Faith in Parents

Looking to God #4 | Practising Godly Mindfulness with Nick Radcliffe

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What if one of the most powerful ways to help our children navigate big emotions is also one of the simplest? In this episode, Nick from The Christian Poster Company join Ed and Amy to explore how filling our minds with God's truth can shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions—and how parents can model that in everyday family life.

Find out how closing tabs is relevant to mindfulness and  why a walk past a tree can be a profound "mindful of God" moment for the whole family. 

Join us as we try to help each other and our children make room to think about God.

The Christian Poster Company aims to bring glory to God and joy to your lives with bold, colourful biblical designs. Brought to you by Nick in Liverpool, he started the business in 2020 and in April 2024 took the leap to run it full time.


Looking to God: Mental Wellbeing in the Psalms

Looking to God: Family Moments Video Psalm 34:1-11 



SPEAKER_02

What I'm really keen that we do is fill our minds with God's word. And really the origin of the Christian Primo Company is me trying to do that for myself because I'm pretty rubbish at remembering to do that unless I've got these visual cues in front of me. And really clinging to the promises of God and knowing that no matter how I'm feeling, um God is sovereign and true, faithful and cares for me.

SPEAKER_01

Hello friends, this is the Faith in Parents podcast brought to you by Faith in Kids. Absolutely delightful to be with you. My name is Ed Drew. I'm the Ministry Director at Faith in Kids. I've been busy working with children and families for about 20 years, and it is my thrill to be continuing to show families how they can walk with Jesus through the everyday and the normal. And Amy, we have enjoyed being in this series in the Psalms. It's really been your life for about a year and a half now.

SPEAKER_00

Ed, I also love that you called this a prodcast, because we're ready to prod you to talk, to talk about all things. All things, Jesus, and in your parenting. So yes, you're right, we're on the Psalms, and this is um episode five in this series. Today we're talking about um how we can fill our minds with the good things of God, mindful of God. That is today's episode. Um, Ed, let me introduce our wonderful guest today. Now, you've known me for nearly 20 years. Nick knew me even younger. My goodness, poor Nick. Nick knew me, and he was the sensible older person at university, and I was the new, annoying fresher. Nick, welcome. Thank you for being here. Tell us all about you, other than I knew Amy at university.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for having me on. Hello. Well, that's a great thing to uh shout out about. I I think I remember meeting her in the very first sort of couple of weeks of your freshers' year. True. Bouncy smiley Amy.

SPEAKER_00

So there you go. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02

Nice to have known you all these years. Yes, so what was the question? Tell me.

SPEAKER_00

Tell tell us about you, um, other than your relationship to me, which is one of the least significant things in your life. Tell us about your family, your job, your life.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so I'm Nick. I um I live in Liverpool, which is where you and I went to university, and I've never left, which I think is the same for you. True. And I so for well, at university I studied medicine and I went on to be a GP, and I was a GP for just over 20 years until a few years ago. And I live with my wife, and we've had four children. So Emily, who's away now at university, she's 18. Uh, our second child, Ruth, um, she died at the age of three, so she's now with the Lord. Um, so that was back in 2012. And we've also got Felicity, who is 15, and Eleanor, who is 13. And Felicity is, as we speak, doing her RE GCSE.

SPEAKER_00

Also true. Nick, um, so people might not know you from the things that you've just said, but they probably do know you from some of the amazing artwork that you currently produce, and we've all got postcards and we've got pictures on our walls produced by you. So tell us about you and Christian Poster Company, which you haven't mentioned yet.

SPEAKER_02

I haven't, I know that was a bit of an admission. I'm glad you led on to that. Um, yeah, so I and the reason I'm no longer the GP is because I now am full-time running the Christian poster company. So I started that 2020 as a kind of creative outlet, and um it sort of grew from there. So I was selling things on Etsy, and then people seemed to quite like it. And I now have got my own website and I go to a lot of events and exhibit there and get God's word out into people's lives and homes and my own home. And um, I just love it. I've I've found a new lease of life in this creativity, and uh that's what I do now full-time.

SPEAKER_00

So I just need to explain that this is this is not um a picture of a cat on a branch with like a misty blue background, and I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, posters that I had as a child. This is bright, groovy, funky posters that get God's word. Uh, my son has a snowboarding one that's praise the Lord of a flipping snowboarder on his wall, which he absolutely loves. So just to just so just if you've never seen the Christian poster company stuff before, it's not Bible verse in a cat. As much as got cats are wonderful.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I do take requests, so uh don't yeah, it's um yeah, sort of bold, modern typography. I and I want God's word to be the sort of central to it. So and my sort of rule of thumb is it um you know you've still got to be able to read it on like a thumbnail, so you've got and and know what it's saying about God and his word. So and lots of colour is is what I do.

SPEAKER_01

And Nick, the um the topic we're we're thinking about is a mindful of God, and people with an eye to this, and maybe people, anyone who has a child at school will know that this to some degree is us riffing off the idea of mindfulness. Uh we we have been nervous of using that kind of language because I I think I think for some people it's distracting and they and they s and maybe the element of where's this word come from and is it is it healthy? We've been saying throughout this series that it's it's it's a good word. It's a it's a word we can all get along with because really it's just saying what we put in our mind matters, what we chew over in our mind matters. So why don't we find out what is the best thing to put in our minds? Presumably that's the story of the Christian poster company. I mean that you've clearly got a gift for graphic design, but there must be an element of if if people can put in their minds these words, if they can be on our walls and on our hoodies, then better things are going to happen with our thoughts and emotions. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_02

I understand people being wary of those words, but um there is an awful lot of good in recognizing that um our minds um are sometimes very much full of things they don't need to be full of, and our um nervous system takes over all too often, and we get that fight and flight response, and and a lot of what the our kids, I mean, my kids are being told in their sort of mental well-being weeks and mindfulness lessons is um giving them tools to address that. That's all good, but very much so. Um what I'm really keen that we do is fill our minds with God's word. So not just stop at regulating our nervous system, not just stop at empty our minds of those negative thoughts, but fill our minds with God's word. And that's very much what God's word tells us to do. And you know, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is trustworthy, whatever is lovely. Think about such things. So that's definitely what I'm trying to do with the Christian poster company, and really the origin of the Christian poster company is me trying to do that for for myself. Um, because I'm I'm pretty rubbish at remembering to do that unless I've got these visual sort of cues in front of me.

SPEAKER_00

Nick, tell us a bit more about that, about your own story as to how like God's word has helped you in those struggles and like managing emotions and managing thoughts.

SPEAKER_02

Well, the sort of wider story of why I ended up probably finishing my career as a GP was because I was going through a season of people would describe it as burnout, I suppose. Um I get a lot of exhaustion or sleep. Not coping very well with the stresses of day-to-day, to the extent that um really it felt that it was a time to to wind down the GP work, which I found I was not I felt I was doing it well, but um not managing very well with the stress that brought on. But at the same time, um I was very much clinging to the Lord and clinging to his words. I've called it burnt out, but really it's probably prolonged grief as well. There's a lot of that going on with I've mentioned um Ruth who who died, so and through and uh and really clinging to the promises of God and knowing that no matter how I'm feeling, um God is sovereign and true and faithful and cares for me. I mean, in his in God's goodness, it about two weeks before Ruth was diagnosed, I was preaching in church on that passage from one Peter. Since it was just before I knew anything was going to happen and our lives are gonna be turned upside down. And that passage I've got it here saying, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And it goes on to say that in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. Um so that idea of so I was preaching on rejoicing in suffering, and then two weeks later I love, as I say, we're turned upside down, and I really found that um that was a great blessing to have had that truth grounded into my mind and my mind filled with that truth. I'd heard a lot of people say when people are going through difficult, difficult times, the last thing they need is is you know to quote the Bible to them, and um, that's you know, you just need to be there for them. But I I just found that not to be true, and I very much needed uh the Bible preached to me and spoken to me in the Bible right in front of me. So yeah, just really grateful for that. And and that's led me to want to um have God's words very much day to day in my life, and then um share that with other people.

SPEAKER_00

So, Nick, I don't feel like it's it's not a coincidence that I know you now as the guy of bright coloured Bible verses who loves indoor climbing. So it's literally both of those things. You're clinging on to something by your fingernails and you're producing God's God's word in bright and colourful ways. So I I think there's there's a beautiful symmetry in that.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, oh I like that. I'll think of that next time I'm climbing as well.

SPEAKER_00

Nick spends his time clinging on to things and making sure God's word is bright and seen.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. I try and combine the two.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I I think in the resources that we're putting together um as faith in kids at the moment, that we this whole suite of resources, um, looking to God in the Psalms, we're trying to say, how can we equip parents? How can we help churches um have this conversation about things that are hard and about looking to God in the middle of them? Um, and the the the episode that we're talking about today, uh, we're particularly thinking about the Sunday school um session, mindful of God, um, and we're thinking about what it means to how our thoughts affect the way that we feel, and that affects um how we act. So Ed's really excited about our family moments videos, and I'll let you talk about those in a minute, Ed. Um but we want to try and equip parents to just be really practical in the moment with with their kids and give them a thing to understand. Um so I think you, Nick, are much further down the line than most parents, me included, uh, with your med medic background. But that whole process that what we think about affects how we feel, which then affects what we do. So um we've in our Sunday school lesson on this, we've talked about it being like a train. So our thoughts are the engine at the front that pull the carriages of our feelings and our actions behind. So when I think about ice cream for dinner, I feel happy because I love ice cream and I might give my mum a hug. Thought, I love ice cream, feeling happy, actions, I give my mum a hug. Um or I think about the mean thing that somebody said to me at school today, you know, ages ago, and I'm at home and I'm still dwelling on it, and it's going over and over in my head. So I feel like I'm rubbish and I'm a waste of space. So I kick my brother or hide in my bedroom. So that whole thing that as parents, we often only see the action and we didn't see the feeling and the thought that came before it. Um, and that exploration that we can do of why are you feeling this way and what were you thinking about. Um so what we'd love to then be able to offer is how can we start to think um about the best thing that we could ever think about? How could we be so in schools it would be how can we be present in this moment rather than replay something that happened? So all those great skills of how are we gonna colour in or like listen to the the sounds around us or the thing in front of us or focus on the present. But we'd love to take it that step further as Christian parents. So, how can we put the best thing ever in our thoughts so that this these feelings and actions pulled behind are good? Very long, waffly way of explaining that. But Nick, I'd love you to tell me. Can you can you tell me a moment when that's been true for you? Like you've already told us about the the preaching. Is there a favorite poster? Is there a best-selling one? Is there one that you could just go, if I could put that on your wall, if I could put that in your head, if I could put this in my daughter's head before she went to school, this is what I'd love.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, um, well, it's hard to narrow down because uh we've got sort of four or five of my posters just around our sort of dining table area. So um, and that is really helpful just to, as you say, just on your way out to school or look at yourself or point them towards it. I would say that my f oh my favourite, I think Psalm 121, I think, which you covered in a recent episode.

SPEAKER_00

We did, Nick, well done.

SPEAKER_02

And it's just brilliant because it's just speaking like where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. And He's the maker of heaven and earth, and um it's just you just need to read those words and and you can't but um be uplifted. I would say as and so I really love that train analogy as well. And and the other thing I would say is sometimes um the thoughts there's so much going on in our head, we're not even really thinking. And you know, when our our fight and flight responses kicked in, we got all adrenaline going. So that's um that's that's a really that's again where it's really helpful where even the secular word is world has got this right where um regulating that nervous system, regulate calming down, doing breathing, stopping and pausing. To you sort of need to do that first, don't you? To then what do you then fill those thoughts with? Yeah, as you say, God's word. And yeah, so Psalm 121, I think, and Psalm 23 is up there as well, which and I particularly like that because it's only six verses, so it's not easy to remember.

SPEAKER_00

I think, Nick, there is a there's a thing that you've just prompted me to think about as is like often when I look at my teenage son um or my kids thus that in that moment of struggle, like I'm ready to tell them all this wonderful advice that they want to think about. And you're right, there is a moment that your thinking brain is off if you're in panic mode. So, how do we calm ourselves down first so that thinking brain can be back on and we can start to put good stuff in it?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, Nick, you you've given us an example of a technique, and it's it sounds like you practice that technique, which is you you see some of the feelings in yourself that show you're not you know you're not going where you want to be going in your thoughts and your feelings. You take a moment, count to five, breathe slowly. Is is that is that true? I mean, what are some of the ways, some of the signs you notice? Would you would you be willing just to give us some insight into your own heart and mind uh of of what you think are some thoughts that go around your head unhelpfully, or or what other steps you take to try and change that story?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I recognise it in myself a lot, those um, you know, that sort of your mind not being switched off in a really unhelpful way because you're not thinking anything straight, and and you're perhaps feeling your heart racing a little and um definitely get sort of very grumpy and uh not nice to be around, and those are definitely signs that that I'm not thinking straight. And to get more grounded and mindful, there's some very practical things. Amy's mentioned climbing, so I make sure I do that once or twice a week and go to parkrun on a Saturday morning. Again, just remembering that we are created by God in a wonderful way that um in a way that that he's designed us means it's important to do those things as well and exercise our bodies and get out into fresh air and enjoy his creation. So I do those practical things. And also I so for example, in the morning, sometimes I wake up a little bit too early and I'm sitting there just staring at the wall, and my mind's going around and round thinking about all the things that need doing, or things that you know, my parents have been awful, and thinking about all different things. And um, it sometimes takes me surprisingly long time to think I just need to pick up the Bible right next to me, switch on the light, and um turn to Psalm 23, and force myself to read them, and then always appreciate what I do. So, yeah, and and then and again, not wanting to sort of promote my products, but I I've definitely found having having those things on the wall. So at the end of the bed, we've got Psalm 103, praise the Lord, oh my soul, or my most brilliant, praise his holy name. And you know, when you're tired and stressed, it's quite hard sometimes just to focus on perhaps a long passage, or I've been going through one king's and let's face it, it's it's quite a trudge. But um so then having those words just right in your face and something to cling to for as you start the day have been really helpful to me.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's definitely true that a psalm a day keeps the doctor away, or something like that.

SPEAKER_02

I like it. You've given me lots of new taglines for my uh they'll be on the website any any you know this week.

SPEAKER_00

I've always particularly loved the psalms because I think they give us that emotional connection, don't they? And there's there's all of the things that are in there. There's the cries out to God, and there's the there's the wonderful reminders of what's true, and it just helps us feel that it's okay. It's okay to have all of the feelings, and it's okay to bring them to God, and it's okay to ask him questions. And um at the end of all of this, we wonderfully find that we can trust him. One of the things that I know, Ed, you've particularly enjoyed as we've we've journeyed along this sort of looking to God together is a lot of the simplicity of the things that we're asking and that like we're advising people to do. So uh think about God's word and maybe eat and sleep and go outside for a walk and listen to your children and spend time with them. Um, Ed, what's been your highlight so far in the things that you've that you've discovered along this looking to God journey?

SPEAKER_01

Nick's just encouraged us the value of um doing exercise and being outdoors. And I I think understanding that's a win and being able to say, I've just done something brilliant by doing something I enjoy. I think we're being invited even to eat, which I think is great. Which I I think as a f as a dad, there are so many moments when I when anger is is just there. There are so many moments, particularly clearly after school. Uh last night, trying to chorale my family around the table to open the Bible. We have got into the habit at the moment where one child generally storms off before we get to that point. So, and I even think we've got we sort of they've learned it from each other now. Like this is the normal response to a situation you're not enjoying is to storm off and slam a door. And I've definitely noticed that it's very tempting in that moment just just to rise to anger, you know, get to the point where everyone around the table is just shouting. I I think the value of just stopping and pausing and saying, How can we change this conversation? How can we change this narrative? How can we change this mood? What's the conversation we can have? And how can I coax that family member back to the table? It's all unbelievably human and normal. But it and maybe it's because I've now got older children that I can't strap them into high chairs anymore. I always thought strapping a child into a high chair was an excellent method of ensuring your family meal could function and work. All you had to do really is pick up the cucumber sticks that got thrown around the kitchen. But I I mean I'm I think I think I'm learning that when we talk about mental well-being, it's not a diagnosis or an emergency option, but it is just giving names to what is happening all the time in our minds and our hearts. That for instance, the genius of your illustration about the train, Amy, is it's connecting the three. I think as a sort of classically logical, rational male, I like to think the three are totally disconnected. You know, I can think about that problem while I am happily talking to a child and I am making excellent decisions. So it feels to me like a fairly fair revelation that these things are all connected. And and again, the Psalms, uh the Psalms are saying this has always been the way, is that the situation that is happening to us, the Psalms are full of David crying out in difficulty, and then suddenly the conversation changes and he's praising the Lord. And I would read it and think, Well, this is a bit dysfunctional, and is this some weird editor who slammed two psalms together? And what I'm now understanding is in the absolute face of crisis, David chooses to praise the Lord. In the face of life-threatening disasters, he is saying, Lord, you are always good. So I I think we get Amy, you're just laughing the whole way through everything I'm saying. I think because I know what you're thinking, which is Ed, you're giving us the commentary on inside of a male mind and how this type of. Well, I would have three little men and they would never talk to each other. You know, Thoughtfulness Man would be on his computer working hard, emotions man would be staring out the window at the joy, and decisions man would be on his console to doing totally his own thing. And apparently these three men talk to each other regularly.

SPEAKER_00

So Ed, I'd also like to just I mean, I I also think there's a moment that I'd just like I'd like to trot in to this stressful dinner situation where we're trying to talk about the Lord and say that maybe you could do it the other way around. You could talk about the day and you could talk about the struggle and then you could see, what do we know to be true about this? Or what truth could we how could we think about God in the middle of this? Or even you could look at a poster that says, trust the Lord and praise him, and then go, shall we go for a walk? And it could all be the same thing. God, I mean mind blown. Mind blown.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Uh Nick, uh you are you you are practiced and now professionally doing mindfulness and encouraging the world to do them through products. Do you also relate to this as a dad in in it feels to me you're a ahead of a head of your generation in working these things out?

SPEAKER_00

Ahead of me, also knowing us.

SPEAKER_01

I hope my kids aren't listening to this. It's it's possible, Nick, and I don't want you to say anything that might get you into trouble. But if if we're being told that the next generation, our children's generation, are finding these things harder than any other generation, that they are finding it harder to get their thoughts and emotions intentionally into gear, that their brains are racing with what they're seeing all around and on every screen. D do you are there things you find yourself saying to your children? Are there are there ways you have tried to pass on what you have understood to them?

SPEAKER_02

I think one of the ways is is um really being honest about how uh how I'm feeling. So to them directly, but also when other people are around. So it just is examples in my head because at church on Sunday, you know, some as people do, they say, How are you doing? or how's your week been? I think in the past I might have been tempted to give the trite answer while the kids are there, and then yes, if I'm feeling more open, want to open up about how rubbish it's been. But I've learned that it doing that in front of the kids is actually a brilliant thing to do because so they were right there, and I said, you know, this morning I woke up really grumpy and just really fed up, and this weather's getting me down, and um all of that, and and not trying to hide that from the kids. So I think them recognizing that those feelings are normal is really important because when they feel it, they can know that that's ah my dad feels that too. And um, and hopefully then they also see though in those conversations as they carry on how myself and whoever I'm speaking to are are trusting the Lord and praising God despite those situations, and it makes that more of a normal conversation at home as well. So I think that's been helpful, and I'm just recognizing more and more the importance of that recently, just the honesty, them seeing that feelings are normal and they're not wrong for feeling those things, but um the answer is um not necessarily to um hide them away or try and fill your mind um or clear your mind of everything altogether, but instead to um to the Lord and cling to the Lord. And maybe cling to the climbing wall as well.

SPEAKER_00

So with we've we've thought about thinking and we've thought about like filling our minds with God's word. Um so help us, you sort of hinted at it before, help us work out what's the difference between um Christian meditation and like because I remember this as a child at school when when yoga became a thing, and it was like, oh, you can't do yoga because you can't empty your mind, because then you're susceptible to other things entering. Um and you know, the story changes, and now we we can't do mindfulness because our minds should be full of God. Um, but there is there is a thing about our thinking and like how what's the difference between the good meditation and the bad meditation? So for those of us, Nick, that are about to walk off a cliff of panic because we've said the word mindfulness, meditation, and God's word all at the same time, can you can you bring us back to some sense of it's all right?

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely, meditation is very much a biblical concept, isn't it? So no, I was the same growing up meditation was something that uh you know my parents were very wary of, and um it's something we should walk away from. But um no meditation is very much encouraged throughout scripture, and um yeah, as you know, I've talked about the Philippians 4, whatever is true and noble and lovely, meditate on those things. Um, and there could be a million other examples, or in Romans 12, um, do not conform the pattern of this world, but it's but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And yeah, I could think of lots of other examples, but so but but and so um meditation is is is chewing on God's word, it's taking time to um dwell on it, to absorb it, to look to God, to fix our eyes not on our inner strength and um but on on God, the maker of heaven and earth. Um and we just we don't do it enough, do we? Um we are so distracted in our lives.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I think it's that thing, isn't it? That we not only do we chew it over, but we wrestle with the thing that that we struggled with. So like there's this bit, and like that doesn't seem right, or that seems to overpromise, um, or or like this feels like it's promising that I'm gonna have a wonderful time. Uh we talked about one Psalm 121 earlier and that verse 7 that he'll protect you from all harm. Well, what does that mean? Because that's that's not my experience, like things go wrong around me. So, how do I how do I fight this through? How do I know what I know to be true about God from elsewhere? What is he promising here? What is the what is he keeping me from eternally? So, like that's that's what it looks like for us to fight with this through. Um, and it's great if just as you were saying before, about being open with your children about your own emotions, like labelling them, I'm sad, I'm angry, I'm grumpy, I'm tired. Um, I'm struggling. Like, look at I'm reading this verse, and I'm like, I can't like this this feels hard. So, what do we think? So, inviting them in, and yeah, we do that age appropriately. So, some of these conversations that I'm talking about now that I'm saying, I don't understand, and this feels hard to me. I would probably be doing that with eight and up. And with with little ones, I might be reading a Bible verse that talks about something being sad and saying, Well, that's hard, isn't it? Again, like it seems to just to get them to notice that sad and hard things are in the Bible and that God talks about them, and God talks about sad and hard emotions, and he talks about being worried. So that means we can talk to God about anything, doesn't it? So we're just trying to not only say we label our emotions, but we see them in the Bible, and we see that God talks about them too. Ed, do you want to say anything about the um walk yourself the panic, the panic of meditation? Are we going to start wearing orange robes and jingling bells?

SPEAKER_01

The psalm for this session um has been Psalm 34, and verse um verse 8 to 10, I just think are are the the psalms that they're most beautiful. Nick is is is well acquainted with the psalms, so he's been firing out some of his favourite verses, and and I have to say, it is an unbelievable blessing. It's it we've made a joke about sort of NAF Christian art on walls. It's easy to make a joke about it, but Nick Nick is genuinely doing something absolutely beautiful, which is he is returning the Bible to our walls without shame and with beauty. And the story of being really gifted is that Nick can wave his hand and say, Well, look, it's you know, I I just fiddle on my computer and out comes this.

SPEAKER_00

Don't do don't do the self-deprecated thing because I have seen Ed's PowerPoint slides without help. Like you are gifted.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. I mean if if I thank you. If someone asked me to put a Bible verse on someone's wall, it would be three fonts and primary colours. And I, you know, I I basically have the sort of aesthetics of about a seven-year-old. But Nick, you you're doing something absolutely beautiful for us. So when we read a psalm, we we hear the beauty, and Nick, you're putting it in visual form. Verse 8 of Psalm 34 taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. It is poetry, but all of us can understand what it means to taste that the Lord is good. It's it's not a distant knowledge that we learn. It is it's in the back of our mouth. He is that intimate and that close, and then blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. There is peace to be found in him. You know, this is so j so this ver you could take this verse on your walk with you for an hour or on your half-hour run, but I kind of want to challenge anyone to just think on that verse for five minutes and and try not to smile. The Lord is good. It is our experience of him, and we're holding it out to anyone who'll listen and say, try him out. I don't need to give you a complicated argument for why you should be a Christian. Give him a go. Take him for a spin. You'll find is amazing, and it particularly if you're in trouble right now, find refuge in him. I I'm thinking about a guy I sat next to on the tube. He just didn't look very happy. And I still wonder if I should have spoken to him. He just looked he just looked like he was angry. He looked like he he I don't want to make assumptions about him, but I still think I just w I just wished I'd said, Are you okay? And can I pray for you? I've never done that on the tube, and I'm not sure I could do it, but I'd like to think there might be a moment where I could, because I want to say, whatever you're going through, the Lord is good enough for you. And then you've got this brilliant picture in verse 10. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. I love that. I love that. I think lions are the best. Like the Lord was at his most creative that day when he invented a lion. Like the lion is the stuff of dreams. Big, fluffy, unbelievably dangerous. Huge. And even these lions can grow weary. If you're feeling weary, it's not that you've taken a wrong turn. It's not that you've got it all wrong, and it's not that you've failed. We all do that. But seek the Lord. You'll lack nothing. You'll lack nothing. We we've had an email this week that is from a mum, and she's really saying, When I read a verse like that, I actually look at some of what my children have been through, and I wonder how can this be true? So she looks at her children, and we read here, those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. She knows their story better than anyone else on the planet. And she can say with total honesty, they do lack some good things. And they have lacked some good things. Nick, you I you must have pondered this because you you are encouraging people to put on their walls these wild promises of good. Like behind Amy on this video, you can read one of your posters, Truly my soul finds rest in God. That's another it's a wild promise. Your soul can find rest when maybe you're going through something that there is no rest to be found. Have you have you found yourself having to answer questions like this when we come across these wild good promises? And and sometimes I think that's not been my story or my children's story. From from others who or from you, Nick. I mean, maybe you have known deep sadness. And when you read those who find their refuge in the Lord will lack no good thing, the thought presumably has occurred to you there have been parts of my life as a Christian where I have lacked some good things.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, very much, very much. Um and yes, and and one of the joys of doing events and um you know, all the big Christian festivals is people coming up and some and and sharing their stories and sharing how God's word has helped and and in God's grace how my sort of designs have helped. And some people have yeah, have suffered um terribly and uh hurting a lot and struggle to see goodness often. But um, I suppose I have a great previous of it, they're generally coming to me because they're telling me how despite what they've been through, um God's word has been um God has been a refuge to them. Um so yeah, absolutely myself and hear from others struggling to understand what's going on in their lives, but um um as I say it's in those seasons I think all the more we we cling to God. That's been my experience. Um and and kids as well sometimes I'm reminded by the I've just remembered about um when um so when Ruth was ill, eldest Emily, I was trying to prepare her for um you know you know when it was clear that Ruth was probably not going to make it, and um I was saying to her, look, Emily, you know, sometimes people they don't get um they just get very poorly and don't get better. And she just straight away said, and she was five, she said, Yes they do. They go to heaven and get new bodies and there's no more crying. And I didn't I didn't remember telling her that you know that passage from Revelation 21, or I don't know where she got that from, but she must have heard it from one of us or at church. And um I just remembered about that from something you said. That I just want to encourage parents that actually, if you feel like things aren't really going in, um, or you haven't really done a good job, because that certainly in that season, uh, we weren't doing sort of 30-minute Bible study every night around the Bible table. We were in and out of hospital all the time, but somehow um just the kids seeing us um clinging to the Lord and trusting in him, that was going in. Um and they were they just believed it and it's God is good.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that's those moments, so Ed, like your question, and you know, in all of us as Christian parents, as Christians, it builds that panic of oh, maybe maybe it's not true, and maybe it's not all real, maybe it's not good. Um, and then I think there's that moment when we just have to then say, Well, what else is there? Like, where is rest found if it isn't in the Lord? Like, is there any other rest? So, you know, I can sit on the sofa and I can feel a bit better for a bit, and I can maybe go again tomorrow because I've had a bit of but ultimately where is my eternal rest found? Where is my eternal hope found? Where is my eternal what where is the thing that lasts and holds? What is the thing that I can offer my children? Um, what what is the thing that I want them to think about that's actually going to definitely do them good? And the joy that I can say to my my child in the thing that they're struggling with, like God is good here and God can help you here, and like I can give advice and I can say things from the sidelines. And as children get older, like increasingly it feels like that bounces off. But God is at work in them and in their hearts, and his spirit can actually make a difference to thoughts and feelings where where I've got no hope. So I can try and say, think about these good things, I can try and examine thoughts, I can try and uh point, I can try and be optimistic and I can try and be hope-filled, but ultimately I can trust God to do a thing that I can't, like in them and through them and in the difficult thing that we're going through. We are coming into land, and I would love to give us all a challenge, and it doesn't have to be the Christian answer. I want us to come up with top tips to look after your own mind um and to fill it with good things. And Nick, you'll definitely have to say put a poster on your wall and tell us which is your favourite, but you have to tell us something else as well. So you get a minute to think, Ed, you're going first, then Nick, then me. I want top tips for uh having a mind full of God.

SPEAKER_01

I don't think it's an accident that Nick is obsessed with Philippians 4 verse 8. Uh I I think the guy who's decided to make a living out of putting beautiful verses on the walls, Nick has worked out finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. I think as parents, we are probably very attuned to what is going into our children's minds, what is filling their thoughts, and and we are on a sort of special forces mission to sort of fight off the enemy. Uh what is on their screens, what is on their devices, how much screen time have they had, how late are they staying up, what's on the television, what are they doing at sleepovers? You know, we're to be a parent is to be wondering this all the time. I'm just struck that I have just noticed recently how I look at people differently as a result of what has gone into my head in the last day. What have I watched? What have I seen? What have I chewed on? What have I thought about carefully? They it I wish it wasn't the case. I deny it to myself it's not the case, but it changes how I look at people. It changes how I approach a conversation, it changes how patient I am, it changes how quick I am to get angry. My three men in my head are talking to each other and holding hands. So my top tip is parents, dads, will we be as careful what goes into our heads as we are with our children? And I am convinced that maybe men in particular, we we notice visually what goes on. And so what we are watching gets to be our thoughts. Uh Nick, honestly, thank you for putting beautiful things on our walls. I'm so grateful to you. Keep doing it, Nick.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Go on, Nick, it's you next.

SPEAKER_02

So one another thing I often um use myself or recognise myself is just that um I have far too many tabs open. You know, like on your computer when you've got a million tabs. So I think my top tip would be to close lots of the tabs that are um consuming our thoughts. I guess we're talking about mindfulness, and all too often my mind and the kids' minds are just full, lots of different things, and our thoughts are scattered all over the place. And when that happens, our minds can't be full of God and his goodness and his creation and his care for us. So, and that can be a very practical way, so it's you know, not trying to fill every moment in the week with an activity. Not trying to looking ahead to our summer plans, and there's already so much going on, and uh, I think we're just gonna have to say, look, we can't do everything, and um our contentment and joy can't just be doing and doing things all the time. So close, close tabs, and I think that will allow some room to have our minds full, full of God.

SPEAKER_00

I'm very grateful to have um honest blokes in my life who will who will tell me what's going on in their heads because I I then start to I feel slightly worried that I might be incredibly shallow. Because and then I realised that maybe this is okay, because perhaps that's something that God has like been teaching me. So I was talking to a friend uh earlier who was talking about like waking up in the night and replaying things and like going over like did I say the right thing and does it and I was thinking, wow, I just don't do that. Which and then I'm like, should I? Should I be doing that? And then like thinking ahead about the things that are coming and that and like and then oh, I haven't thought about that either. Or maybe I'm a I'm a terrible shallow person, and then I think actually I am a much better person if I have been on a walk by a tree. So I lead trees in my life because they are to me the reminder of there's a there's a thing that's been there for a long time that's deep rooted in the ground, that goes through the seasons, the leaves come, they fall off, there's a work of renewal, there's a work of growth, there's an unchanging thing that is happening, and like God is doing that, and like it's been here for hundreds of years, and it's been unchangeably faithful and following a pattern set for them by set for them by God. I just think that's just it's just so good. And I think that maybe what I'm learning is a lot of these things that are now being called like mindfulness, it's just something that for some reason I'm quite good at doing. And like even going for a walk on a beach and seeing all these shells and just thinking, wow, God could have made one shell, and that would have been impressive, and there could have just been one, but he's made hundreds of different kinds, and some of them are big, and some of them are sticks, and some of them are tiny, and he's chucked them everywhere. Like how wonderful, how over the top, how good. So I just think I'm just gonna let people in more on my little mindful of God adventures because I've made both of you two smile just with a story of that G. So there we go. So I'm gonna invite you all to come with me on my mindful of God adventures, and I would love us as parents to do the same because our children are so good at this. Maybe that's by skill. I haven't lost it. Our children feel that wonder. Look at that, look at that, look at that and look at that beetle, look at that thing. Like, isn't this yum? We love the taste of this. Uh, so yeah. So I want you to lean in to all of those um things. Uh, I'd love uh families to get hold of the resources that we've put together. Um, me skipping through the woods, me telling you to say thank you for your sandwich. Um, I'm trying to I'm trying to let you in on what wonderful adventures we can have as we fill our minds with God and we look to Him in our everyday life as families. Ed, you're enthusiastic about the looking to God moments. You're happy, you're delighted, you want people to go come on, come on this looking to God adventure, don't you?

SPEAKER_01

Not all of our resources are created equal. Some of our resources are bigger, some of our resources make better connections, and and this is the one this year we're most excited about. Uh, and that is because we are working hard to ensure this is taught in our churches, but it is going home into our kitchens and into our bedrooms and into the conversations on the way to school and the anger around the kitchen table. So, for that, we have the podcast for the whole family. You can find that on the Faith in Family stream. We also have these family moments. Amy's created one of them in the woods. You can find those on our YouTube channel, and there'll certainly be a link in the show notes to get you to the right one. Everything we produce is free to download. You can find it on our website, you can find it in the show notes. Uh, take a look at these. Whether you're teaching this in the church, whether you're a church leader or a volunteer or you're a parent at home, there is something for you, and we hope you find exactly the resource we need. And if you don't find the thing you need, drop us an email. Podcast at faithinkids.org for what you're asking, what you're wondering, and what you're wishing for. Thank you so much. Nick, thank you for joining us. Nick, would you be willing to pray? Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

I'd love to. Heavenly Father, thank you that um we can cast all our anxiety on you because you care for us. Thank you that you care for us, thank you that you created us, you created our minds, our thoughts, our bodies, they all talk to each other. Thank you that feelings are normal, and thank you that um rather than empty our minds, we have so much to um to fix our minds on that are that are beautiful. Um most of all to fix our eyes on you, the Maker of Heaven, uh that we can call you Father. Um and I pray that as we go through our uh our weeks and months ahead uh in those times where um we perhaps forget about um you and about your word, I pray by your spirit you'll help us to to look to you and encourage each other in our walk with you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00

Amen.

SPEAKER_01

Amen.

SPEAKER_00

Nick, thank you for joining us. You can find the information in the show notes about how to find all of Nick's beautiful designs. Uh, thank you for joining us. See you next time. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_01

Bye bye.