Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and on today's episode, I have my favorite guest in the history of the podcast. It is my wife, Christine. She's joining me. My love, welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast.
SPEAKER_00It's great to be here with you.
SPEAKER_01I'm so glad you came on. I've asked you to join me to talk about parenting, prayer, and why we decided to write a children's book. I'm hoping this episode will be an encouragement to other moms and dads and future moms and dads. But first, a little update from you. How are you doing? You just gave birth to Lydia Noel. We call her baby Lydia. She's our fifth almost four weeks ago. And what has the adjustment been like for you as a mom and my wife going from four kids to five?
SPEAKER_00It's been amazing. Being a mom is such a privilege. And yes, of course, it's been quite the adjustment. The newborn phase means that I need to be flexible, especially with my schedule, which can be challenging at times because I'm a very scheduled person. And it also means that I need to ask for help more than usual. But we have been so blessed as a family by you one stepping up and helping, and our church family blessing us through prayer and bringing us meals. So those have been very, very helpful during this season.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I could not agree with you more on the flexibility thing. And then I also really agree with you. I've been incredibly helpful. Um, I'm just, yeah. It's been fun. I will admit it has been uh challenging but incredible in other ways. Watching the kids love on baby Liddy. Ruthie in particular, my favorite story right now is every morning or afternoon after nap time or anytime really. She goes up to Baby Liddy and she just screams, Hi baby, hi baby. Then she says, I like baby Liddy. I like baby Liddy. So it is fun to watch them love each other. Well, we wrote a children's book and it comes out Tuesday, November 15th, which is technically quote tomorrow if you're listening to this on Monday when it releases on November 14th. The book is titled In Jesus' Name, I Pray, TJ the Squirrel Learns the True Heart of Prayer. And would you let me, sweetheart, really quick, kind of tell the story of how this whole idea got started, and then I have a big question for you.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I'm coming off writing More Than a Healer, the last book, and it was a book for adults. And I'm thinking about what I would write next to bless our church and also encourage people around the body of Christ. And I remember you saying, Hey, I think you should write a children's book. And the thought literally never crossed my mind. I immediately said, Why in the world would I do that? I don't even know how to write one. How would I even write one? And then I also said ignorantly, you know, is that even a major need? There's there's so many children's books already. And then I remember you saying something to the degree of this, you know, I think you should do it. I'm a mom. I hunt for children's stories to use as teaching tools for our kids all the time. And I can't tell you how many books that I find that are amazing from an illustration standpoint, but they present things that maybe aren't theologically accurate or don't necessarily go for the heart of the child, and they just sort of give you some um moralism in some way. And I remember agreeing with you, but still had zero interest. I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around how I would do it. And then I got an email from a friend of ours who's in publishing, and he said, Hey, have you thought about writing a children's book? And I remember telling you about the email and going, All right, if this is the providence of God, it'll work. The idea will come, it'll land. And if not, you all seem to have really great ideas that this should happen. So leave me out of it and go for it. Uh be my guest. And before long, you and I are brainstorming. There's a story about praying in Jesus' name. It supposedly is a magic phrase or secret phrase. You know, it'll give you whatever you want. Uh, our squirrel friend came to life, and he is a squirrel who is our main character. He gets hooked by that idea, learns a heartfelt lesson, and honestly, the whole thing turned out in God's providence to be something we enjoy. We always did say from day one, if no one reads or cares or likes it, we are okay with that. And we were reading it to our children, they liked it. So here's my pressing question for you. First of all, you nailed it. You were wise, prudent. I'm not surprised the way you are. You you always seem to have a knack for this sort of thing. But what did you know about the need for children's books that are creative, easy to understand, and filled with sound doctrine that I didn't? And then why was this such a stirring in your heart? Because you wouldn't let it go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know um many moms love having a book to help them teach biblical lessons, I myself included, along with teaching from the Bible. And I found myself searching on Amazon children's book titles involving topics such as anger and sharing, and I was confronted with countless unbiblical plots. And one of the most popular children's books I found explained that when our children are mad, all they need to do is take a deep breath and count four. And as a Christian mom, I'm all for slowing your child down in those moments of anger, but we need to really get to the heart of it and teach the biblical truth. And the Bible is full of wisdom in regards to how we are to handle all of life situations.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I couldn't agree more with something we talk about all the time in our home, not just behavior modification, but heart transformation. So I have a tough question for you, and you know the answer to this, but I do want to do want to deal with it. Obviously, as parents, you and I, we use the Bible in our home. We have a catechism at our kitchen table, though. That's not necessarily inspired scripture. It's a catechism, it's a tool. We love Bible trivia. We definitely have many nights where things get competitive, and yeah, Bible trivia, it's there. And that's not even inspired scripture all the time. Sometimes it's just a basic question. So there's some people that might say to this, you know, why use children's book children's books like just read them the Bible, Christine or Costi. I don't need this as a tool. What would you say to that?
SPEAKER_00I I would say I would agree. Definitely start with the Bible. Have that be the primary source of all the truth in teaching. And books and stories can be useful creative tools for engaging their minds along with the Bible. Just like we can teach life lessons from losing at sports or losing a toy or getting hurt on the playground. Uh parents are going to read their children's storybooks. And so, in my limited opinion, I feel we should be exposing our children to books which support biblical themes or Bible-based stories. And there's no need to fill our homes with pointless books where the characters have unbiblical behaviors or themes which contradict God's word. For many people, the only opportunity to read to their children is reading one book before bed. So we really should make it count.
SPEAKER_01So good and well said. I think of the Spurgeon quote where he says, Visit many good books, but live in the Bible. And I believe children's books and books for an adult are equipping mechanisms. They're just like a sermon, they're anchored to a text, they have practical application. You know, in our book, the the verses John 14, 13, whatever you ask in my name, Jesus says, I will do it. And the story that we wrote helps to get to the true heart of prayer and that statement in a way that every kid can understand. Let's dig in a little more, sweetheart, on kind of the book topic that we wrote about. What would you say if someone asked you about the importance of not just praying, you know, with our kids or for our kids, you know, Jesus save my kid and Jesus forgive our sins and help us to have a good day at school or whatever. What would you say about actually teaching our kids about prayer as early as possible?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think every parent wants their children to pray. And we pray with our kids and for our kids, like you said, but we don't teach our kids about the theology of prayer in simple ways that they will hear a lot of confusing things from other sources and have no ability to see that it's it's false. For example, if all we ever do is tell our kids to say sorry for doing bad things, then God will let them into heaven, but we never taught them about his love and his grace and that they will grow up, they will grow up imbalanced in their understanding of God. Um praying can sometimes be something that kids assume to be a guarantee. They might ask, Mommy, I prayed for God to do this and he didn't do it. That's unfair. Or does he even love me? Or perhaps grandma and grandpa are passing away, pass away, and we were have been praying for their healing and God did not heal them. You know, they might ask, Daddy, why why didn't God heal grandma? Did I not obey enough? Did I not pray hard enough? Did I pray wrong? And I feel like I know that the Bible has clear answers to all of these questions, and the kids, kids need them laid out in a way that they can truly understand.
SPEAKER_01That's such great insight. It makes me think of the the church and shepherding people and how we are always getting questions from people about big theological topics. Now, adults have questions about things like this for any number of reasons. It could be that they were saved later in life, and that happens. But many people were in churches or they went to church as a kid, and nobody ever taught them this. And I don't want to beat parents over the head here. I just want to say this we can't control our children's salvation, God is sovereign in that, but we can control their theological education. And so, as early as possible, don't underestimate their ability to understand big concepts. If anything, and I say this as a parent and my wife alongside, we've been stretched constantly by the questions of our kids. They can understand, but we are the ones that aren't always the most reliable teachers. But it shouldn't be this way. We are the primary disciple makers. And so if we can't teach our children sound doctrine, there will be a deficiency there until by the grace of God their church as an adult does it. But we need to be faithful here and now. You know, not long ago, I was teaching our eight-year-old and six-year-old about abortion mainly because they had heard about the governor race here in Arizona, and we somehow got to that topic because they said to me, Daddy, who are you voting for? And so I told them, and then my eight-year-old says, Well, why did you choose her over the other woman? There's two women here running for governor in Arizona. And, you know, I said, Well, there's some things she supports that are linked to our Christian beliefs. Yeah, I was hoping that would kind of be it. My eight-year-old and six-year-old in the car. And immediately he responds, like, which one of our beliefs, Dad? Literally. And so we're off to the races. I'm teaching them about abortion in an age-appropriate way, but with clarity. And after doing that, I went home, I told my wife about it, and I was struck once again as a pastor, as a father, somebody who loves the word, and we spend regular time in the word. You know, even us, we can't punt on getting deep with our kids. And I was caught off guard by the question. I'm sure you, as a parent, get caught off guard by questions all the time in your own home. And here's what I think of: they are going to learn these things from somewhere and someone. God calls us as parents to be their primary disciple makers. And why do I bring all that up? Well, prayer is one of those topics that often gets left alone because it's so personal. We just kind of say, Well, well, talk to God, sweetheart. He hears you. Okay, great, but what does that even mean? You know, some parents don't want to tell their kid that God doesn't answer every prayer with a yes because they themselves can't even explain why he doesn't answer every prayer. And so my hope and our hope is that parents would be triggered by this book to study the word and get answers, but also to feel supported by the book if they don't know exactly what to say yet to those hard questions about prayer. So, love, you're way better at finding deals and knowing about how to buy things and where to buy things than I am, often finding the best stuff at discount. Where can people buy the book? In Jesus' name I pray, TJ the Squirrel learns the true heart of prayer. And are there any deals out there that you're aware of?
SPEAKER_00There are. So you can find the book on Amazon, Christianbook.com, Barnes and Noble, pretty much anywhere that books are sold. But if you want a good deal, I did see on Target right now that they're doing a deal of buy two books and get one free. So you can uh if you purchase the book through Target, you can get a book free. So I, you know, I'm all about the deals, as Lusty mentioned.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, we are praying for this book to bless all of you.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Honey, thank you for coming on. You were such a wonderful guest.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna try to come up with other topics and rope you back in one of these days. We'll see. We'll see. Well, thank you all for listening. If the book ends up being a blessing to your family, your kids, or your grandkids, we would really appreciate if you would leave a written review on Amazon because that helps with visibility. For four for more free resources, you can go to www.forthegospel.org, and I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.