How to Help Kids Navigate Grief | Faith and Healing When It Hurts w/ Emily Assell

Join host Christen Clark for an important episode of the Collide Kids Podcast featuring Emily Assell, a bestselling children's book author and speaker. Dive into Emily's journey of exploring grief and God's comforting promises through her new children's book, "When It Hurts: Comforting Promises for Hard Times." This episode highlights the importance of addressing emotions, fostering open family conversations, and teaching children to lean on faith during tough times.

Tune in for this heartfelt discussion filled with stories, wisdom, and Christ-centered encouragement. And don’t miss our “Let’s Talk About It” segment for engaging family discussion questions.

• www.generationclaimed.com/order
• Free Family Devo: http://bible.us/r/ECb

Clip Finder:

Navigating Layers of Grief: "You know, I think I had started experiencing grief on a couple different levels all at once. I had had my grandma pass...So I was dealing with some grief there. At the same time, I volunteer for an organization that helps families who have fostered and adopted kids. And I saw that they were experiencing so much pain... So it's kind of this whole spread of different grief and really on different levels."
— Emily Assell [00:07:44 → 00:08:23]

"Exploring Divine Comfort: The Biblical Response to Grief": "And I think the Bible has the answer to every problem that we could ever come across. It deals with every situation, and the Holy Spirit shows us how that works."
— Emily Assell [00:08:38 → 00:08:48]

"The Importance of Acknowledging Children's Challenges": "But it's not really a big deal, because to us, those are small problems, but to a kid, they are really big problems."
— Emily Assell [00:09:56 → 00:10:03]

"Letting Go of Guilt and Anger: A Spiritual Perspective": "When we realize that Jesus says he is the one who takes the blame for all of the pain in the world, he already paid the price for that, whether he caused it or not, which we know a lot of. He did not. But being able to say, you don't need to hold on to the guilt, you don't need to hold onto the anger, we can give all of that stuff to Jesus."
— Emily Assell [00:14:42 → 00:15:01]

"Finding Safe Spaces for Grief": "I think sometimes we think that it's easier to not tell other people or talk to other people about our pain because we think it's gonna make their pain worse or we think that it's gonna go away or we feel embarrassed about something."
— Emily Assell [00:16:39 → 00:16:51]

"The Power of Acknowledging Pain": "I think sometimes we are afraid to ask because we don't know what the answer is. But to be able to even just acknowledge that someone's going through pain, we're going through pain as a group and then if we don't have to fix the problem. But it's so important to be able to be heard."
— Emily Assell [00:17:15 → 00:17:28]

"Emotions as Allies: They're supposed to help us to tune into oursel

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Transcript

Christen Clark [00:00:19]:

And have fun while you listen. Let's do it. Hey, y'all. Welcome to the Collide Kids Podcast. I'm your host, Christen Clark. The Collide Kids Podcast is a show for kids and families where we learn together how life and faith collide. I am so glad that you're listening today. Thank you so much for being here and spending this time with me.

Christen Clark [00:00:45]:

Be sure to stick around to the end of the episode. After our interview today, we have a new segment we've just started this season called let's Talk About It, a fun segment where we will ask three questions. Now, they might be silly questions or imaginative or heartfelt or faith filled, but all of that is to spark some great family conversations. So stick around to the end of the interview so you can listen to those and use that to talk about what we talked about today with your family. Well, since we have this let's Talk about it segment, this means we have moved our Kids Only segment to our YouTube channel. So if you still want to be on the show and be on the Kids Only segment, you can, you just have to send me a video of you sharing your favorite Bible verse or joke or a song so you can make those videos all together with your friends and family or maybe your baseball team or your dance troop and send those in and you might be on the next episode of the Collide Kids Podcast. Well, today we're going to have a very important conversation. I think sometimes our conversations on this show can be a lot of fun and today's is a lot of fun as well.

Christen Clark [00:01:51]:

But we're going to go deep a little bit as we talk about the subject of grief. And that is not always the easiest conversation to have, especially as a family. There's lots of feelings involved and lots of different ways that people deal with grief. And that's why I think this conversation is so important today. Especially if you're someone who is going through grief or you will at some point. It's great to go ahead and be prepared and have this conversation. My guest today is Emily Assell. She is a best selling children's book author and speaker.

Christen Clark [00:02:23]:

She and her husband Matt started Generation Claimed to self publish her first book before being picked up by Tyndale House Publishers. As a homeschooling mom of three, Emily has spoken at many parenting conferences, schools, mothers groups and special events. And she has been a featured guest on Multiple podcasts like this one, teaching and encouraging all ages about the power of God's word. Emily has written a book for kids called When It Hurts, Comforting Promises for Hard Times. And we have a great discussion today about how to deal with GR in different ways and how to identify that within our family. So I think you guys are really going to enjoy this conversation with my friend, Emily Assell. Emily Assell, I am so excited to have you on the Collide Kids podcast today.

Emily Assell [00:03:18]:

Yay. I am very excited to be here with you guys.

Christen Clark [00:03:21]:

Yes. And I am so excited for you to share all the things about what God has been doing in your life. Would you just introduce yourself today and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Emily Assell [00:03:32]:

So I am an author. That's why I'm here. I have written this will be my fourth children's book and my first devotional for moms. I have been married to my husband for 19 years now. I have three kids. I have a son who is about to turn 16 and drive. Ah.

Christen Clark [00:03:49]:

Ooh.

Emily Assell [00:03:49]:

Yeah, it's a little scary, but we're. Lots of prayers.

Christen Clark [00:03:52]:

Yes.

Emily Assell [00:03:53]:

Um, a 13 year old daughter and my youngest daughter is going to turn 10 in about a week here. I homeschool, I speak, I write, I pray, I laugh, all the things.

Christen Clark [00:04:04]:

I love that all those things are great things. Well, good. Well, I'm so excited and I'm very excited about your son driving. How is that process going for us parents that are looking into the future through you? What, what's that like?

Emily Assell [00:04:17]:

Yeah, you know, it's just another level of trusting the Lord with your kids. Right. I mean, I feel like every level you, like, let go a little bit more and be like, lord, I have to trust you. This I can only do so much. And definitely, like, when it's 15, I'm like, I have to trust you. And sometimes it's harder actually being in the car. I'm like, to my husband, like, you drive with him. I don't want to know.

Emily Assell [00:04:35]:

I trust the Lord, but I don't want to, like, have to be. But I want to know about it real time. Yeah. Live. Like, I just. The first time we went driving, I was actually in the back seat of the car and my husband was in the front. Me and my two girls were in the back. And I kept being like, it is so hot here.

Emily Assell [00:04:49]:

Can you please turn the air conditioning on? Can you please turn the air conditioning on? And my husband's like, it's not hot. You're just freaking out. Unclench all your muscles. Muscles. We're gonna make it so funny. It's good. It's. It's.

Emily Assell [00:05:01]:

It's parental growth. I'm learning to trust the Lord more.

Christen Clark [00:05:04]:

That's great. And. And if. I don't know if you can remember when you had to go through that with your parents, where you had to learn to drive, you know, the first few times you got in the car with your mom and dad, I'm sure that was. They were feeling the same way. So now you can relate to them.

Emily Assell [00:05:16]:

I have a twin sister, so they, like, got hit with two at once. It wasn't even like one. It was like two daughters at once driving for the first time ever. I will unfortunately tell you I was not the better driver. I should say I was not the more responsible driver. I tend to have a little bit more excitement than my sister did. But, you know, now I'm getting paid back. But at least only one kid, not two.

Christen Clark [00:05:39]:

That's true. That's true. Yeah. All I remember is my parents would hold that. That handle at the top of their. They held onto that a lot. That's all I remember about that experience.

Emily Assell [00:05:50]:

Yeah.

Christen Clark [00:05:51]:

Okay. Because there's something connected to the brake or something with the car there. No, they're just holding on.

Emily Assell [00:05:57]:

Just hold on.

Christen Clark [00:06:00]:

Well, I can tell this is going to be a fun conversation, but before we get into your books and all the things that you've done, because this is a show for kids, I always ask my guests to tell me a joke. So do you have a joke you want to share with us today?

Emily Assell [00:06:14]:

Well, I don't have a joke, but I have a story, so.

Christen Clark [00:06:17]:

I love stories.

Emily Assell [00:06:18]:

Me, too. I write. Right. Who doesn't love stories? So every year, you know, at the beginning of the year, everyone psychs up. They're going to change things. We're going to make some New Year's resolutions. We're going to do some things differently. So this year, at the beginning of the year, I was very aware of how much time I had been spending on my phone.

Emily Assell [00:06:33]:

And there have been so many studies and people out there saying it's not good for kids to see you on the phone all the time. They don't get your full attention. It's not setting a good example. So I decided at the beginning of the year, anytime my kids were in the room, I would not be on my phone. So if they were in the same room with me, I would not be on my phone. So it was really hard. It's been about three weeks now, and I finally gave up because I just missed my kids too much. That was a joke.

Emily Assell [00:07:02]:

But I'm bump.

Christen Clark [00:07:04]:

Gotta. Gotta let them back in the room at some point. Yeah. You know, I love that the kids are like, wait, what?

Emily Assell [00:07:12]:

What?

Christen Clark [00:07:12]:

Yeah, all the parents know. Exactly.

Emily Assell [00:07:14]:

You know.

Christen Clark [00:07:15]:

Yeah. Well, let's talk. I. You know, like a little more serious. But you have written a devotional and you've written a board book for kids about grief. And I think this is such an interesting topic for kids because I feel like it's something we kind of as parents, we want to avoid those darker, harder topics. We know we need to talk about them at some point. But what made you want to write a book about this?

Emily Assell [00:07:44]:

You know, I think I had started experiencing grief on a couple different levels all at once. I had had my grandma pass, which my grandma was such a wonderful, solid person in my life, and she had passed. So I was dealing with some grief there. At the same time, I volunteer for an organization that helps families who have fostered and adopted kids. And I saw that they were experiencing so much pain and some of it just pain that there wasn't an answer to. And then on the other side, I also had my daughter whose turtle had died. Right. So it's kind of this whole spread of different grief and really on different levels.

Emily Assell [00:08:23]:

And it really got me into thinking as I was going through all these experiences, what is God's response to grief? What is the biblical response to grief? And that's kind of how I got started in this, is because for my own self and for the people that I love, we were experiencing it. And I think the Bible has the answer to every problem that we could ever come across. It deals with every situation, and the Holy Spirit shows us how that works. So that's kind of how I ended up walking this path. And this book kind of came out of some of the searching I did in my own life from that.

Christen Clark [00:08:56]:

Yeah. Was it something where you were looking for that resource or looking for that content for you and your family? And so you're like, I don't see it, so I'm going to write it, or was it just something God was teaching you?

Emily Assell [00:09:07]:

Yeah, I think a little bit of both. I had found actually some really good things that had walked me through as an adult. Right. There's a lot of books. One of my favorite is by Michael Card, which I know he's like a singer, but he also is an amazing devotion writer, and it's called Sacred Sorrow. It's probably one of, at the time, one of the books that I was going through. So there was a lot of resources out there for adults. And at the same time, I also have been so heavy on the word of God.

Emily Assell [00:09:33]:

That's why we do what we do. I have seen the impact of it in my own life. So it was digging into adult books. It was digging into the word of God. And I was also realizing that there wasn't a lot of that out there for kids, really, that I had seen from a biblical response. And I really think that sometimes when it's kids, it's a lot easier just to kind of brush it off and say, it's just a turtle, get over it, Go along. Or, yeah, you just had a bad day at school. But it's not really a big deal, because to us, those are small problems, but to a kid, they are really big problems.

Emily Assell [00:10:03]:

And some of those griefs obviously are. Are bigger than a turtle dying. And how did I take what I knew from the Bible? How did I take what I had been experiencing from the Lord and make it so that my kids could understand? How could I see how the Lord had ministered and comforted me and use that to then be able to minister and comfort the kids in my own life? So it was kind of a bit of both.

Christen Clark [00:10:25]:

Yeah, that makes sense. And just for the kids that are listening now, can you define, like, what grief is or what grief is like? Because I think we all might have a different idea, or it might all look different to each person. So what. What is grief? What does that mean?

Emily Assell [00:10:40]:

So when we think of grief, and this is not the official dictionary version, but this is what we've lived out, is that there is pain because of something that happened. And when we think of that, sometimes it can be something short. We can be sad for a little bit. We can be sad for years and years. Sometimes grief feels like I can't breathe. When my grandma had died, all of a sudden, I would just be driving home from the grocery store, and it felt like I was short of I couldn't breathe easily. Sometimes grief can feel angry. It can feel like we have lots of questions.

Emily Assell [00:11:13]:

We can feel like I'm sad, and I'm not really sure why I'm sad, because even though this thing happened a week ago, two weeks ago, our body still feels sad about that, even if it's not in our mind. So grief can look very different for different ages. It can last short, it can last long. But it usually is pain that comes from something that has happened or has not happened to us.

Christen Clark [00:11:38]:

And I Think it's important, too, to recognize that grief is not only associated with death. Like, it could be the loss of something. It could be that you didn't make the team or you didn't get in the play. Or it could mean, you know, one of your friendships doesn't work out and you're. You have grief for that because you know what you're missing or you don't know what you're missing because it's not there anymore. So I think grief, like you said, it can look different, it can be different lengths of time. And our body does hold onto it, even if we're not thinking about it.

Emily Assell [00:12:09]:

Yeah, I love that. And it's so true that it doesn't have to only be a big thing. It doesn't just have to be somebody dying. It could be, like you said, we didn't make a team at school. We feel left out by friends. It could be our turtle dying. It could be things like you said that we had or didn't have. There's no God, never in the Bible.

Emily Assell [00:12:28]:

Or Jesus also, when he was here on Earth, never says that. That pain is silly. That pain is stupid. We look at Jesus. He had a friend named Lazarus who died. And he was with Lazarus's sisters, who obviously were very upset. And Jesus knew that he actually ended up bringing Lazarus back to life. He knew his friend was gonna come back to life, so he didn't tell Lazarus's sisters.

Emily Assell [00:12:51]:

This is so silly. What's a big deal? I'm gonna take care of it. It'll be fine. Not only did he not say that to Lazarus's sisters, but Jesus himself was sad. Even knowing that he was going to bring him back to life, Jesus still realized that it was important for him to feel sad. So our sadness, our pain is not ever silly. It's not ever. Not a big deal.

Emily Assell [00:13:17]:

The Bible says that God actually keeps every one of our tears in a bottle, which means that all of your pain matters, no matter how big it is or how small it is or what it comes from. God cares about our pain and our sadness.

Christen Clark [00:13:32]:

Yeah. And I think when we try to brush it off or pretend like it didn't happen, that's when I think things start to feel worse. And so it is good to acknowledge, like, it's okay to feel those sad feelings. And that's kind of the point of your book that you've written. And it's a board book, so it's for younger children, which I think we don't always think to give something like this conversation topic to a small child. But I think it is important for us to teach our kids at a young age that it's okay to be sad and that God really does care. What are some other points from this book that you really want kids to understand?

Emily Assell [00:14:07]:

Yeah, I think the other one that besides some of the stuff that we had talked about, one of the verses that was really important for me to put in here is talking about how when it hurts so bad, I, as in Jesus, will take the blame for that. I think sometimes when we're hurting, it's easy to say, this was my fault, I caused the pain. Or on the opposite side, I'm so angry at this person. I'm so sad at this person. But the truth is, sometimes that really distracts us from being able to heal, from holding onto things that we shouldn't hold onto. And when we realize that Jesus says he is the one who takes the blame for all of the pain in the world, he already paid the price for that, whether he caused it or not, which we know a lot of. He did not. But being able to say, you don't need to hold on to the guilt, you don't need to hold onto the anger, we can give all of that stuff to Jesus.

Emily Assell [00:15:01]:

That's not a burden that we're meant to carry, and it's not something that is good for us to hold onto if we're angry or upset about somebody else. And that was one of the things that was really important for me to put in there, because I think a lot of times, whether it's our fault or not, we can feel like it's our fault. We can feel like we deserve the pain that we're in. We can feel like we deserve the sadness that we're feeling. But the truth is that Jesus died on the cross. He was resurrected. He came here as a human so that nobody has to pay the price for that. God already paid the price for that sin.

Emily Assell [00:15:35]:

You don't have to hold on to that pain.

Christen Clark [00:15:36]:

That's right.

Emily Assell [00:15:37]:

God took care of it for us.

Christen Clark [00:15:39]:

Absolutely. And I'm thinking, too, just about people that are tuning into this podcast episode because of this topic, because they're going through grief. So how can families have conversations about this? Because I think one of the big things, too, is when we go through a season of grief for whatever it is, we bottle it up, we push it down. We don't talk about it, we don't bring it out. And it's going to come out in other ways. Right. Like, you know, in different feelings. Or emotions or different physical ways.

Christen Clark [00:16:08]:

So what are some ways that we can have these honest conversations as a family? Like how can we foster that in our families?

Emily Assell [00:16:15]:

Yeah. So we actually have a devotional plan on the YouVersion app and on the Life Bible app called when it's Hurt. So it's, it's geared towards families. You walk through it as a family. So I would definitely send you guys there for. It's about a five to seven day plan, depending on which app you're on. But really the important thing is to be able to acknowledge that there is some sort of grief, some sort of pain going on and that there is a safe place. I think sometimes we think that it's easier to not tell other people or talk to other people about our pain because we think it's gonna make their pain worse or we think that it's gonna go away or we feel embarrassed about something.

Emily Assell [00:16:51]:

But what we see in the Bible is that even Jesus, like we said, expressed his pain. And there are so many people in the Bible, from David to Jeremiah to Job, who shared their pain. And that's important so that we don't feel alone. So as a family, to be able to sit down and talk about those things and say, how are you feeling? And listen to those things and to ask, is there anything that I can do? I think sometimes we are afraid to ask because we don't know what the answer is. But to be able to even just acknowledge that someone's going through pain, we're going through pain as a group and then if we don't have to fix the problem. But it's so important to be able to be heard. It's so important to know that you're not alone and to ask if there is anything that we can do to help.

Christen Clark [00:17:33]:

Yeah, I think that's so important for families to do that. And I love that you guys have created a resource for families. So we can go to the you said youversion app and the Bible Life Life Bible app.

Emily Assell [00:17:44]:

Life free. Yep. And I can. I'll send you the link so you can put them in the show notes.

Christen Clark [00:17:47]:

Yes, I'll do that. Yeah. Because I think that's going to be a great resource for so many families or just individuals who are going through a tough thing. And one of the things you said that I think is so important too is recognizing that you're not alone. I think for some reason whenever we go through a difficult time, we think I am the only person that has ever felt this way ever. And it's just not True. I think it's just one of the ways that the enemy tries to isolate us and we need to get it out. We need to talk about it.

Christen Clark [00:18:14]:

And like, I know for me, going through a miscarriage or going through a season of loss of a family member or whatever, when I talk about it with someone else, just hearing someone else saying, I've been through that too, I know what that feels like is so helpful for me to know I'm not the only one. I know that I can share this with someone and it's a trusted person that I can have conversations about the way that I'm feeling and dealing with it.

Emily Assell [00:18:37]:

Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. Even just being able to hear that. Yeah, that really hurts. I can't imagine. I'm so sorry that you're feeling that pain sometimes make you feel last so long. Even if that person hasn't been through the exact same thing like you said, being able to share that pain, I think is so important to know that you're not only are you not alone physically, there are people in your life who care about you. But we know the most amazing thing is that we are never alone because God is always with us.

Emily Assell [00:19:03]:

I think some of the times that I've actually felt closest to the Lord is when I have been having a hard time. I love the Bible verse that talks about how God is near to the brokenhearted. And Paul talks about in Philippians, he says that there is fellowship with God in our suffering. Right. That I may know him and know the fellowship of his suffering. And I think we are never alone, but especially when we're in pain. God is so close with us. He is so gentle with us.

Emily Assell [00:19:31]:

And I think that's such a beautiful thing.

Christen Clark [00:19:34]:

Yeah, I think that's so true. How do you think this book is gonna help with managing emotions for our kids? Like, how can we use this as a resource for helping those kids dealing with big emotions they don't know what to do with?

Emily Assell [00:19:47]:

Yeah, I love that you have said already even that when we bottle our emotions down, they actually end up erupting larger, bigger, messier later. And that is speak from experience. Yeah, right. Me too. I think so. I think it is important to start that conversation to say that it's okay to have feelings. A lot of the things that we talk about as adults and even with my kids, a lot is no emotion is wrong. It's never wrong to feel angry or feel sad or feel happy or any of those things.

Emily Assell [00:20:14]:

It's important to feel those Emotions, to express those emotions, but also then to realize that those emotions don't control us. What we do with those emotions is what's important. Our emotions are kind of like a stoplight, right? Or they're kind of. They tell us what's going on on the outside. Do I need to slow down? If I'm in pain, I need to slow down. I need to be gentle with myself. I need to ask people that. I know I'm having a hard day.

Emily Assell [00:20:39]:

Can you be gentle? Or my daughter will tell you, I just need to cuddle today, Mom. I just feel sad. And that's what our emotions are supposed to do. They're supposed to help us to tune into ourselves. They're supposed to help us to make decisions, but they're not supposed to make our decisions for us. So I'm hoping that this book. I'm believing that this book is going to be a way to open up the conversation, to be able to share that so kids can learn how to manage their emotions well. And adults, their loved adults can also know how to talk them through that and teach it.

Emily Assell [00:21:09]:

Because it's not an automatic thing that we know how to do automatically. It's something that we learn. Goodness gracious. I'm still learning sometimes how to.

Christen Clark [00:21:18]:

Me too.

Emily Assell [00:21:18]:

Listen. Yeah. And see what God is teaching me through those emotions and what those emotions are telling me about God and about myself and my situation.

Christen Clark [00:21:28]:

Yeah. I love that you said it doesn't control us. It doesn't have to control us. But they're not bad. And so we need to use them and pay attention to those things. So you have a board book for younger kids called When It Hurts. And I'm so thankful that you've put this book together. You also have a devotional for parents called Wherever your Are.

Christen Clark [00:21:48]:

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Emily Assell [00:21:49]:

Yeah. So Wherever your Are is actually a devotion for moms. It's funny. I've had a lot of people reach out to me, and I kind of was like, okay, okay. And then one afternoon, I was sitting on the back courts with two of my friends who are younger moms. And again, I am very passionate about the word of God. And they were asking me questions like, you gotta get in the Word. You gotta get in the Word.

Emily Assell [00:22:08]:

You gotta get in the Word. And my friend looked over at me and said, emily, I can barely take a shower by myself, much less spend time in the word of God. Like, what are you. Like, let's be realistic here. And I was like, oh, man. And so I went Home. I sat on my porch the next morning and started thinking and praying about it. And the Lord reminded me of the story of Jesus when he was at the temple and how people were putting money into the offering, right? Some people were putting in, you know, large amounts of money and lots of things, and they thought they were, you know, they were doing these large amounts.

Emily Assell [00:22:42]:

And then you see this widow come by and she puts in too much, just a little bit. And Jesus says that she gave the most. And the Holy Spirit reminded me that sometimes our time is like our money. And there are people who can give gifts of hours, and that's so wonderful, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there are seasons in our life when all we have is two minutes. And if we give that to God, if we give all that we have, he says, you gave the most, and he's overwhelmed by that offering. And so this book was really born out of a heart of saying, if I have two minutes, if I have three minutes by myself, how do I make the most of that? How am I able to connect with God and then kind of be able to speak with him throughout the day? But take those three minutes and read declarations from scripture over myself, over my kids, have that moment to touch, point with God and say, oh, Lord Jesus, I need you today. So that's kind of where it was born from the understanding that we don't always have a ton of time, but we always want to be with our Heavenly Father. And again, just the power of our words to be able to declare that over ourselves and over our kids.

Christen Clark [00:23:50]:

That's so good. I love that. When I was a young mom, I read. I think it was a blog or something where someone said that she would just leave her Bible open on the table or on the counter, like in the kitchen, where she was all the time. And so when she'd walk past it, she would just, like, read part of the chapter and then she'd keep going. And that might be all the time that you can meet with the Lord is just in passing, but just leaving your Bible there as that reminder, like, okay, I can come back to this. And he's still there, and he's still with me. And so, yeah, I think definitely for those younger moms, they understand that there's.

Christen Clark [00:24:21]:

There's time. And. And I think that's a beautiful way to look at it. If we have a lot of hours that we can give to God, or if it's just a couple of minutes, it still means something and it's still worth Something to him. So I think that's beautiful that you've put that together. That's so great. Well, Emily, I love all the stuff that you're doing. I'm so thankful for this book about grief, and I'm so thankful for the.

Christen Clark [00:24:41]:

The ways that God's using you to. To encourage families. So thank you so much for all you're doing. Before I let you go, I always ask my guests to tell me a memory from when they were a kid. So do you have a memory you want to share with us today?

Emily Assell [00:24:54]:

Yes. So I grew up in the Midwest, which is suburbs of Chicago, so that's corn country. We grew up in a little farmat. So we were surrounded by fields. And I will always remember there's five of us, and we would get kind of annoyed with my baby brother, and so we would tell him that we were going to go play hide and seek, and then we would just kind of send him off by himself and not go look for him for a while. Like, we're going to play hide and seek. You. You go.

Emily Assell [00:25:23]:

We'll come find you. Right? Like, and then we'll get you out of our hair for, like, however long until you decide you want to come play Barbies with us again. Well, he. I mean, and he's like, you know, two, three. And he. We did that to him one time, and he decided he would go hide in the cornfield, and the corn was well above his head, and we couldn't find him. And we had to go find mom and dad, and mom and dad could not find him because the corn was very tall. Again, you could not see him from eyesight.

Emily Assell [00:25:52]:

We would be calling out to him, and we couldn't hear him. Whether it's because he didn't know how to respond or he couldn't. Whatever it was, he. He had gotten lost. We could not find him. So eventually, I mean, again, as a young kid, I felt like it was ours. It probably was not ours, but eventually my mom heard him crying and was able to, like, you know, trace his tears to being found in the corn, because you couldn't find him out. It was.

Emily Assell [00:26:17]:

It was hidden. So be nice to your brothers and sisters.

Christen Clark [00:26:19]:

Yes.

Emily Assell [00:26:20]:

Don't get them lost in the corn. It is very hard to find them.

Christen Clark [00:26:23]:

Very hard to find them.

Emily Assell [00:26:24]:

Yeah. I probably remember that more because of the. The consequences that came after it. And being so terrified that I was like, we'll never find him again.

Christen Clark [00:26:33]:

He's gone forever into the corn.

Emily Assell [00:26:35]:

Be kind to your younger siblings.

Christen Clark [00:26:37]:

Oh, I love that poor guy, Poor guy.

Emily Assell [00:26:41]:

He's. He's okay. He's good now, but he was eventually found.

Christen Clark [00:26:44]:

That's eventually found. That's part of the story.

Emily Assell [00:26:46]:

That's right.

Christen Clark [00:26:48]:

That's awesome. Well, tell our listeners where they could find you and your book and where they can order this whenever it comes. Has it already come out?

Emily Assell [00:26:56]:

February 4th, our children's book, When It Hurts comes out. And March 18th, our mom's book, wherever you are, comes out. And you can find us anywhere. Amazon, Walmart, Target. Wherever books are sold, that's where we are at. I'm probably the most active on Instagram and Facebook under generation Claimed. That's where I'll be.

Christen Clark [00:27:17]:

Well, good. Well, thank you so much, Emily, for sharing all this today. And thank you for just the way that you've put all this together. I think lots of families are going to really benefit from getting this book.

Emily Assell [00:27:27]:

Oh, thank you. It was really good to be here and talk with you. I really enjoyed it.

Christen Clark [00:27:40]:

That was so fun. I loved getting to talk with Emily. I love when she was talking about grief. She explained that grief is pain from something that happened or did not happen to us. Grief can be so many different things for different people and different ages. And, you know, I love that she reminded us that God never says that our pain is silly or stupid or just something to get over. It's okay to experience those feelings. Emily reminded us that when it hurts so bad, remember that even though Jesus didn't cause the pain, he will take the blame for that pain so we don't have to hold onto it.

Christen Clark [00:28:14]:

God took care of it for us. I also loved when we talked about when we're with someone who was going through a time of grief, sometimes we can be afraid to ask or to help because we don't have all the answers. But Emily said we don't have to fix the problem to make it go away. Just being there to acknowledge their pain and listen to them and remind them that they are not alone is a great help and a comfort to those who are going through pain. And I was really encouraged by the Bible story that she shared about the widow that gave her offering. And it was very small, but Jesus said whatever she could give was the most. And that applies to us as well. It's so important for us to spend time with God every day, even if it's just for a few minutes.

Christen Clark [00:28:55]:

So how can we make the most of the time that we have to spend? We don't always have to have a ton of time to spend time with the Lord. But whatever we can give, it's still the most. And that's what really matters. If you'd like to learn more about Emily and her books, you can go to generationclaimed.com youm can also check out her free family devotional on the Bible app. I'll provide a link for that in our show notes and you can also follow Emily on social media. Enerationclaimed well, now it's time for our family conversation. So let's talk about it. Here are the three questions that you can discuss with your family today.

Christen Clark [00:29:32]:

Number one, there's lots of words to describe God. What are some words or ideas about God that give you comfort when you're sad? Okay, here's the second one. What are some things that help provide you comfort when you're feeling grief or big emotions? Like for me, it's going for a walk or getting a big hug from someone I love. And number three, what are some questions we can ask to help someone who is going through a hard time or a period of grief? Well, those are the questions for you guys to talk about with your family. I hope it sparked some great family conversations and I'd love to hear about those. So if you are having great family conversations or something really amazing came out, you want to share what your family member shared, then be sure to reach out to me on social media. I'm on Facebook at the Collide Kids Podcast or on Instagram @collidekidspod. You can also share your kids only segment with me on social media so that we can put it on our YouTube channel.

Christen Clark [00:30:38]:

And don't forget about a YouTube channel. Collide Kids Podcast is a great place for you to go watch the full length interview for today's episode. You know a great way to support the podcast is to leave a rating and review. I know I say that every episode, but it really only takes a few minutes and it makes such a big impact on other people finding out about the show. So if you do have a few moments right now or sometime today, I would love for you to leave us a rating and review and let us know what you think about the show. You can also share this episode with friends and family. Let them know why you and your family enjoy listening. And anytime you think about it, I always appreciate your prayer support as well.

Christen Clark [00:31:14]:

Well, I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. I'm looking forward to some awesome things and I just realized something a few days ago that I approaching the 200th episode of the Collide Kids Podcast. So we gotta plan some fun things for that, I think. So. Stay tuned for the next month. We'll have some information about some different giveaways and some things that we'll be doing to celebrate our 200th episode. Thanks so much for listening today. And in case no one has told you, I would love to be the first to remind you that God loves you so much.

Christen Clark [00:31:45]:

Thanks for listening.