of those convicting moments that you don't look forward to sharing later.
- [15:44]
Jim Daly
No, but that's.
- [15:46]
Natasha Crane
It's one of those times where you go, okay, well, that wasn't what I was getting at. But the point wasn't totally lost that I was able to say, you know, you don't believe that I'm God because I, even though made the claim that I was, I didn't give you any evidence of that. And we talked about how Jesus performed miracles and how he was raised from the dead so that he gave this kind of evidence that the people who saw it knew, okay, he wasn't just claiming to be God, he actually was God because he came back from the dead. And no one could choose to do that unless they actually were God himself.
- [16:16]
John Fuller
Yeah.
- [16:16]
Jim Daly
This is so critical. So you just didn't leave it lie there.
- [16:19]
Natasha Crane
Exactly.
- [16:19]
Jim Daly
You gave them the information they needed. What is the evidence that Jesus was the son of God? And you just went through it very succinctly, man. I encourage all parents. You got to make sure that your kids understand that as a Christian family, we tend to assume the kids are absorbing it somehow, that we don't have to work at it or think about it. But I'm so grateful that that's what you've done. You know, I've heard so many testimonies, and I didn't grow up in a Christian home. My mom did teach us the golden rule and we had a respect for the Christian ethos. But as children we never went to church. I shouldn't say never. We went Christmas, Easter, special holidays, but we didn't have a lot of training. And, you know, so when I encounter families where they're 18 or 19 year old, I'm talking to them, they'll even say, you know, I just never had a moment where anybody asked me to accept Christ into my heart. That's such a tragedy, right? That kids will grow up in Christian homes and we never spend the time to say, have you embraced Christ as your personal Lord and savior? It seems simple, but sometimes we just forget. Isn't that crazy?
- [17:27]
Natasha Crane
Yeah.
- [17:28]
John Fuller
Natasha, advice for the parent who is embracing what you're saying, but feeling like I am so ill equipped and this is really awkward. And what if they ask me questions I can't answer, right?
- [17:38]
Natasha Crane
Well, if your kids ask you questions you can't answer, that's actually a great thing. It means that they're asking questions, right? And a lot of kids don't even want to ask the questions to begin with. So it's great if your kids are asking questions, but if you don't know how to answer the question, then say, I'm so glad you're asking this. Let's talk about how to find out an answer together. A biblically sound answer, because kids need to understand that today it's not just going on Google and typing in, you know, how do I know that God exists? Because they're going to get a lot of different answers. So if you don't know the answer yourself, you're in a position then where you can really guide them in saying, you know what, I'm not sure the best way to explain that. So let's look into that together.
- [18:10]
Jim Daly
No, that's good. There's an essential question of Christianity that you've mentioned that is kind of the core. Core. But it's been, as you said in the book, it's been reduced to a slogan. That's how you felt when you were growing up. What was it?
- [18:26]
Natasha Crane
Well, it's the question of why Jesus had to die for our sins. And I have that emphasis on the why because I think as a kid I heard it over and over again that Jesus died for your sins, he died for your sins. He died for your sins. And so you just accept it. It's like, okay, he did. He did. He died for my sins. But I realized as I was blogging and starting to get more skeptic coming to my site, there were a lot of people who were pointing out what they thought was kind of a killer for Christianity. And they were saying, well, if your God is so great and your God is so loving, then why would he need some kind of blood sacrifice? Why would all this be necessary? And they really challenged that. And I realized, you know what? My kids have never asked about that. So I had this. This moment where I thought, you know, I need to talk to them about why Jesus needed to do this. And so that's where I really started to talk to them about the why behind the facts.
- [19:12]
Jim Daly
How would you do that? I mean, let's give people tools.
- [19:15]
Natasha Crane
Yeah. Yeah. I think there are three key things to explain to our kids. And it starts with the foundation of what is sin? We skip over this so much as a society. We don't like the idea of sin, or we want to define sin, you know, in other kinds of ways. But they have to understand that sin is when we break God's law very specifically. So I've explained to my kids, hey, if atheists were right and there is no God, sin doesn't exist. It's a meaningless concept because there's no God whose law you can break. So it kind of helps them to understand, okay, so this is about God, and this is about the existence of a moral law, which, as Paul says in Romans, is that law that's written on all of our hearts. So that's the very first thing. If you can't understand the sin that is the most fundamental problem in the world, you won't understand the solution. So the second thing is that God is just. This is something that we also don't often like to hear about because everyone talks about God is love, right? We want to hear that God loves me. And that is so, so important. But a lot of times people don't understand this other part of his character, that he is a just God. And the way I would explain it to kids is to say, if you saw an earthly judge, someone just a regular human judge, and he just kept letting lawbreakers go free. He would let every murderer do whatever they want. Kept saying, it's okay, I forgive you. Go on. Because I'm super loving. Well, you wouldn't call that loving. People would start rioting and saying, this is injustice. This is not okay. And in the same way, our God is a perfectly good and holy judge. He is able and willing and has the authority to judge between what is right or wrong. So ultimately, his justice is an important part of. Of his character.
- [20:45]
Jim Daly
Okay, Natasha, that's two of the points. What's the third point?
- [20:48]
Natasha Crane
So the third is that God has chosen to justly forgive us. And this gets to the heart of the why, that he's not just going to set us free and say, oh, it's okay, you can do anything you want, because that would not be loving. Love without justice is no love at all. Really important point for our kids to understand. So he loves us so much that he chose to make payment for our sins on our behalf by sending Jesus. So he justly forgave us, us.
- [21:15]
Jim Daly
And just quickly wrap the three then.
- [21:18]
Natasha Crane
So those are the three key points that I try to communicate with my kids when it comes to the why aspect. And that just gets back to the heart of saying, hey, this isn't just, okay, Jesus died for my sins, and I'm going to accept that. But why? Why did this have to happen? Why did. Why did Jesus do that?
- [21:32]
Jim Daly
Natasha, this is so good. As a parent, I mean, you're grabbing me. I mean, I'm really wanting to make sure I've got this down for the sake of my son or daughter's soul. That's what we're talking about here. You also ask a good question in your book, if your kids are struggling with their faith, parents, you need to be a detective. Explain that.
- [21:53]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, I think a lot of times we can panic as parents because our kids say stuff and maybe it's not in line with what we're hoping that they're going to believe or where their heart is, but we have to be a detective and really ask questions to figure out what they mean. I can give you an example of how this happened in our house. We got into the car one day and we were going to church, and my son was probably about 5 years old or something. I know this is shocking, but kids don't always want to get in the car to go to church.
- [22:16]
Jim Daly
Are you saying this?
- [22:17]
Natasha Crane
I know it's embarrassing to admit it, but yes, that happens.
- [22:20]
Jim Daly
Have you had the back bow? When you're trying to put the seatbelt on and they do the back bow, like, you're not gonna do this to me.
- [22:27]
Natasha Crane
That was one of those days. I absolutely had the back bow. That's a good term for it. And my son just arched back and he said, oh, I hate God. And that was a moment for a parent who really takes this seriously. It was like, oh, my gosh, where have I gone wrong? Immediately? And so I lost it and I just kind of yelled at him. I said, how could you say such a thing. Don't ever say something like that in our house again. That's a terrible thing to say, you know? And obviously, in retrospect, that was not the way to handle it. But as we drove quietly to church. Because we're talking about. Yes, exactly. Very quiet, uncomfortable, awkward drive to church because mommy just lost everything in the car. Then I turned around and I realized, you know, I'm just gonna ask some questions. And the more that I asked him questions to find out what he means by what he said, I got down to the very bottom of that. And it turns out that he hated dancing in his little Sunday school class because they would have them sing and dance to the songs, and he hated having to dance. He's a guy, I'm with him. He didn't want to dance. And he had kind of translated that into his head, okay, I don't like dancing at church. So therefore, I don't like church. Therefore I don't like God. And that's how it ended up coming out on the back end of it.
- [23:33]
Jim Daly
Just the way he expressed it.
- [23:35]
Natasha Crane
Right. And instead of panicking, if I had just kind of taken a second to be a detective and ask the questions and see really, what is it that they're. I would have gotten there. And as kids get older, those questions become more serious. Obviously, this is a fun example from my son was young. But even if a kid says, hey, I don't believe in God anymore, well, don't panic. Ask some questions. What do you mean? What God do you not believe in? Because a lot of times they'll describe a God that you don't believe in either. So ask them questions. And how have you come to that conclusion? Is the other really important question to.
- [24:04]
Jim Daly
Ask, you know, before we end. There's another aspect that I thought was a good. Aha. You mentioned this distinction between investor approach and purchase. What did you mean by all that?
- [24:15]
Natasha Crane
Yeah, I think there's a temptation when you do start learning about these subjects that you think, well, if I do X, then Y is going to happen.
- [24:21]
Jim Daly
And is that how we think? Absolutely, it's how we think.
- [24:25]
Natasha Crane
At least I did. Maybe I'm making sure.
- [24:26]
Jim Daly
No, you're normal.
- [24:27]
Natasha Crane
Yeah. And so I think it's a purchase mentality. It's like, I have put this much in and I plan on getting this much out. That's not what I'm suggesting with all this. When I say we need to proactively prepare our kids for today's world, what I am saying is that we need to Be obedient. Just like you read from Deuteronomy at the beginning, we need to be obedient. And that calling and that's being an investor. It's investing and taking the time and doing what God has called us to without knowing that we're going to have a guaranteed outcome. And so we invest, we put in everything. We let God take that and make it grow. All for his glory. Yeah.
- [25:00]
Jim Daly
Natasha, this has been great. And I love the humor that you brought to it, too. I'm thinking of your little boy doing his back bow and not wanting to go to church. And he said that he hated God. But that is such a prime picture of what we need to do as parents to back up, take a deep breath, even with our teenagers that are going to say that in a different way and for different reasons and say, okay, what are you trying to express to me? I need to understand where you're coming from. That's beautiful. And sometimes we'll do that well, hopefully, and sometimes maybe not so well. So then we get to demonstrate how we need to ask for forgiveness. Right. So it all works, hopefully to the glory of God. And that's a good parenting thing to remember. But I love your book, Keeping youg Kids on God's side. 40 conversations to help them build a lasting faith. The investment of what God can do with them, not the purchase, because it's not for sale, but come alongside the Lord as he is drawing your children toward him and try not to be a stumbling block in that process. That's the. Thanks for being with us.
- [26:08]
Natasha Crane
Thanks so much.
- [26:09]
John Fuller
And we'll encourage you to have those conversations that Natasha has suggested having with your child. Keeping your kids on God's side is available on our website. We also have other resources. I might mention our Adventures in Odyssey Club where you can sign up and have your kids listen to really good godly radio drama that will really affirm them spiritually. Look for the Adventures in Odyssey Club and of course, Natasha's book, Keeping youg Kids on God's side. We'll have all the details in the episode notes.
- [26:39]
Jim Daly
We also have a PDF that people can download the 10 tips to have deeper faith conversations with your kids. And that's something that you can go to the website and get or, you know, call us here. Yeah, it's free. That is John's theme today. But listen, there is something, you know, with Natasha's book, we want you to partner with us here at Focus on the Family to be able to minister to people and to provide that cup of cold water for that parent that's desperate. And if you can give us a gift of any amount, we'll say thank you by sending along a copy of Natasha's great book Keeping youg Kids on God's side as our way of saying thank you. And if you can do that through a monthly gift, that's great. Be a partner that way and if not, a one time gift is fine. But do help us be a partner in what we're doing here to help children come to Christ by equipping their parents to do the job they need to do.
- [27:29]
John Fuller
We are listening, supported and the ministry is not free. It takes a lot of effort to get these programs out and to bring resources to you. So please partner. As Jim said, make a donation, a monthly gift if you can, or a one time contribution. We'll have all the details in the episode notes. Well, thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.
- [28:07]
Jim Daly
God is at work and he's calling his people to rise in truth. Truth Rising is a powerful new documentary from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center. See how ordinary Christians choose courage in a culture that needs needs truth. Watch Truth Rising today and find out how you can become an agent of restoration and hope. Visit truthrising.com today. That's truthrising.com.