Looking to God #1 | Supporting our Children’s Mental Wellbeing

This is us with the fireworks, the big scissors cutting the ribbon and even a dramatic spray of champagne. This is us kicking off a big new series on mental wellbeing.
We have listened, we've been busy and here we are with the topic that we know you want from us. Let's look to God together as we learn how he does mental wellbeing from the Psalms. This generation of children are waiting for us to bring God's care to their distress and fears. We went to get you ready for that journey.
Ed walks us through the tears at bed time while Amy goes off-road, showing us how to do godly mental wellbeing on her mountain bike. 
Let's release the 🐬🐬🐬!
Let's learn how to help our children's wellbeing - ahead lies gratitude, resilience and comfort in the difficulty.

Looking to God: Mental Wellbeing in the Psalms 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Whatever stage of parenting that you're at, you know, you're holding the hand of your six-year-old, you're walking into school and their lip is wobbling and they're saying to you, I feel nervous about today, and what if nobody plays with me at lunchtime? And what if somebody says something mean? And you know, as a parent, of course, there's all the good things that we can say about, you know, well, remember the skills that you've got and remember how brave you are and remember the brilliant snack that I'm gonna bring you at the end of the school day when I come back and pick you up. But as the Christian parent, there's the extra thing that we're able to offer. We're able to say, we can depend on God here. And when I let go of your hand and when I say goodbye and you go off into school, God never leaves you, and you can trust him and he will help you. Um and that's good news for me as the parent as I walk away. I trust the Lord, I depend on him, just as my child does as they go off into the day.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Hello, welcome to the Faith in Parents podcast. My name is Ed Drew. I'm the Ministry Director at Faith in Kids. This is the podcast for you if you want to walk your children through the everyday with Jesus rather than just for an hour on a Sunday or even without Jesus. Imagine how that would happen. We have been doing this podcast for a number of years, but this is the start of a new series. We are looking at mental well-being. I'm joined by Amy as usual. Amy, how are you and why are we talking about mental well-being?

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Oh, Ed, I'm great. I'm very excited. We're in the same room, and what a lovely room it is, and we're gonna have a great conversation. Today we're talking about mental well-being in the Psalms. It's the first of a new series, a new set of resources that we're gonna be doing. Ed, we've got four more episodes after this one on this topic. What can our listeners expect?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Amy, we're trying to ask the question. We're all hearing about mental well-being at school, around us, on almost every channel we listen to, but what would it look like for a Christian to be about this? Firstly, you can expect us not to be all huffy about it and say mental well-being, what is this new thing? I don't actually believe it exists. No, we're not gonna be saying that at all. Almost all the messages we hear are entirely constructive and positive. What's striking is, like so many good ideas, God got there first. And we're gonna be in the Psalms, yeah. We're gonna be introducing some resources we've written, but we're also gonna be welcoming some great guests on the journey.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

We totally are.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Because, Amy, you and I don't have all the wisdom we need. That's not the first time we've learned that. We did a survey recently with a bunch of church leaders, and we got 170 to tell us what is it we at Faith in Kids could do to help them more as they lead churches and particularly lead families and children.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

One big thing they said was mental health.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

They wanted help with mental health, Ed. We're aware that our kids are struggling. This is an increasing problem. Uh, our kids are more anxious, uh, this is something that our kids are coming home and talking about. More of our kids are worried, more of our kids are sad, um, and more of our kids want help. And we want to offer a better help than just you can take a deep, deep breath, you can list the positives, you can be grateful. All of these things are good, but we've got an even better answer. We've got a God that we can trust in. We've got one who is with us, we've got someone to be grateful to. We're not just grateful about things, we can say thank you to the God who knows us and loves us, and our minds can be full of him and his goodness, and it will make us feel better because we are remembering we are held in the hands of a good God who is for us and with us. Ed, let me tell you a story. My daughter came home from school. Um, so as a mum myself, as a parent, as a friend of other parents, uh, we worry about our kids. It's it's life, it's what we do. Um, and we would love things to be better for them, and we'd love them to go through life, taking things as easy as they can. But we know that as Christians, often it's in difficult times that we learn to trust the Lord and depend on Him. Um, so we'd been through a few struggles as a family, all the normal things. The person that said something mean to you at lunchtime, um, being left out of something, worrying about something that might go wrong again. Um, and it's great. My daughter came home from school with a little laminator card of five ways to look after your well-being. So um they were little printed things, and this is general good health advice that lots of our kids will be receiving. So we should connect, we should talk about our our feelings, we should try and connect with others because it helps us feel better. We should be active, we should move our bodies because it gives us those positive. Eddie, you ready for some technical language? Yes. Dolphins. It gives us positive dolphins that swim around our bloodstream and make us feel better. I think it might be called endolphins, but something like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Amy, your version is always slightly funnier, always more memorable and slightly quirky. And the big challenge is not just to repeat it to others, assuming it's normal. But if you say mindfulness fills your body with dolphins, you'll get a lot more smiles and people will eventually get it.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

So connect, be active, keep learning, keep learning new stuff, finding new ideas, give, show love to others because that helps you feel good, because you're being kind to others, and you should listen to advice, take advice from people who've got good things to say. So I thought I love that. That's really good because I want to connect with the God who made me and knows me and loves me. Uh, I want to remember that he gave me my body and my mind and he designed it really well. So when I move the body that he's given me, uh, when I take a deep breath, it helps me calm down. When I think about the good things that he's given me, when I love other people, like all of these things, they're great, but they're not enough in and of themselves. If we can connect them to the God who made us, to the God who loves us, to the God who's with us and has given us good things, how much more helpful is it for us to dwell on him and to help our kids do that too? So Ed, that's exciting, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, it is, Amy. And and the first thing is, is you you got this laminated bookmark in the back from your daughter. And the first thing is you're thinking is you can already immediately see how this good advice relates to the God we worship, what we read in his word, and how we know the godly life can be lived. Uh I have loved talking to our friend David McKee, uh, who is an extremely experienced child psychologist. He understands where it's at. And I remember when he said to me, you know, the foundation of mental well-being is three things. And I took up my pencil, thinking, quick, let's write these down. And he said, sleep, food, and exercise. And I put my pencil down and thought I can remember them. I know and I might even already be doing them occasionally.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

And I when an expert in anything tells you things that are A, already known, and B, you you can do, you think this is gonna be fine. And he comes on to tell us some other things. In fact, the first episode in the series that we're gonna come to next week, he is our guest. So he's walking us through his advice for us and some bonus content in Psalm 121, which I think is everyone's favourite psalm.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

It totally is. So, Ed, that first that first week, yes, Psalm 121. We're talking about being safe with God. Yes, held in his hands. So that's because we're talking about the world says where do we look for help? Yeah, we need to look to ourselves, we need to be ready, we need to be resilient, we need to have all these, we need to depend on these things, have these strengths, teach our kids these skills. And yes, but it's not all on us. And like as a parent, isn't that a relief? Yeah, isn't that the core of what it is to be a Christian? We can set out into the world knowing it isn't all on me. Yeah, that's right. I don't have to, I don't have to have it all together. Yeah, uh, neither do my kids. I don't have to have it all together as a parent either. I can learn one more day dependence on the Lord. That's a burden lifted, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, it is. And it it also, we often say this that it it reframes parenting because it I think the message we usually hear is in parenting, we are aiming to make our children be completely independent. They don't need anyone else, they have all the qualifications, all the experiences they need. As you say, they are resilient, they are brave, they are bold, fearless, and almost perfect. To reframe Christian parenting is Jesus got there first, he is enough. Can we raise our children instead to be dependent on him? And can we model for them that we are dependent on him? So you've already highlighted that the language of gratitude is language we're hearing everywhere. Apparently, science has proved that if we are grateful people, we are happier people. And you've already said the problem with that is who are we being grateful to? When at the end of the day we reflect on ten things we're grateful for. That exercise is clearly a good one. But to be a Christian is to say we as we think of those, we are simply giving them back to God. You are the author of every good thing I have. How kind you have been. And this is an exercise that I remember my dad doing with me in bed. Can we just thank God that we are safe, we are warm, we are loved, we're together, we've had a good day. My dad got there far too many years ago first. What a genius he was, and that's simply because he was raised knowing there is a God who's got this. Yeah, and to be a Christian is just to say, He's got us, we're okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

There was that very old-fashioned song about count your blessings, name the one by one. That's gratitude to God for the 101.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Is that a sound of music?

SPEAKER_02 11:26

I don't know. I don't know. I also think, Ed, this I had uh this week the privilege of um spending a little evening with um a friend and uh his his wife and their newborn son. And uh I'm sure you've experienced this too. You had I had the experience of walking in the door and meeting them and their lovely little boy, and they're doing a great job, and they're loving him, and they want to get it all right, and they're already learning that it's tricky and they need to trust the Lord and the stuff that they don't know. Um, but they look at me as you know, you're the mum, four teenagers. Tell us everything we need to know about parenting.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Walking genius that you are.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

And I think I did lie on the floor face down at that point, and bang your fists against the floor or different options? No, just said, you know, there's a reason why parenting happens a day at a time and a year at a time. And um, it's the thing, um, probably above everything else that brings us to the end of our resources and know makes us know that we need God. Um, and that's what this resource is about. Uh, that's what Psalm 121 tells us. That's what it is to be a Christian. It's not a surprise that uh we come to the end of our resources and we know that we need to trust the Lord. Um, and yet they're learning that as they navigate night life with a newborn. Um, and then I was just thinking it's the same, whatever stage of parenting that you're at, you know, you're holding the hand of your six-year-old, you're walking into school, and their lip is wobbling, and they're saying to you, I feel nervous about today. And what if nobody plays with me at lunchtime? And what if somebody says something mean? And, you know, as a parent, of course, there's all the good things that we can say about, you know, well, remember the skills that you've got and remember how brave you are, and remember the brilliant snack that I'm gonna bring you at the end of the school day when I come back and pick you up. But as the Christian parent, there's the extra thing that we're able to offer. We're able to say, we can depend on God here. And when I let go of your hand and when I say goodbye and you go off into school, God never leaves you and you can trust him and he will help you. Um and that's good news for me as the parent as I walk away. Normally, gonna be okay. I trust the Lord, I depend on him, just as my child does as they go off into the day. We can all learn to depend on the Lord together. Ed, as you've said, with David, that's our week one, Psalm 121. We've got four different Psalms to look at, four different brilliant approaches to take. When are we gonna learn more about this?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Well, we are starting with a webinar on the 6th of May. Amy, it's gonna be you and I in a studio live. And I don't mind telling you, Amy, and I don't think it's a big secret, that this is gonna be edited so that us stumbling over our words, we've kept a few in just for good times. But the 6th of May, we're gonna be live in a room with that friend of ours, David McKee, a consultant child psychologist. He spends his days sat in sofas that are even more comfortable than these with teenagers talking about some really big issues. And he is so good. And he always says all he needs for his job is two ears. So we're gonna be doing that live webinar to hear from David McKee on what would it look like just to be helping our children with these first steps in mental well-being? What's the Christian understanding of it? He's gonna be saying things like, Why don't we start with sleep, exercise, and food, just so that we can all think this is gonna be fine. And then from that, Amy, we're gonna launch this set of resources. We have got Sunday school resources so that each of these four psalms can get opened in Sunday school and some key mental well-being tips are learnt. But this topic, probably more than almost anything we've ever done before, we want to get it out of Sunday school and into kitchens.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

So, Amy, what are you most excited about about how these resources are gonna get into the kitchen?

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Well, I'm gonna say two things that are particularly excite me. So we've got, look, you see our four little characters there. So there are four weeks. Um, so I'm gonna tell you we are held in God's hands. That's our little yellow lady, number one. We are thankful to God, our little green chappie. Um, and we are safe with God. That's that's our blue friend, and we are have minds full of God at the end. So we're gonna go on this this four-week adventure with a different psalm each time, and each week has a beautiful animation, a mini-movie that takes us off on a journey through the psalm. So I can tell you um, week week two, we're off through Psalm 104, and we take a roller coaster ride across the world, from the heavens down a waterfall, uh, to see God's goodness everywhere, to see uh wild donkeys being fed um and his goodness so that we know wow, this is what our God is like. This is who we're trusting in. This is how good he is. Um, so we've got beautiful animations for each week, which then, Ed, form part of a little take-home family moments video.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Amy, you've been doing these in your kitchen for us. Thank you, Amy. I made you promise to have less gingham uh tablecloth than normal. No, Ed. Uh, and I made you promise also that you wouldn't spend the time hoovering and polishing your kitchen. Because I said, we need it in the raw, Amy. We need authentic.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Well, excitingly, people are gonna be able to work out if that's happened. So there is me doing a bit of chat, saying to you as a very little, Amy. Very little of me.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Nothing more. We made you promise nothing is longer than 90 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

To say, come on, guys, let's talk about this together. So if you want hand holding, I'm there to hold your hands.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

And if you want it all done in five minutes.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

So the real hope is in less than five minutes, Amy can set you up for walking through these psalms with your child, a couple of questions, five minutes of Amy, five minutes of chat. You say a quick prayer and you say to one another, we are winning.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah. You know, Ed, this is this is, I would love families to have this kind of conversation once. They watch the video, they have the chat, and then they set off as a family to explore this truth together in their lives. I back out because the parent and the child are the people together who God has put together. This is the team, the parent is God's plan A. Uh, so the resources that we're putting together for the church are because we want to say to the parent, you've got this, we want to help the kids worker, and then we want to we want the family to be having this conversation because they're the big faith influencer in the life of their child. So it's their feeling confident to say, Yeah. Because you know who the your child looks up to with wide-eyed wonder and thinks, You're amazing and you've got this. The church leader who's got it all together, the Sunday school teacher who's fun. No, no, your child looks up to you. If you believe this, if you give them a hug, if you make them hot chocolate and you tell them, Isn't this amazing? It's it's worth 50 million of me on a video.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And this is a story of mental well-being. Uh this week at bedtime, I had tears from one of my children about an event that was coming up that had my child terrified. Now, what you discover is no one else is going to get those tears. So, as much as I would love someone else more qualified than me to get the tears.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

I've got a video for this, hang on. I'll press play and I'll leave.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Before we have tears, can I just ring up someone much more godlier and wiser than me? Hang on, hold them there.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

They don't smell right in the cuddle, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Hang on, I'm I'm lost in your cuddling, Amy.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

If you cuddle, your your child cuddles you, you cuddle them. Yes. That's that's they don't that that's that's right. You smell right.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

We're all smelly. We're all smelly in our own way. Yes. Okay, so in that tearful moment, my child is looking to me for what have what have I got, Dad? How are we gonna get through this? So that's the story of parenting. Sadly, when the tears are coming, it's almost always us who gets them. That's the way it should be. We get to be the we get to be the first aider. That's clearly what we're talking about in this series. That's what we want to get into the home. We've got the video, we've got the family moments, yeah, and we've got the faith in families podcasts, which is Jam and I, 20 minutes, probably for the car, but it could be before bed. Opening these psalms, there's going to be a sketch, there's going to be some laughter, there's going to be some fun facts, and there's going to be some questions again for the home. So we hope that across these resources there is something for every family. So that in those moments of tears, we have something to say. So I can tell you that in that moment of tears, with a sad little boy who's worried about what's happening, I knew that what was going on was not just please explain everything to me from the start. It was I just need some reassurance. How do I know I'm going to be okay? How do I know it's not going to be my worst nightmare? So I get to say, who do we know who goes with you? Who will go with you on that day? The answer wasn't me. The answer was God goes with you. I was also able to say, I know there are two friends who are going to be there. And I also know that in the past you have done school residentials, you've smashed it, you've done it before, we can do it again, and we get to say a prayer at the end. I hope everyone knows, but that's the simplicity of what we're talking about. It's a two-minute conversation, and it's just taking a simple technique. It could be let's be grateful for what has happened, it could be let's remember God goes with us. Uh Amy, tell us a story. Um, maybe we've done sadness already, but which story comes to mind for I know one. You had a child who was cycling along on a bike ride. So this isn't just for in the kitchen or in the bedroom, this is for out in the wild.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

And someone witnessed you doing a mindfulness technique for Jesus. Tell us that story, Amy.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Well, that makes it sound very grand.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

It does, it does, and you're going to encourage everyone. I don't I've I've built it up deliberately. So when they hear it, they're gonna go, oh my goodness, I can do that normally, and we all feel better about ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

So imagine you're on you're on a bike ride and you get a bit freaked out because um you're off you're off-road and you're in a forest and you've not been on this for a while. Yeah, and then you were going uphill a bit and you're starting to think, oh, I can do this. And so the more you then you know your heart rate's going up and you're pedaling uphill, and then you know, you're then thinking, I'm not as fit as everybody else, and I'm keeping everyone else back. And so you work yourself up into a panic. Yeah. And then, oh look, see, I'm definitely not as healthy and I can't do this. So, I mean, I'm already you can see. So, okay, let's just take a minute, let's just calm down.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

This is what you said out loud. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Okay, let's just take a minute, calm down. Let's just get off the bike. Let's take a really deep breath.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Okay. We can do this.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

So this person you're with by this moment was off her bike.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Breathing deeply.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Yeah, yeah. I'm doing the put your hand on your chest.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

All the way in for the city.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Feel your lungs go in and out, and then look up look up at those trees. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Who made those trees? God made those trees. He's bigger than everything that's around us, he's bigger than the world that we're in, he's bigger than the than the worries that we've got, and we can trust him.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Great.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Let's just take a moment. Thank you, God, that you're with us. Help us to trust you and feel calm right now.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah. Amen. Hallelujah. Now I have two questions that follow. One is tell me what the person standing nearby said after they'd witnessed this.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

I didn't know we could do that. With meaning? Like, oh, I thought like so, and like it's true of all of us. Like, we feel like we've got two boxes. Like, there's life and there's faith. And there's like Sunday and the things that we're knowing about God, and then there's the life that we're living and how we're coping.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Jesus does not come mountain biking with us.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Yeah. Because he's at church. What he wants us to go to church and learn about him. But you know, we learn, and like, even though we know that we know that, we have to then take that wall out and say, faith is faith everywhere. Jesus is with us everywhere. So when we say to our children, God goes with you, we have to prove that we believe it too. So in the moment that we're freaking out, having a bit of a mountain biking panic, or worried about going into school, or loving this ice cream, because how delicious is this? God goes with us, and he's here too, and he's who we thank and he's who we ask for help. And we want it to get increasingly natural to make those connections. Because actually, that is far more grounding than I just have to control myself and calm down. I just have to remember who is in control. And suddenly the pressure's off me.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Thanks, Amy. And then question two, I I want to know, did it work?

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it did. But you know why it worked? Because I was calm.

unknown 24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

So I could say I believe this to be true, and I'm not thinking, oh, this is the last straw. Okay. I'm thinking these things help.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

This is gonna help. This is helping me be calm. This is helping you be calm. And you know what? It doesn't matter. If we drop the bikes and we just sit here and we look at the sky and then we walk back, it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yeah, um I th I think correct me if I get this wrong, Amy, but I think isn't it called mirroring of emotions? Yes. Which is if our child is in one big, messy, tearful state of chaos, yeah, and we mirror, we get into the same one.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Or we're in a big stressy state of chaos. Fully enough, our kids are too.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Absolutely. Because that's the that if I think it's not just me. That's an that's a very normal parenting situation. We're late getting out the door.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

We're uh dad is very frustrated. What's wrong with my family? Why can't I get there? We're gonna be late again. My tension, my anger just increases, increases, increases. Yeah, by the time the whole family is in the car, would you know it? Absolutely everyone is just screaming blue murder at each other. We're all angry, we're all tense, and I'm shouting, will you please stop shouting at each other? Thinking to myself, Why is my family so very angry?

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I'm gonna I'm gonna give you some amazing mind-blowing advice. Yes. You know, if you shout hurry up at people, yes, you know what it does. It makes them go quicker. No, it makes them run in circles and like generally nothing gets faster. But like we have to fight those battles within us to say, what are we bringing? How are we helping? How are we looking to God in every situation? And He can help and He can be with us. And sometimes, mind-blowing thought imagine arriving late but being calm. Maybe that's not the terrible thing that you thought it was.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

I hear tell of it and I sometimes witness it in other families. Amy, uh, these four Sunday school resources, we we normally as an organization start with a Sunday school resource. We find it's the helpful place to start, which means you're the one who has to start with a blank sheet of paper. Thank you for doing that, Amy. Uh through this journey.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

I'll just say, if you don't know, I'm a writer. Well, I write resources.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Amy, through that process of writing these four resources that then grew into so many other things, uh, is there a verse that you've particularly remembered? Is it or just a psalm that you've learned to love that you're going to go back to again?

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Well, psalm 121 has always been a favourite. I've got it on a lovely painting on my wall. Um, so where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. My mountain biking story tells you um like how helpful that is in a practical way. But yeah, in this resource, the the one that I think you and I both talked about and loved um is week three.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Safe with God. It may just melt a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

The thought of being in that um David was facing his worst day.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah. Um this is the cave one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:52

This is the cave, lion-sized problems.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

He's surrounded by lion-sized problems.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

So hang on, hang on. So this is we will come to this in the right episode.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Psalm 57. We're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

But I'm too excited. So yeah, just David had just had a big fight with running from Saul.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Uh soldiers are out to get him, literally, soldiers outside with knives.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Okay, so he's writing his little song in the back of a cave.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Well, we don't know where he wrote it, but he's writing about the experience when he was in the cave.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

I remember. He might not have had the head. We both want him to be in a cave.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

He's talking about the time that he was in the cave.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Oh, thanks, Amy. Now you can carry on.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Okay. Um, and there's literally men outside with weapons trying to kill him.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

And in that moment, he is able to lift his thoughts above his circumstances to the God who is bigger than the universe, whose love for him is uh uh massive and wide and stretches far across the heavens. And in that moment, he says, I will awaken the dawn. I mean, I will pray to the God whose love for me is wider than the heavens, and I'm awakening the dawn. I have the power to make the sun come up in a dark situation. Now that's not David being grandiose. Okay, oh suddenly I've remembered. I have the power within me. Like, here's my theme song, the sun comes up. He's remembering who is above me, okay, who's in control of me, who loves me, who does have the power to bring the sun up on the darkest of days. And remembering his love for me wider than the heavens makes me feel safe even in a scary cave.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

That's good, isn't it? Yes. We can turn to God and we can trust in his love even in our scary moments.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

We can awaken the dawn.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

We can awaken the dawn.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

We can make the sun come up on a dark day.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Very good, Amy. Very good. Uh, Amy, this is the first episode in this series. All the resources are gonna drop on the 6th of May. Uh you might be listening to this i i in the year 2057. Yeah. The resources will still be available on our website, faithinkids.org. You can still find them. Uh, I wonder, Amy, if you were gonna say to someone, look, here is one thing to do this week. Here is one tool for your back pocket to have ready in the kitchen. Uh, here is how to make a start. And knowing, Amy, you don't have to come up with something groundbreaking that no one's ever heard before. This could even just be a tool for your back pocket that everyone's already doing, because then they'll go, Well, that's obvious, and you can go, Well done, you.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Oh, I met a lovely family when I was on holiday in Scotland um called the Roy family, and they told me about a thing that they do. Um, and uh they they uh I'm gonna I'm probably not gonna do it the justice it deserves, but they talk with their young kids about three things. Remember who you are, remember who goes with you, and remember who you're coming home to. I mean, that's so doable.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Give me three again.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Remember who you are.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

You're mine. I love you. So for their kids, you're a member of this family, we love you, you belong to us, and you belong to our Heavenly Father who's a child of God. Remember who you are. Remember who goes with you. So when I'm dropping you off and I can't, God goes with you. Yeah. So you're a child of God and you're a child of this family.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Remember who goes with you, God goes with you. Remember who you come home to. Yes. Now you can take that two ways, clearly, as a Christian. Nice. You come home to us, you come home to a safe family who love you, and we'll make you your favourite snack and know all about you and know to have Cheerios in the cupboard for breakfast and snacker jacks in the cupboard for when you come in from school, but ultimately we come home to a father God who knows us and loves us even more. I love that. Yeah. So I just think if we can start to help our kids see our family and our heavenly father is the place of our security and our well-being. It's great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:54

It is Amy.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Are you excited about this series, Ed?

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Uh I am excited. If you don't mind me admitting here in front of other people, Amy.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

I was going to ask you if you want to own up to your nerves.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yes, I am. Uh, 6th of May, live.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Oh, yeah, apart from the fact that what will Amy say to me live?

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Yes. Uh more people have booked in than we thought reasonably possible.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Isn't that lovely? That's because people want to help with this. Don't be nervous. How great.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

It's fine. Several hundred people are watching. We're all working out. Will the tech work? Will Ed wear the right shirt? And what happens if he fluffs his lines?

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Uh so I'll just help you take a deep breath and say, depend on the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Thanks, Amy. We can all watch that live. Uh Ed feeling ridiculous, and Amy patronising me a bit more. And that'll be fine. That's what friends are for. Thank you very much. Uh, I think I also look forward to hearing back from parents and churches. I really hope that we will hear from parents and churches. Have we helped? What has helped, and what could we do next? Because we often say at Faith in Kids, we get we get more than our fair share of real kind emails, messages saying thank you, that's been so good. Clearly, that would be nice. It would be nice if these resources, webinars, podcasts, all the good stuff we've been doing lands well and people say, Thanks, you've helped me. It would make a bigger difference if some if we got a few messages that said, I think I know what next could be. You've helped me get here, but here's where I've got stuck. Here's where you haven't helped. Here's what my family are talking about. Uh here's where my child got bored. Uh, here's how far we got through before it all fell apart. If only you had.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Yeah. Ever the engineer, Ed, which is your background. It is ever looking for improvements. What would three does the WD4 go?

SPEAKER_01 33:51

It's we also we also know, and I have to say, people don't tell us this happens a lot. But when some, for instance, when someone says, Ed, we love the Faith in Families podcast, yeah. We listen to it on the way to swimming each week, it's 20 minutes of joy, you and Jam keep us going. There's I always say, but we do get boring, don't we? Or your kids fall off at about 15 minutes and you never get to the last five.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

No, we just love the fun facts, just make sure they're always there.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

That's true. We love the fun facts. We do get to the song at the end. There's always a song at the end. So I think I am always amazed that people are more happy it's working better with their family. And I know this is ridiculous. I should, I, I should know this, but but I still I just think that I don't think I'm a negative person. I just think the story of parenting is nothing quite goes as well as you think it will. Amy, am I the only one who's thinking that?

SPEAKER_02 34:43

No.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

No, we all think different things are different ways. Engineer by background, please help me make it back better. Therapist by background, let's all feel love and belonging. That's why we're a good team, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Amy, it's perfect. Amy, is there anything else to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 34:58

I don't think so, Ed. I think we've had a lovely time. I hope our listeners have found it helpful. Um, you know what is great when we hear from our listeners and they say, I'd love help with this. We've had a few emails in lately telling us we I'd love help with this topic and finding this hard. We always love hearing those. So um do send them in. Ed, what's our what where should they send them?

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Podcast at faithinkids.org.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Excellent. Ed, coming up, we've got David McKee next time talking about confident dependence on God. Um, who else have we got coming?

SPEAKER_00 35:32

I knew you were gonna ask me that. You got the first ones, that was easy.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Uh Anika.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Oh yes, we've had her as a guest recently. She's gonna come back.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

She's helping us think about gratitude. Uh, we've got the lovely Jean who is coming to help us talk about being safe.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Um, so we're not gonna spend every time just talking about the psalm. We've got guests coming in to help us unpack these topics and think about how to practically apply them. And then we're thinking finally about having minds full of God and how can we fill our homes with the good news and God's word so we can be thinking about his goodness for us as we go along. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Yes, if you've been a listener with us for a while, you may have noticed that we've had a bit of a refresh, uh a bit of a rebrand. We've we've just done some tidying up of our podcast. It's made it easier for to find stuff, Ed. We have. So we now have a dedicated stream for the faith in families stream episodes, podcasts. That used to be called Faith in Kids for Kids.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

No Ed, don't tell people that much. Well, it is now. So faith in families is where you go, where you want the family altogether conversation, the fun facts, the Bible stories, the big questions for each age group, faith in families, faith in parents does what it says on the tin. We're trying to say parents, we're with you, we're for you, we're walking alongside you.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Amy, I'm so pleased that you're walking alongside me for when I get those communications, nightmares, slip-ups. In our show notes for this episode, you'll find all that we have been talking about today. Where to find those family moment videos, where to find the Sunday school resources. Uh, they all will be out on the website. Like everything we do, it's free to download.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Amy, are you happy to pray for us as we freeze? I totally am. Get bonus points, Amy, if you can get your favorite verse from the psalm into a prayer.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Okay. God doesn't work like that. Heavenly Father, we do thank you uh for your goodness to us. We thank you that you love us. Uh, we thank you that we are your children and that we belong to you. And we thank you that we are safe in your care. And Father, we thank you that you do not ask us to have all the answers. You do not ask us to have all the resources to parent well, um, to save ourselves and or to save our children, but you call us to depend on you. Uh, we thank you for the good news that you have given and shared with us. Uh, we don't have to have all the help because our help comes from the Lord. Uh Father, we pray for families listening. We pray for ourselves. Uh, help us to trust you in every situation, help us to model that to our children. May we depend on you more than anything else because you alone are worthy, are dependable, are wise, are strong, um, and are the safe place for us to trust. Thank you, Father. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Amen. See you next time. Get in touch. Podcast at faithinkids.org. Keep it here. We'll be all about mental well being from the Psalms, looking to God. Thanks, Amy. Bye bye. Bye bye.