How to Disciple the Children You Love with Stories {Trillia Newbell}

Do you long to pass on your faith to your children, grandchildren, nieces and neighbors? How can you disciple the children you love in on-the-go moments of life? The stories in the Bible are simple enough to be grasped by children, yet profound enough for adults to spend their lives pondering.

In this bonus episode on the Live Like It's True podcast, my guest Trillia Newbell shares about her new children's book, Jesus and the Gift of Friendship, and we discuss how to disciple the children we love using stories.

Guest: Trillia Newbell

Bible Passage: Jesus Calling His Disciples - John 15

Get your Freebie: The Live Like It's True Workbook

Mentioned Resources

• Jesus and the Gift of Friendship
• Moody Publishers

Trillia Newbell is the author of numerous books, Bible studies, and children’s books, including God’s Very Good Idea; The Big Wide Welcome; and Creative God, Colorful Us. Newbell is the acquisitions director at Moody Publishers and lives with her husband, Thern, and two children near Nashville, Tennessee.

On the episode, we talked about her new book, Jesus and the Gift of Friendship.

Connect with Trillia:

Instagram: @trillianewbell

Twitter (X): @trillianewbell

Website: https://www.trillianewbell.com/

Shaped by God's Promises: Lessons from Sarah on Fear and Faith 
     {buy now}

Comparison Girl for Teens
     {buy now}

Get our free "Pray God's Promises" prayer guide.

Go to Shannonpopkin.com/PROMISES/ for more information on my neww Bible study, Shaped by God’s Promises: Lessons from Sarah on Fear and Faith. 

Transcript

Shannon: 1:36

Trillia Neubell. Welcome to Live Like it's True.

Trillia: 1:39

Thank you for having me.

Shannon: 1:41

Oh, it's such a joy. So let me just tell our listeners a little bit about you. You are the author of numerous books, bible studies and children's books, including God's Very Good Idea, the Big, wide Welcome. These are children's books, right? Yes, yes, and Creative God and Colorful Us. So we're going to be talking about another one of your children's books. But I mean, I have some of your Bible studies on my shelf. There's one on Hebrews, right?

Trillia: 2:10

You've got it A great cloud of witnesses.

Shannon: 2:12

Yes, Uh-huh, and I know you wrote a book on fear that I read what was that.

Trillia: 2:17

So thank you. Fear and Faith.

Shannon: 2:19

Fear and Faith. Yeah, I mean, I've enjoyed your writing for many years and it's just a privilege to have you here on the show Now. I didn't realize you're an acquisitions director at Moody Publishers.

Trillia: 2:30

Yes, I gosh, it was three or so years ago. I joined the team as an acquisitions editor. Okay, and love it, love getting to look for authors and be on this side of the publishing industry. It's absolute joy. And then, about maybe a year almost two years ago I became the acquisitions director and started to lead our team of acquirers. So it's been a joy to get to serve in this way, yeah.

Shannon: 2:57

Good Well, I love Moody Publishers and so many Moody books on my shelf beside me, so thankful for their ministry, and now you live with your husband. Is it Thern?

Trillia: 3:08

Yes, 20 years, thern, and we have two kids who are teenagers, and I love it.

Shannon: 3:14

Okay, so we've got teenagers and you guys live in Nashville, right, the Nashville area, nashville area, wonderful. So we're going to talk about your brand new children's book, which you have a collection now, but this one is called Jesus and the Gift of Friendship. Tell us a little bit about the book. We're going to dive more into storytelling and using stories from the Bible. You know that's how that kind of fits with live, like it's true and what we do here. But but first just set us up and tell us a little bit about this book.

Trillia: 3:46

I will, but before I do, I love the title of your podcast live like it's true, oh my goodness. That is my heart and desire as I think about discipling others, and I think that the book is a great way to get people to know what God is. And God at his word and live your life accordingly is a theme that I have in all of my stuff, because it's it's just good.

Trillia: 4:11

So, anyways, I want to commend you on that. Thank you, yes, jesus and the gift of friendship is a story about a young boy. There is a moving that happens and poor guy, he moves this new location and can't find a friend. He's like, he's like, yeah, someone knew, and but in between that time, his mom is trying to help him understand that Jesus had friends and that he can pray for friends. So, as he's waiting, he's praying and longing for friends and and keeps praying and the Lord provides, but he provides a friend that's different than his older best friend, and so the story really is to help kids know that one they can pray. God answers in his own timing and in his own way, but he will answer and we can trust him for the results, and so there's a lot there and that Jesus is our friend, but, but in story form, I think, um, yeah, it's a sweet little story.

Shannon: 5:10

Yeah, I love to in the book like there's a lapse of time. He doesn't make this new friend the next day. It's like I think you said, a year goes by, which is a little more true to life. One of the things in the story happened to one of my kids. We had moved into a new house and he went somewhere in the neighborhood, somewhere nearby, and asked Ding dong, you know, I saw that there was a boy, that about his age, that lived there and said hi, do you want to play with me? And now my son very precocious, lots of vocabulary, I think he was about five years old and I mean just a big personality, and I think this kid just took one look at him and was like, uh, no, thank you. And then the kid just said, nope, close the door. You know, because in the other neighborhood he had lots of friends to play with. But there is a loneliness that kids Experience that we all experience, I mean yes.

Shannon: 6:01

I picture maybe parents who have or have not moved reading this book to their kids and being like yeah, me too, mommy's lonely too, you know grandma's lonely too, right.

Trillia: 6:11

Yes, well, one of the things that I wanted to do and is for it to be realistic. So I didn't want him to move into a neighborhood and then the next day he gets this yeah, great friend, that's just not how it works. And sometimes sometimes sometimes, but it usually takes time and other kids are kind of shy about it, they're not sure too. Yeah, and then you will receive rejection at times, and so he does. He Zeke the character in my story gets rejected. A guy does not want to be his friend, and and it's hard but it's reality, and so I really like to tell true stories. If I'm gonna tell a story and and help people wrestle with okay. Well, how do we teach our kids? This could very well happen, and I want kids to learn how to wrestle with those those sad feelings and also To pray, to take it to the Lord, who loves to carry all of our burdens.

Shannon: 7:03

Yeah, so I think this is what I'm kind of wrestling with in this Podcast. Even is we're talking a lot about stories, narratives in the Bible, and in our particular culture or Generation it feels like stories are more for children, so this feels appropriate To talk about these things in a children's book with a kid sitting on your lap right.

Shannon: 7:23

And so what about the rest of the stories in the Bible? Like why didn't God just report the facts to us, listed out the truths that we need to know to navigate life? Why go to the trouble of storytelling like? There's a lot of craft of storytelling in our Bibles. What is there for adults? You know you've written a children's book, but backing up and thinking about the narratives of the Bible, how are we supposed to access those as adults?

Trillia: 7:49

Okay, I'm going to share a straight opinion, yeah, but I do believe that part of it is. It helps us to relate most of the stories in the scripture. You see the humanity, right, yeah, the human struggle, human fight for faith, human crying, doubting, all of these things that are very human, and so you can look at them and say, okay, I Relate to that. I can understand that. I can also apply Maybe not all of it because, right, some of it it was written in a certain context or sure culture but I can apply. Okay, who is God in this story? How do we see God working in the lives of these? How can we respond? These are things that we as adults can apply, because the scripture is God-breathed and useful, right, yeah, all of it is relevant for right now.

Trillia: 8:42

Yes yes, so we can look at that, and I also think it's to build our faith. You started this podcast talking about my study, hebrews 11, where it's it's really about the hall of fame of faith, and we're looking at all of these stories in scripture and trying to figure out Okay, how can we emulate their faith?

Trillia: 8:59

Right ultimately, we want to grow and more and more like Christ. But he put those stories in there so that we might know how did they fight for faith? Right, you know, how did they endure Until the end. And so we look back so that we can learn how to fight for faith and how to endure to the end. But Jesus, he I mean he told parables, he told stories. You then, of course, you have the whole Old Testament, which not all of it, but a lot of it is story driven, so that we can understand Israel and what's going on, right and right, and of course, the Gospels. I mean it's all about life of Jesus.

Trillia: 9:34

It's all much story and so there is, I think, lots that we can learn, and I think it's just the way that we can Understand and and grow. I mean, he really could have just given us all instruction right or abstraction.

Shannon: 9:48

I mean, you know God is. Disable. He is relating to us when you were talking at seeing how there's so much common Content in the Bible and I had just been thinking about that this morning Like we have stories about storms and about people who are hungry and about lost things. You know, like these were written centuries ago, these stories, those are all things in my life right now. I mean just this morning we have a thunderstorm and my little trembling dog is in my lap because, Thunder and so like.

Shannon: 11:01

These are common things and yet I love how you brought us to like. Faith is built by looking at what these other people have experienced and how they have encountered God. So the stories of their lives Encapsulate these rich theological truths that we can emulate. You know, we can look in on their stories and say, aha, me too. I love Particularly the way that stories bundle up truths with an economy of words. I think about how entire books have been written on One little two paragraph story in our Bibles, you know, like the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son or whatever it likes.

Shannon: 11:39

Like a two paragraph story. It would take volumes. I mean, think about thousands of sermons are preached on each one of these stories and each of the sermons is different. It's like a gem with all these different facets. There's so much rich truth there. The more I return to these stories, the more that I rehearse them, the more I see, the more I find, and I just am so Taken with the way stories bundle up truth and and show us things that we might not have seen. So in this particular book that you've written, how are you using stories from the Bible to respond to this felt need of Zeke with you know he's Feeling lonely, he doesn't have a friend, so how are you using stories to respond to that?

Trillia: 12:22

Yes, I'm currently hunting for the page and I probably won't find it in time, but I tell him about Jesus and his friends and so how Jesus made friends in many places and how he called different people, his disciples mostly is where I'm focusing. So talk about Peter and Andrew and James and Don and Matthew, and I want to point out that Jesus called all of these different people his friend and parents. I don't give scripture. It's because most children's books are 900 words, right, so you have a small number and small space to tell big truth, and so for me, I wanted hopefully the parent can look at those and then go back to the scriptures and teach the kids. Yeah, this is what she's talking about. This is when Jesus called this disciple, and this is some parts of their story, peter. There's a lot to share, and so that's it. I really just wanted them to look at his relationship with his disciples, but most of it is. I'm not going into deep details about their stories.

Trillia: 13:30

I don't have time to.

Shannon: 13:31

But there is a lot there, I mean even on one page, like we learn so much by understanding that Jesus did call them his friends right. And that they were actual people like he didn't. Jesus didn't just stand in front of crowds and preach to them. He had friends who walked with them. He said follow me. And they came with them.

Trillia: 13:52

You know they were buddies, I love that I do too, and there are parts in there that I explain and kind of help the kid understand that they were normal people too. Like, hey, these two brothers, they were fishing, they were likely on a journey and Jesus met them. You know, I just think it's remarkable that we can be a friend of Jesus this the holy guy right and that you can know him in such an intimate way, and so helping kids understand that Jesus pursued these ordinary people I think is really important too, and so I am glad that there was space for it and that it didn't get the chopping block, because you're editing.

Shannon: 14:32

You are an editor, you do know you're usually the one who.

Trillia: 14:37

So it's encouraging, but it's the point. The point is is that Jesus had friends, and if we don't show that, then it's really hard for kids. They aren't going to understand an abstract concept when you see it completely laid out.

Shannon: 14:52

Yeah, because in the story the mom is saying well, you know, you don't have a friend to play with, but Jesus is your friend and that is you know. That is hard for us to grasp. It's hard for me to grasp that Jesus is my friend what? But when I think about him walking on the shore of Galilee, coming across these two brothers who are fishing and saying, hey, you know, follow me. And they drop their nets, like it tells us something about what they thought of Jesus. Is what I should think of Jesus like he's worth leaving everything.

Shannon: 15:20

I mean I would give anything to just walk with him for a day and go where he's going and talk with him and be his friend, and I also love that. You pointed out there were different kinds of people that Jesus encountered and in the illustrations which are beautiful, by the way, your illustrator did a fabulous job but you see diversity in their faces, you know. You see, it's all different kinds of people and so that makes you know. A little child, I can imagine, is questioning well, would I be the kind of friend that Jesus? Yeah, all different sizes and shapes and colors of people, yes, was that?

Trillia: 15:56

intentional? Oh, yes, 100%. Yes, that was very intentional because it's also a core part of what I want to communicate to the world. You know as well as kids, but yes, it was very intentional that kids all can see themselves in the body of Christ or a part of God's love, and so I think it's really important for diverse people to be seen and pictured and talked about so that they know that Jesus died on a cross bearing the wrath that we deserve for all people, every tribe, tongue and nation. He's calling to himself. That's really important and so, yeah, it's a lot of fun to be able to capture that, either through words or images. That I wouldn't be able to do, I couldn't maybe say all those things, but when I work with an illustrator, I tell them you know my heart, and they are able to capture it and it's beautiful. It's always so encouraging.

Shannon: 16:48

Yeah, and it's amazing. We had a couple of little girls that we sometimes take care of from our church over yesterday afternoon and I was reading them a story and I was just noticing how much they see on the page. I feel like it's my job to point out oh they're. And they're like oh yeah, we got. Like they just picked all of the visual cues. They're drinking that in with their little eyes, even though they can't read yet, like they are very aware of what they're seeing on the page. And so this little girl, that Zeke eventually be friends. Let's say first of all, it is a girl, it's not a boy. This time.

Trillia: 17:21

Yes, that was also intentional, yeah.

Shannon: 17:24

And she is black and Zeke is white, right.

Trillia: 17:27

Yeah.

Shannon: 17:28

And so they built this beautiful friendship. I just love it, it was beautiful. Oh, thanks, thanks. It's so encouraging? Yeah, very good. Yes, so, as faithful moms and grandmas and aunties, you know, who love little children in our lives, how can we use the stories from the Bible for, in the moment, discipleship, you know, whether it's we've got a book on our lap or we're just tucking them in and they're feeling lonely or sad or whatever it is. How can we use the stories of the Bible?

Trillia: 17:57

Yeah, well, if someone is lonely or sad, I really do believe the story of Jesus and how he was a man of sorrows.

Trillia: 18:07

He wept.

Trillia: 18:09

I think that to me, is remarkable, that we got a picture of his story and how his friends deserted him, you know, like he was beaten and accused, lies and all of these things.

Trillia: 18:23

We can use Jesus himself as the example and the story and he relates to everything and he invites us to his throne of grace and our time of need, and so those are the kinds of things that I think, especially when it is sadness and sorrow, I really think pointing them to Jesus that he understands is so important, because it's all in the story Again, we have a count of it, and so we can encourage them that they are drawing near to a God who understands, yes, yes. So that to me is really important, but of course, there are other ways. We see it a lot in Sunday schools, or if you're struggling with fear, you might talk to them about Moses or Sarah or Abraham who's leaving everything behind and then go to a foreign land. These are the kinds of things I think that you can help kids relate to their stories of fear. Or I'm trying to think of a real, specific story so that I can help people.

Shannon: 19:22

Yeah, maybe I could give an example, because I just actually used one yesterday when I had these little kids over. So some neighbor kids were over also and there was a little altercation as does happen with kids and so I had pulled one of the kids aside and said I needed to talk with her and just said hey, can you come here in the office with me, I just want to talk to you a minute. And immediately when she came in the office she went over in the corner and crouched down and didn't want to face me. She knew she was wrong and so I said honey, do you know the story of when Adam and Eve ate the fruit they weren't supposed to eat In?

Trillia: 20:04

the head.

Shannon: 20:06

I said what you're doing right now is what they did too. They didn't want to. God just see their faces. They hid. I don't know if they hid behind a bush or in a corner, but they had to. And I said but you know what? God didn't come stomping through the garden like angry, like where are you? No, god wanted to talk to them about their sin, and that's what I want to do too. And just giving her that little snippet of the story, you know, that's all I gave her. We didn't go into detail of, like, the nature of sin and, you know, justification and all these things.

Shannon: 20:37

But, that was enough to help her leave the corner and come sit by me and talk about her sin, you know. And so I think there are ways that these stories, they just package up truth in a way that gives some concrete imagery to help us talk about what the child is experiencing.

Trillia: 20:53

Yes, yeah, I'm glad that you gave that really specific example, because I have used Peter how he denied Jesus three times.

Trillia: 21:02

Yet you see the book later he's preaching to a crowd right and proclaiming Jesus, and so I think, when it relates to being fearful, fear of man, the fear of man specifically, and afraid of what others people think of you and how we can fight that and confess our sin, his faithful injustice, to forgive us and purify us so we can repent and be changed and we can evolve for Jesus.

Trillia: 21:26

So there are so many stories like that that are relatable for kids so that they can understand, and I think that's why things like the Jesus storybook, bible or are so popular for adults. Yeah, because I think you can understand truth in such a simple way, so you get these stories. I have God's very good idea is my first kids book and I was talking to someone recently who said that they used it in a staff training and I was like what? And then he just said it's so helpful to simplify big ideas so we can just get it, and I think that makes sense that we can use it for children and teaching and discipleship, but I also think it's discipling us. It is so true, yeah, as we are working through stories and what they mean and how they relate to our lives.

Shannon: 22:21

There's almost a paradox. Where I just talked about a story that has deep implications for justification, the sin of Adam and Eve, and yet we can distill it down into something that's helpful for a child. And there are stories that we teach children that are easy for them to grasp, and yet they have such profound truths that even we could spend our lives unpacking and going after these stories and not get to the full depths of them.

Trillia: 22:49

We will spend our lives doing that. We will.

Shannon: 22:51

Yes, we will, and so, yeah, one of my goals for this podcast is that, at the end of the day, we would lay our heads on our pillows and be rehearsing one of these true stories, like package it up in our hearts. I think stories make truth more accessible, retrievable, right Like for doing in the moment discipleship to have a logged list of stories ready to go when it calls for it. As we're discipling our kids, you know, rehearsing whatever is called for, and so I love that. Your particular book is a great resource to pull the book off the shelf. But even I'm picturing a grandma driving in the car, or like remember that story that we read about Zeke and remember how the mom said Zeke had a friend, jesus was his friend, I mean, you know.

Shannon: 23:39

Or taking a walk with your kids, or walking in the grocery store. Loneliness and being rejected and not having a friend those are such common things, and packaging up these true stories from the Bible can help us disciple our kids. You know you could have written this book without mentioning the story of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, and you know the others. I love, though, that you included it. It's great to have a kid's story that doesn't have a Bible story within it, but I think it just makes them a church. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Trillia: 24:09

Yeah, I really think it's similar to what we mentioned before. It helps kids to relate that Jesus also had friends and that you can be his friend too, so that they can see themselves in the story in some regard and that they understand the humanity of Jesus. I think that's important, and so those are those kinds of things that I think I wanted to make sure to include. If I just said pray to Jesus, which would be sufficient, sure Pray to Jesus, ask him for friends and never showed how you could go to him as a person Like yeah, he had friends and people went to him, I think that's harder than if you see it and God includes this in his words, so I wouldn't read yeah.

Shannon: 24:54

Right, yeah, I remember when my daughter was little she was trying to make sense of God and one time we gave her some money for the offering you know, at church, and she just lifted her hand up and said I'll give it to him now Because we taught her God is there. But she's just trying to make sense of it. All, right, and as are we right, yes, and yet I feel like these stories do give kind of concrete, helpful ways to encounter God and to respond to him. So are there any particular Bible stories that you find yourself referring back to often when your kids were little, or even now as you're discipling your teens?

Trillia: 25:32

I can just tell you one of my favorite stories that I just love and I think it's interesting because it's so odd. I'm just warning your listeners, I love it. When I was writing and studying Hebrews 11, I realized that often you just kind of read the stories of all the people but you don't dive deep. You just kind of read, okay, they had faith and okay, they had faith. But I went back right in the Old Testament to study and Enoch in Genesis five I believe, and basically his story is so simple and so short. It's something like Enoch walked with God, he obeyed God and God took him. I mean, it's like two lines. And then Hebrews 11, it's something like I don't have the text in front of me. Enoch walked with God and pleased God and he did not die. There's more to that, but it's so short and yet he was seen and placed in this hall of fame of faith.

Trillia: 26:34

And the why I'm most inspired by him is that it's so obscure. Yeah, so obscure, yeah. You're like, who is this? One sentence, and I just think at the end of Hebrews 11, the writer writes that there's too many to cover. Like yeah, just runs, runs out of space. Like here are some characteristics and I just think God really just calls us to be faithful, to walk with him, to obey him, and he will also say well done, good and faithful servant. And we can just trust him and have faith that this obscure person is put in as an example for our faith to emulate his faith. It testifies to me that God isn't looking for only the big stories.

Shannon: 27:21

Like I could have said.

Trillia: 27:22

Abraham, I could have said Moses we all know those stories, david, we know those stories. But he thought you know, I'm gonna also add hang on. He was faithful, he walked with God, he worked closely with his God, and that's all we know. That's it. That's it, yeah, I think. Wow, thank you Lord. Yeah, that story, though it's short, is included. So for my kids, like you may never be known, or they're not trying to be, but be faithful, walk with God, know the God that you proclaim, read the Bible, abide in Jesus, learn from him, and that's it. And know that the God who sees sees you, and that's, that's all. That's important. And so that's me, I think, is one of the sweeter stories in the scriptures.

Shannon: 28:11

Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's not extravagant. You know Noah built his boat. You know Gideon went to war, what all of these big things that they did. And actually, I remember I just wrote a Bible study on the life of Sarah, and so one of my key verses was Hebrews 1111, which talks about Sarah, and I was trying to explain that faith is often we in our culture, we think of that as something we do with our heads, but faith was something that they did with their hands and their feet. And so, you know, looking through Hebrews 11, you, you look at what they did. You know, by faith, they did this, by faith, they did that. And I remember coming to Enoch and just thinking, well, I think I'm gonna skip that one, right, that's what he did. But, like I love the fact that you didn't skip it, right, you lingered there, and that is a story as well. We might be an Enoch. We didn't build some boat or we didn't do some. Most of us will be a Nenok. We all, yeah, most of us will.

Trillia: 29:07

Most of us fall right in line with that, and that's, I think, his relationship with the Lord is what's highlighted. So most of us should want to be a Nenok. Like had such a abiding relationship with his Lord, and so I want to emulate his faith, and most of us will be mostly unknown.

Shannon: 29:26

Yes, just faithfully serving. I love that. I love that you highlighted a story that gives a minimal amount of details, and that's often for most of us. So how does your new book, trillia, train children and adults to live like? The Bible is true.

Trillia: 29:44

Yes, really, if you read John 15, you will see a few things, but one of the things and this is where I get the idea that Jesus is our friends is because Jesus told his disciples If you obey what I command, then you are my friend, and so what I am ultimately trying to teach children is to believe that God exists, so you can pray. To live like it's true Is to pray Is to pray.

Shannon: 30:13

Live like God is true, Like there is a God right.

Trillia: 30:16

There is a God, yeah, yeah, and I think often we don't pray because we doubt that he's true. He's real. Like we struggle with unbelief, so our unbelief keeps us from praying. So if it's true, then you're going to pray. If it's true, you're going to obey, you're going to obey the Lord. And so those are two of a few lessons, I think. If you believe that the scriptures are true, you're going to run to Jesus and ask him for help, and if you believe that scriptures are true, you're going to follow him.

Shannon: 30:50

That's so good.

Shannon: 30:51

Yeah, I mean I only had a few hours with those kids yesterday and it just happened to be the day before we're talking about children and children's books, but I was just amazed at how many opportunities I had to talk about the truth, the true story, the true God and continually remind in them.

Shannon: 31:08

I mean I probably brought up well, we read at least four books and then we talked at least you know, we talked about their story from church in the morning and we talked about, like I said, in the Garden of Eden, like we as moms and grandmas and aunties and friends, babysitters, we have so many opportunities to share the truth and invite these little ones to live like it's true. And then you just mentioned this earlier, but I just want to encapsulate on it as we are giving truths to other people, they just sink so much more deeply into our own hearts. You know it's like rehearsing the truth. So thank you so much, trillia, for just talking through these things with us, modeling it so well in your new book and just being a faithful woman of God. We so appreciate you.

Trillia: 31:55

Thank you.