The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation

THE FIVE FINGER GOSPEL | A Handful of Truths to Lead a Child to Christ | Convo #2: Jesus Loves You!

• Tosha Williams for FDM

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Start with a small motion that reminds us of a big truth: wiggle your ring finger. In the world, this finger reminds us of committed human love, and in "The Five Finger Gospel", this finger reminds us of Jesus' love. The truth of the ring finger is "Jesus Loves You!" With this, we continue in this series of conversations by centering the ring finger and building from Scripture that  God’s love for us is lavish, personal, and eternal. 

Host Tosha Williams shares how, when she was a little girl, adults repeated this truth to her, helping her understand Jesus' love from a very young age. She calls parents, grandparents, family members and Christians of all ages to do the same for those entrusted to them. 

We open 1 John 3:1 to see what great love the Father has lavished on us, naming us His children. Then we anchor our security in Romans 8:39, which promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. From there, Ephesians 3:18–19 stretches our imagination for how wide and long and high and deep Christ’s love really is. 

This isn’t abstract theology; it’s a daily lifeline for parents, mentors, and leaders who want to ground kids in something stronger than moods, grades, or social feeds.

You’ll hear practical ways to make love memorable at every age: a hand cue that becomes family shorthand, short verses for little hearts, honest talks for teens, and simple blessings that speak value by name. We model Seek Him Speak Him as a rhythm—first receiving God’s love for ourselves, then sharing it with those entrusted to us. If you’ve felt weary, unseen, or unsure how to start faith talks at home, this conversation gives you language, Scripture, and a next step you can try today.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a reminder of God’s nearness, and leave a quick review to help others find these conversations. Then pick someone you love, lift your left hand, wiggle that ring finger, and tell them the truest thing you can say: Jesus loves you.

The devotion-driven discipleship guide that goes along with this episode may be found on the soon-to-be-released Family Disciple Me app!!! Stay tuned!

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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, friend. Welcome back to the Family Disciple Me Ministry and to the second finger in our conversation collection we're calling the Five Finger Gospel. In the last episode, we talked about the truth that we can share using our pinky finger and teaching those that God has entrusted to us. Jesus sees you. If you haven't had a chance yet to listen to the introduction and to the last episode, I encourage you to go back and watch or listen to those. But today we're going to pick up with where we left off. So we talked about the pinky finger in the last episode, and today we're going to talk about the ring finger, the one that's typically associated with our hearts, the one that's traditionally associated with love. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about in this episode today. And that is the truth. Jesus loves you. Hi, my name is Tasha Williams, and I want to welcome you into the Family Disciple Me Ministry, where our goal is to meet with God and make Him known. We call this Seek Him, Speak Him. And this is how we live out the legacy of devotion-driven discipleship, one conversation at a time. So with that, let's get started. When I was a little girl, I was taught so many things from God's Word. My parents and the many different churches they took me to along the way as we moved from coast to coast with the military. Well, these churches and my parents, they weren't afraid to teach me the hard truths. They talked about sin. They talked about obedience. They even taught me about the things that are hard to understand in God's word. And yet they were also absolutely consistent in teaching me one message over and over again. And that is the message that God loves me. This truth wasn't sugarcoated, it wasn't sentimental, but it was lavished on my heart over and over and over again. And because they made it so important to me, I didn't have a hard time receiving it. You see, as a child, I was able to simply believe that Jesus loved me because these adults, they lived it and they taught it, and they pointed me to it continually. That's exactly what we get to do, what you get to do and what I get to do. We get to disciple the next generation by grounding them in the truth of Scripture and by grounding them in this, the truth of God's love for them. Our key verse for today is 1 John chapter 3, verse 1A. And it says, See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are. I love that verse so much. And it obviously refers to all of us who belong to Jesus. Whether we're grown-ups or we're children, we are part of the children being referred to here. And yet I love this verse, especially in the context of children who are children right now, helping them to memorize this verse and see how it affects their lives and impacts them. So with that, once again, like I've asked you in the last couple episodes, I want you to hold up your left hand, palm facing out. And now I want you to wiggle that ring finger, your fourth finger. If you're like me, you have a ring on that finger. Maybe you don't, but for all of us as a culture, this finger is tied to love. It's tied to lasting relationship. And well, let this moment, as you wiggle this finger, remind you and those who are entrusted to you of this powerful truth. Jesus loves you. Love is one of the most important things in our lives, isn't it? It is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, in the whole world. And our key verse tells us that God doesn't just love us a little bit. If you look back at that verse, it tells us that he loves us a lot. He lavishes love on us. This word lavish means he pours out abundantly, extravagantly, generously, like giving the best gifts over and over again. That's exactly what God does for us with his love. It's not limited, it's not set with an expiration date. It's something that he wants us to receive daily, continually. But before we can turn around and teach that truth to the next generation, I believe that we need to start and consider it for ourselves. Who in your life has shown you God's love? And how does that compare to God's love? How has God's love gone even deeper than the best love that you've ever experienced? When we spend time seeking him about the truths of scripture, and in relationship to this conversation, when we spend time seeking him about his love, we're reminded individually, personally, and first that his love isn't small, it's not distant, his love is lavish, it's overflowing, and it's complete. I don't know about you, friend, but I know I need that reminder. Even as adults, we can question whether we're truly loved, whether we're really valued, whether we're really significant in this world. But scripture reminds us over and over again that we are beloved by God. I love what it says. I love what it says in Romans 8.39. It says, nothing at all can ever separate us from God's love. That's because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done. Did you catch that? Nothing can separate us from God's love. Not the highs, not the lows, not the mistakes, not the failures, not time, not our own insecurities or what we're hearing on our head or the anxieties or anything. Nothing separates us from God's love. Jesus' love is personal, it's permanent. And here's the good news it's for every single one of us and for every single child that we have the immense privilege to lead. So what do we do with this truth? I believe first we remember it. So hold up your hand again, wiggle that ring finger, let this simple little motion remind you you are so deeply loved, my friend. And then as we remember that truth, as we're reminded of that truth, we want to grow in that truth. Ephesians chapter 3, verses 18 and 19 says, May you know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and be filled with everything that God has for you. Can we measure God's love? Not really, but we can receive it, we can remember it, we can enjoy it, we can be filled by it. And here's the thing: because God loves us so much, as we seek him and we understand his love even better, then we want to turn around and we want to speak that into the lives of those he's entrusted to us. We don't want to keep it to ourselves. We want others to know his love too. God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. So what can we do with this truth? Today, this week, as we go about our lives, we can look for the children that God has entrusted to us, and we can speak this truth into their lives. We can tell them what God's word says, we can show them what love looks like, and we can speak the blessing of God's love over them. We can hold up our left hand, we can wiggle that ring finger and say, child, and name their name. Jesus loves you. And we can talk to them about his love. Whether they're littles, like the the toddlers that we're holding in our arms, whether they're the elementary kids, the preschoolers, the junior hires, the high schoolers, the young adults, whoever it is that God entrusts to us in an age-appropriate way, we can take this truth and say, Jesus loves you. Oh, he is so good to lavish his love on us. He is so good that over and over and over again, throughout his word, he reminds us of his love for us. And now we get the incredible privilege to not just seek him, but turn around and speak him, to share the love that he's given us. So, friend, let this left hand, palm facing out, be your reminder today, this week, in the days to come that first of all, Jesus sees you. Let's remember this, let's meditate on this, and then Jesus loves you. Let's remember this truth, let's meditate on it. I challenge you to spend some time in the devotion-driven discipleship guide that goes along with this particular conversation. You can find that guide in the Family Disciple Me app. Spend some time there seeking the Lord about what he wants to say to you through his word, and then turn around and teach those entrusted to you this truth. Jesus loves you. Let that devotion-driven discipleship guide help you engage in meaningful, intentional discipleship conversations with all the little ones, the middle-sized ones, even the grown-up ones, that he sends your way. His gospel is good. The truths of God are powerful. And as we talked about in the introduction to this collection of conversation, God wants us to share everything about him with the next generation. So, friend, seek him, speak him. Never stop sharing the truths of God's word and never stop sharing the truths of the five-finger gospel. Keep sharing it finger by finger, one conversation at a time. Because remember, discipleship starts with a conversation. So don't be intimidated, be encouraged. Go with God, friend. I'll see you in the next episode as we talk about the next truth in the five finger gospel using well, this finger. We have a really important truth to talk about there as well. But until then, God bless you. Be encouraged.