The Truth That Can Change Lives

For many years Jennifer Lyle has been faithfully teaching the Bible for little kids.

She says she's amazed at their capacity to learn how to teach almost every week. Something in the street asking questions of the three-year-old is ready for as much of this is for whatever. It's a scale. No staff every week. I did not learn this is family life today.

Our hosts are David and Wilson on Bob team.

You can find us online@familylifetoday.com are you taking full advantage of your children's ability to comprehend spiritual truths at whatever age they are pouring into them talk today about how his parents and grandparents.

We can all do a better job. Stay with us and welcome to family life to. Thanks for joining us.

I just have to point out that what were talking this week about teaching big ideas to kids in a way that they can grasp it were also seeing modeled for us. I think what the Bible talks about in terms of how singles are supposed to be investing their lives for kingdom purposes because our guest is joining us as we Jennifer Lyle who is back with us. Welcome back. Jennifer is a single woman who has been involved in publishing for years. She seminary trained you thought you were going to the mission field right in the mission field. God called you to his three-year-old classroom at your church.

You take first Corinthians 7 seriously where it says if you're single, you have an assignment, absolutely. I think I should be spending 80 hours of my life each week focused on some kind of kingdom purpose that may not always look exactly like ministry.

Certainly the context of my Sunday school class that does that. I have time in the evenings that I have not been called to invest in a covenant relationship with a person so I don't always succeed at this, but ideally in the goal to which I strive until called is that it should be invested in my covenant relationship. As you said 80 hours 9% of it is all day. I went to take a break and do it in the news well right yeah I mean and that's what I've done it mean it's not always healthy right in and in a season right now I've dialed back and I'm taking a break and focusing on different aspects of my relationship with God in that way and connecting less externally active in demonstrating that I do believe that if you are not called to be living your life in the context of a nuclear family and doing that every day in and out. The reality is that leaves a lot of extra time it just us that you're not doing it because you have to, or you should you're doing this out of calling passion yeah I don't know any other way to do it. You know I I did adulthood starting pretty early and therefore the Lord save me from 18 to 21 I was in management manage movie theaters at a staff of the hundred and 20. I was 19, 20 years old and was working 90 hours a week.

Then to make money and to feel like I was successful in had gotten out of my hometown and the whole thing was completely pointless completely. And yes, I enjoy comfort and I like to do fun things and I like to have a nice home and all of that and certainly struggle with just ambition and things like that that for me.

The only fulfillment is having a broader context of purpose as a Christian I don't know what else that could be that the kingdom of God.

The people of God part of how you spent those 80 hours a week over the last few years was in taking what you been teaching to three-year-olds in the Sunday school classroom and giving us a gift by writing a book where you explain this is how I teach at the three euros. Here's how you can read it to your kids. It's called the promises of God story book Bible.

It's the story of the Bible from beginning to end. The gospel story beautifully illustrated and designed for parents to read to kids were for older kids to read on their own and this was a labor of love for you.

It was also a response to an extraordinary circumstance I had with my little boy I taught him to. I started teaching him. He was 3 1/2 and was Job, and he was in him as a kinda quiet kid when he first came in the class and I'm just within the first month and 1/2 that he was really getting the content in the beginning of the year there and their learning how to learn really is what I teach. For the first few months that he was getting it and he was asking questions he had this lucky we can always give and in over the course of that year. He asked me questions that led to me figuring out how to teach kids about the Trinity. He was consistently internalizing while at the same time being silly and quoting.

Maybe clouds that he laughed so hard I can understand and I definitely didn't know what movies they were, frankly, I don't watch movies and ends and about a year and 1/2 year after I taught him. He was at church on Sunday and then on Wednesday Tuesday Wednesday that week I got a text to pray for his family because he was in the hospital getting an MRI done and they thought that it might be serious in the next morning they found out that he had one of the worst forms of childhood brain cancer and I watch over the course of the next four and half months. His parents were very young, late 20s and I watched Job be so brave.

The radiation we knew. By that time I knew my tummy left my class. Although I don't do like an invitation. I like that to parents and his parents are being very thoughtful about possible conversations that we knew God and he was a follower of God, and that you trust in Christ and when I had in the class are thinking this kid can be the preacher of his generation.

While he just was totally different than he thought I'd ever taught and 4 1/2 months after he was diagnosed, I stood in line at my church for his service trying to figure out what in the world to I say to his parents.

Honestly, you don't really get to know the parents.

We are teaching the children so I had conversations with them, and communicated with them while he was sick. It was big deal for our church were really close as a church I cut up to his dad and I will never forget. They looked at me. They grabbed me and hugged me and with tears streaming on their face they just kept saying thank you and I I was really confused. I didn't understand and then his mom is pulling back and she said thank you for teaching and think you he knew and and and one of the Scriptures that they had recited with him was a solemn that Verizon my comments over the course of the year and just knowing that he went to, head with things that God allowed me the opportunity to help showing and I sat in the back of our church during the service and his dad as part of the service to the microphone and he started out and he said there's a lot I like to say that instead of the psalmist speak for me. He's a big guy and he started reciting Psalm 103 which is blessed the Lord of myself and all these refrains of it and I know that Psalm in verse 13, is as a father has compassion for his children, and I thought as he can be able to do that and he got around that verse and he started breaking up and he would start pounding his chest to get through every verse and it struck me like that to think anything about yourself right because you're so just caught up in the grief and confusion and everything that I thought of a handful of teachers that this person ever had to teach him about God and God allowed it to be enough. And then I was sitting next to a friend who I teach at 11 o'clock hour. This thrilled and she teaches at 930 I looked at her and I said how we can stand in front of that rug next week.

If I had his little sister then and so as a church we decided that I would help the kids because we wanted, as will sister to be able to talk openly about what she was going through that year and went to sit on the rug here else and talk to them about their friends.

Big brother thing is here in her folder is died, these of God and how he's with God and wise with God and what that means for us. You did not trivialize teaching three-year-olds again and to this day. I never stand there without thinking of Job. Actually that way coming grief was weird and it felt weird because like I got this relationship with Canada really knows parents and this is an about me but it was so intense, and because I teach on the threat of the promises of God and that really starts in a lot of ways, with God's promise to Abraham to establish a people and calling Abraham onto the mountain with the stars. Had this image that just was right in my head and I wanted to hang stars from the ceiling in my classroom and I wanted every star to be representative of a child that I had taught her the family and part of it was religious. When can Job a star and the other fire codes and stuff. I church is so great there's so patient with my kind of fervency that I spent a day that week hanging them and then when they brought Job's little sister and her dad brought her the next week to drop off in Sunday school was very dramatic time for her. The first thing I did was I walked I had him start for her next to Job's and I walked her to the star and it's what I teach under and I said that's Explained to Her in a Signature Star When You Sit Here Writing about God's Promises Sat, You Can Look at and You Can Know the Jobs with God. It Really Came out and Have the Love for the Kids and Seeing Them at First It Was about Seeing Them Being Able to Learn That Then after Job after That Moment at the Funeral.

I Thought I Can Assume I Taught for Years, Thinking I Was Teaching Them so That There They Went Crazy in the Youth Group and I Thought This Might Be All They Get so I've Got to Squeeze It out so That's What I Try to Do Not Have Let Me Be Clear, I Have off Weeks and off Months and and Now It Can Be Really Challenging and I Doubt Myself and Especially This Camaro. I'm Not an Expert by I Do Believe That God Has Created All People in His Image and It Doesn't Matter What Their Family Is It Doesn't Matter That You Have Had Kids Always Premature for Your Have Kits Are on the Autism Spectrum. I've Had Nonverbal down Syndrome Children and That Teaching Expression in the Learning Expression Might Be Different but I Just Don't Think That a Person Created in the Image of God He Was Had the Opportunity to Be Discipled and Know God's Word Can Stand in Front of Other People Who Are Creating the Image of God Regardless of Their Age and Their Size and Their Background and Honestly and Earnestly Talk to Them about God and Love Them Well and Fruit Not Come from the Because I Know What a Mess I've Been with Tenant Else I Will I Will Add This Is a Pastor of a Church in Thinking I'll Be Honest, I'm Sort of That That Festering Wound. I'm Guessing I'm Sort of Hope and Most Don't Think like I Do.

This Order Looks at the Children's Ministry like I Did with You. Does Being an Athlete and Work with Pro Athletes and Then Coach in High School with Her Own Kids. I Would Always Say Sports Doesn't Matter with Your Kids to Learn High School When All These Parents Are in the Soccer at Five Years Old and T-Ball and We Did All That but I'm Just Roll My Eyes like This Means Nothing.

Once They Hit High School. Now It's Real Right. I've Thought the Same Thing Spiritually and I Did Tell You Honestly Know Our Time and I Can Imagine As I Walk in the Pulpit on Sunday Morning and Think What I'm Doing Is the Most Important Thing Because Adults Are Being Taught the Word of God Kids over There. That's Good but They're Not Heavily Gone. Remember, Right Because They're Too Young and You Just Reminded Me, Man. I'm Hoping That There Are Single People in Our Church and Every Church That Have Your Heart Thank You Thank You I Hope so in a Way I View It Is I Don't Have One Family That I'm Serving on the Part of That Had the Opportunity to Hundreds Different Levels and One of the Funny Things about This Age and Even with Joe Guy Was Talking about Is like Two Months after They Leave My Class. They Do Not Recognize Me Really so Crazy and so When When Joe Passed Away. I Was Really Struggled with like Okay Wait. Did He Really Remember the Things and I Said Something One-Time about That, and His Mom Immediately. She Said Jennifer He Made You and I Remember You, but He Remembered What You Talked. We Talked about It. He Remembered It and That Is a Gift to Me That's a Gift so It's Clear You Love These Give Have View Wrestled with the Fact That You're an Unmarried Single Woman Who's Not Had Kids of Euro. I Would Say It's Interesting Because When I Was Younger and at This Stage of Life Are That Probably Would've Been More Likely. I Never Expected It Because of Just the Circumstances in Which I Grab My Weight Wasn't Something That I Thought Could Be for Me in Ways That Were Disordered and Just I Needed to Work through Now There Is Some Element Where Yeah I Think While As Much As I Love Kids Is Much As I See Their Hearts.

Just Curious about Not Getting to Know That My Mother Talk to a Child Then Just about Any Adult to Be Completely Honest Say. I Do Think That That Something Where If You Know I Can Have a Direct Conversation with God.

I May Be like Okay Understand This like Help Me Understand Where There's Not the Redemptive Narrative of You Know I Get to Work through Marriage and Coming from Not Having Had Died in a Great Way When I Was Growing up, but Honestly, I Don't Get Hung up on It Early at All Because I Still Get Have Kids a Part of My Life.

I Still Could Have Families.

As a Part of My Life. One of the Things That's the Most Crazy to Me about This, but I Never Ever Had a Family Social Time. Of Course at All. So the Fact That I've Written Something That Can Be Part of Family Devotional Times Just like That's Crazy.

That's a Huge Blessing, so I Really Do Try to Just Discipline Myself Again. I Struggle, but That's a Huge Just Not a Huge Show for Me. I Think That's a Gift from God to That. It's Not Hearsay and I and I Understand That There Are A Lot Of Friends and Women. It Is Much Harder That the Deep Desire of Their Heart. There Are Some of the Single Woman You're Talking to Are Single Men You're Talking to You Soon and You Know You Can Serve in the Church and They're Going to Fight Back There Every Every Sunday with These Kids Every Sunday.

It's like Why Can I Have Kids of My Own Molecular Be Married That so That the Level of Grief Every Week Would Be Really Hard for Them You Found Joy Instead of Grief about Yeah It's I Mean Honestly, I Do Think That the Gift of Being Able to See Objectively Children in a Way That I Couldn't See Them.

If I Was There.

Right.

But to See Their Present Personhood Developing, Which Is Really What Starting to Happen at That Age and the Distinct Way to See That with so Many More Kids Than I Would If I Had Just Children of My Own, and the Diversity of the Children Together Is One of the Most Interesting Things You Got Different Families Coming Together It Just an Incredibly Rich Experience with Children and Children Are Not Lesser to God.

The Theological Bar for Children Has Not Been Lowered You When Christ Says in Scripture That We Are to Come to Him As Little Children. That's Yes That Has an Aspect in Which It Calls Us to Humility in Which It Calls Us to Get Out Of Our Kind of You, Maybe Theological Bubbles Obsession Is Not God Lowering His Truth As a Reflection of the Fact That His Truth Is Accessible in His Truth Can Find Its Way You Probably Worked with Hundreds and Hundreds of Kids over the Years. I Want You to Picture All Those Parens and of All Those Kids Sitting in Front of You. How Would You Encourage Those Parents to Teach Their Kids Biblical Truths When They're so Intimidated Is Not Even Knowing Where to Start. What Would You Say to Them, I Would Say First of All Is Be Completely Comfortable with the Words.

I Don't Know or You Know God Hasn't Helped Me to Understand How the Layout.

I'm Trying to Understand It. Here's What I Know so Far, Honesty and Communicating in Light of the Fact That You're Raising and Image Bearer, Who God Desires to Worship in Spirit and Truth, and I Recognize That's Hard When You're Also Trying to Teach Them How to Not Throw Tantrums Employees and How to Get along with Siblings and You Now Have Table Manners and All of That Right so I Get to Have This like a Petri Dish Thing That Just Having That Perspective of That You're Raising an Adult Who You Desire Out Of Your Love for God to Also Love and Worship God. Some of the Most Incredible Families Have Been around That's What I've Observed from Them Really A Lot Of What I I Teach That Approach. I Really Learned and Absorbed from Watching Some of My Friends Who Are Incredible Parents in the Way That They Engage Their Children. I Would Say. Also Your Kids Behavior.

They're Going to Act out Right Kids Are Going to Act out and I'm Not Saying Don't Address It, but Just like Let Yourself Have a Deep Breath Because I See so Many Parents Who, When They Pick Their Kids up from My Class. They Are so Worried about How He or She Behaved That Day Because They Had a Hard Time That Morning. That's Just Never My Concern Yeah I Mean Yeah Some Weeks Unlike the Word General Have Doughnuts by It's Not the Point. It's Just Not in so I Just Think Giving Parents the Permission to Not Feel As Much Pressure on That and to Get to Know Their Kids to See the Value in That to Know That Other Adults Are Going to Judge Them for That.

I Really Don't Know People Who Judge Parents the Way That Parents Think They Are Being Judged the Way They Judge Themselves, Exactly, Exactly, and so That Is Truly It Would Be to Get a Breath and Be Willing to Own What You Don't Know. Also Talking about Your Sin and Obviously in Age-Appropriate Ways.

But Helping Them to Understand That You Are Not the Standard to Which You're Hoping They Grow That That the Reflection of Christ Is Who Are All Trying to Be Conformed into His Image.

And Again, I'm Not a Parent so I Know That's Super Easy for Me to Say Because I'm Not Dealing with All of the Dynamics and Frankly I Get Them like Right When They're Kinda Sorta Potty Trained and I Get That Alone Is a Think As I Cleaned, so You Don't Use Any of This. I Would Encourage People to Not Feel like a Weight I'm Not Doing Now Not Doing It Enough That Little Resources You Have and Just Love Them Well Well Ordered Live Rightly Ordered Love Demonstrated and Expressed to a Child to Me Is Not Only One of the Most Healthy Redemptive Protective Things You Can Do for Your Children, but It Is Also One of the Most Biblical Things You Can Do for Your Children. And If You're Looking for a Resource Your Book the Promises of God's Storybook Bible Is One of Those Resources, You Should Take It up Because It's Beautifully Done. Illustrations Are Beautiful and God's Word Is Not Boring Thing Your Kids Are Gonna Love This and You're Gonna Love It Too, and I Think to Not Have the Added to the Mighty Quiet or Carry God's Word.

Now That's a Bad Approach That They'll Think God's Word Is Very Boring and Terrible and but to Say You Guys Tonight for You to Listen and Where Can I Talk about God's Word Because He Has Something to Say to All of Us to Make It to and Have Them Anticipate Tonight We Can Talk about That Party Again. And This Is an Amazing Truth That Will Change Our Lives Forever.

Our Attitude Can Really Shape the Way Our Kids View God's Word Thank You Thanks You for the Time Here. Thanks for the Book. Thanks for Helping Us As Parents and Grandparents. When This Tool Were Grateful Think You Guys so Much.

I Love Family Life and Love You Guys. Thanks A Lot While I Have No Doubt That We've Got Lots of People Who Been Listening to This Conversation or Think I Got Get That Book and We Would Be Happy to Send You a Copy Go to Family Life to the.com to Get a Copy of the Promises of God's Storybook Bible Story of God's Unstoppable Love by Jennifer Lyle. It's Beautifully Illustrated's Beautiful Book, Your Kids Will Love It You Will Love Reading It to Them or Ramada Family Life to a.com or Call to Order One 800 FL Today to Say If You Know Somebody Who's Got Young Kids Give Them a Copy of This Book As a Gift Somebody in Your Church or Somebody You Know Who Would Benefit from This Just Order a Copy and Give It to Them As a Gift and Say I Thought You Might Find This a Helpful Tool Something You Can Read Your Kids Would like before You Put Them to Build Again the Book Is Called the Promises of God, Storybook Bible, You Can Order It on Our website@familylifetothe.com or you can call to order 800, FL, today is the number 800-358-6329.

That's 800 F as in family L as in life, and then the word today that this is the last opportunity we have to remind you of something that's pretty important helping your family life this month with some friends of the ministry who came to us wanting to help us during what is maybe the most challenging time in the history of our ministry that they have agreed to match every donation we received during the month of May on the dollar for dollar basis, up to a total of $345,000.

That means that we have just a couple more days to take advantage of this matching gift and David Robbins was the person family life is here with us. We are hoping our listeners will rally and and make sure we can take advantage of the generosity that's been afforded to us here. While there is a critical moment of generosity that we want to invite you into, but I just want to take a minute to remind us why.

Why were asking you to give because we believe the guys at work among families in our nation and an extraordinary way the gospel is being spread in the home is being restored to its rightful place in society, and here's how we know the need is real. We have seen a 500% increase in engagement from family life listeners and to our website through this pandemic. People are searching for answers and they're looking for the timeless truths of Scripture is when so many things of them thrown up into the air.

I heard from a listener recently who said this season has made us recognize some dysfunction that we have in our family and we realize how much we need the help family life offers is a lot of talk about rebuilding the economy and certainly those need to be serious conversations but we need to also be talking seriously about what it looks like to rebuild marriages and families among our nation and our day.

This is why we ask you to join and give whatever you can to this may match.

We are in a critical spot and we want to ask the if you can give whatever you can give help us meet this match so that it sets the course for the rest of this year for us to be continue to provide the help and hope you have trusted us for your gifts really do make an eternal difference in the and when you donate today.

Not only will your donation be matched dollar for dollar up to the total $345,000. That is the matching gift and again we got to the end of the weekend to take advantage of this order send you a gift thank you gift.

And that's Barbara Rainey's new book which is called my heart ever. He is the book that will help you pray more effectively during challenging times. And if you're able to join us as a monthly legacy partner with somebody who gives a gift each month. Your donations going to be matched dollar for dollar for the next 12 months, and in addition order send you a gift certificate so you can attend an upcoming weekend. Remember marriage get away as our guests of the getaways are coming back in the fall and in the spring so you can plan to get away as a couple and spend time refocusing on your marriage for a weekend or you can pass on to somebody you know who would benefit from a weekend away again. It's our way of saying thank you for joining us and for helping us take advantage of this matching gift donate online@familylifetoday.com or call one 800 FL today were so grateful for your partnership and we do look forward to hearing from you. And with that we got to wrap things up for this week. Thanks for joining us. Hope you have a great weekend. I hope you and your family are able to worship together with your local church this weekend and I hope you can join us back on Monday to talk about how we can tailor our parenting to our specific children.

How we play to their strengths as we raised Brandon Miller will be here be here as well. I want to thank our engineer today along with our entire broadcast production on behalf of our hosts Dave and Wilson about the pain.

See you Monday for another family life today family like to use a production family life of Little Rock, Arkansas. Accrue ministry help for today hope for tomorrow