Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner. And mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And listen, I am really excited about today's prescription for you. About today's show, I. Our prescription for Hope today is preparing your family for something that is coming up very soon. Now, before I tell you what it is, I have to give you a disclaimer and tell you that today's show might be a little controversial for some. We are going to talk about Christmas today. And yes, I know it is October, but if you are a regular listener, you know my enthusiasm for Christmas and you just have to know how much I am holding back. But it is time to prepare. So our prescription for Hope today is about preparing your family for Advent. We're talking about it now to give you some time to prepare because I don't want December 1st rolling around and for you to think, oh, should we do Advent with our family? What, what is Advent again? What are we going to do? Let me see if I can find something. Looking for something online. I am giving you the gift of the opportunity today to think about what do you want to do this Christmas. You may already be thinking about travel plans for family or gift ideas or recipes that you're going to try or decluttering if you listened to the show yesterday with Kathi Lipp. But today we're going to really talk about Advent because as the Christmas season draws near, our calendars fill up so fast. Our, to do lists get a lot longer, and before we know it, we are running through December at full speed. And all of that peace and that wonder that we're wanting, that we're longing for, somehow just goes out the door. But if we could reclaim that anticipation of Christmas, not with more events, not with more noise, not with more over the top pinterest decorations or cookies or all of those things that can be fun but can crowd out the true meaning of Christmas. Today I'm going to introduce you to something really tangible that can help your family and, and, and you yourself slow down, fix your eyes on Jesus. Remember the real meaning for the season.

Advent is preparation for the celebration of Jesus birth and of course, his return

Now we are talking about Advent. Advent, it's a season of expectant waiting. It's preparation for the celebration of Jesus birth and of course, the promise of his return. And the purpose of Advent is to remind us that of that waiting, that anticipation, and that tension that we have as Christians living between what has already happened and what is promised but not yet happened. Christ has come. He will come again. So this is an invitation for your family to slow down, to intentionally create some space. We talked about being intentional last week, creating some space in a noisy world for reflection and hope and renewal. And so today I'm joined by two incredible innovators from the Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina. You've heard them on the show before. We're talking to Chris Pappalardo and Clayton Greene They're the co founders of Goodkind and the creators of Advent Blocks, which I actually have my own set right here. If you're watching online, you can see me holding this up. This is a beautifully simple way for families to mark the days of Advent and experience the story of Jesus. of Jesus. And it's a story that really started with a father simple question. We have a little preview of this last time, but Clayton's daughter said Christmas felt more about presents. Felt like it was more about presents than it was about the presents of Jesus. And that is convicting for any parent. And now it's grown into a global movement that is uniting families together with the gospel. So, Clayton, Chris, welcome back. So happy to have you here. Thank you for talking about Christmas in October. There's not too many people who would walk on a platform that controversial, but I am grateful now.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: We're so excited to be here. Thank you. And you know, let's do it in September next year. You know, I mean, I, I'm, I'm with you.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Okay.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: We can talk about it all the time.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I think we can. I. You know, my. I. My love for Christmas comes from my granny who love, love, loved Christmas. And she kept nativities out all the time. And one time I remember being in her house and someone asking her, why do you have your nativities out? It's July. And she said, you can celebrate Jesus year round. It is always and a good reminder. So I have definitely adopted that.

Clayton's daughter says Christmas feels more like presents than Jesus

But Clayton, why don't you take us back to that moment when your daughter said Christmas feels more like presents than Jesus. Oh, that's so convicting. What was going through your heart as a dad? Tell us about that moment.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah, more than going through my heart, it was like I felt like I had a knife in my back. Right. I mean, so when it's. When it's your six year old daughter, you know, corrects your walk with God, you're like, oh, man, I guess I got to get out, get things in line here. the crazy thing about that story, Jessica, is we, we were doing an Advent guide that year, but there was, There was something about the fact that the Advent guide that year, it was, it was a reading. It was. We would do it in their room, which, I mean, that's where a lot of people end up doing Bible readings, is with their kids in their rooms. And I think that ends up being, like, a really positive place, a good rhythm for families. But there's something about what happens during Christmas. That Christmas takes over the whole house, right? And so presents and decorations and songs, lights were winning. And so, you know, fast forward to the next year. Rather than taking those things away, I just wanted to try to add on with it. Like, there's a lot of things in habit science that say you're supposed. If you stack things together, you actually get, a larger benefit. So rather than saying lights and music and all the fanfare is not help, not necessary. We say it's actually helpful to making it a big moment to make it a tradition, but to try to have the content, to have the real kind of center of what we're doing to be about. About Jesus and his coming to Earth.

Dr. Jessica Peck: To say, well, I appreciate you sharing so transparently, because as parents, as Christian parents, we all would say, yeah, we, Jesus is the reason for the season. But sometimes our best efforts don't manifest that to our kids. You know, it doesn't translate in that same way. So, Chris, I would love to hear about how the idea of Advent blocks evolved from that conversation. How did this partnership begin and how did Advent blocks come from that?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Well, yeah, Clayton texted me in, November the following year and said, ah, I have this great idea for an Advent guide. I just need somebody to write it. Would you write these stories for me? And I said, oh, absolutely. Like you, Jessica, I have long loved Christmas. Like, as a kid, I would start getting excited about it at the end of summer. I'm just like, this is the next thing. So immediately I said, oh, I'm in. And the next thing he said was, oh, that's great. Awesome. I'll bring the blocks by to your house in a couple days. And I was like, what. What do blocks have to do with an Advent guide? Like, I'm. I'm writing Bible stories. Where are these? And he just had this ingenious idea of saying, like, what if we made this? Because the year before he had done the guide, we've all done this thing, and it just wasn't Engaging. It didn't have that draws you in factor. And he said he thought if we could make this something that like, has a place in the home and if it's beautiful enough that mom loves where it is and it could be the centerpiece of decoration, but interesting enough that the kids want to go turn the block and hear the next story, maybe there's a recipe there for, kind of an itch that the kid wants to scratch. And almost immediately we found that that was the case that we would line these blocks up 1 to 25, and if it was December 8th, but we hadn't turned block 8, the kids were like, hey, we got to do 8. We got to do story 8. And so they be our kids became the little accountability devices for us to stay on track with the Advent guide that for years we had not been able to, you know, nudge them with our own willpower. Just the fact that these were fun blocks with beautiful pictures on them and interesting stories, the kids wanted to come to it again and again, and it built its own momentum all the way up to Christmas.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Chris, I really appreciate that in thinking about, you know, kids, being your accountability partners. Let me tell you, this has been a very successful parenting strategy for me because when you invite kids to hold you accountable, they love to do that. And just as I, like I said, if you're watching on video, you can see what these Advent blocks look like. I'm holding it up. It is a very sturdy box. And they are, they're beautiful. They're, and it would look great out on your, out on wherever you want to put it, on your countertop, on the kids dresser or the kitchen table, wherever you want to have it. And it's a visual reminder and a prompt. And one of the things that I think about is that as I go out shopping and you know, you're out in the store and you're doing your own Christmas preparations and Advent calendars are everywhere. And I'm gonna be so bold to say they've gotten a little crazy. I mean, we're talking, you can get an Advent calendar for socks, you can get it for candy. I mean, just anything you can imagine. There's Advent calendars. And I think it really speaks to that longing in the human heart. We want to anticipate Christmas and I mean, shout out to the three of us. We are really modeling anticipation, especially of Christmas really well, but talk about, you know, that anticipation and the, the cultural sense of that. We're looking at that, but then redrawing our attention to what Advent is supposed to be. How do you live in that tension? Seeing those other Advent calendars and thinking, okay, those. It's not necessarily bad to open up a pair of socks every day before Christmas, but how much more spiritually instructive would this be? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Clayton, what do you think?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah, well, I'll pass it to Chris to talk about anticipation and how kind of that. That has been a story that we're not telling anew, but it is something that everybody is benefiting from. But I will say that a good sock Advent calendar is, my daughter and I, you know, every. Every advantage I can take in order to create more connection in our home. More connection with my kids in particular, I take. And so when you're my. One of my daughters and I have two girls, 13 and 11. But I think it was maybe two. Maybe two years ago we did a sock Advent calendar, but I had one, and it was. It was so much fun. Yeah, it was great. Now those. I don't know where those socks are at this point. I, think maybe one pair is still, alive and around. But it was great. But Chris anticipate m memories alive and well. I love it.

Dr. Jessica Peck: What do you think, Chris?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah, this is part of what I love about Christmas is got that, like, dual focus that we're telling the story of when Jesus came the first time. And all throughout scripture, this is. This is the thing that I found as I wrote the stories. Wow. Christmas is not just a couple chapters or a couple moments at the beginning of the Gospels. All of the Old Testament has this theme of God's people saying, God, we. We desperately need you. You seem so far away. Why are things so broken? Will you come back and will you fix it? And that's what Christmas is the answer to. But for those of us on the other side of Christmas, we also have this. We have this similar feeling. We know that Jesus has come, but we are still looking around the world and we're thinking, God, where are you? Why do you feel so far away? When are you going to come and make this right? When are you going to fix this and make it whole? And so that feeling of longing, of desperately wanting things to be made right, the way that we put it in the book is for someone to take all the dark and make it light, to take all the wrongs and make them right. We all feel that in our bones. And this is why I think a lot of people get really excited about Christmas. And then it comes and goes. And it's really anticlimactic because if it really is just about family and presents and opening up a new lego toy for 25 days or socks or whatever, it's neat. But you get to the end and you're like, well, I still have my problems. But when you, when you saturate the story and the fact that God truly is coming to be with us, then that longing that builds can be just so beautiful. So by the time you get to the end, you say, wow, this isn't just something we've created to have 25 days of stuff. This is tapping into the human heart and saying, we really desperately want God with us. And praise God, he has promised to be that.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Absolutely. And you know, in doing research and what I do and looking at mental health and holistic health, one of the things that we know is actually after Christmas, after the holidays, the risk for mental health crisis actually goes up. And the risk for thoughts of self harm because of that letdown. Because you kind of just have this imagination of what Christmas is supposed to. And then you just feel like, you know, when you're, when you're really putting all of your hopes in the wrong place and the wrong thing, then it really can be a letdown. And that's one of the really important ways and reasons that we've got to lift our eyes to a greater hope and a hope that doesn't disappoint. And that's one of the things that I appreciate about this. And Chris, I will tell you that my kids actually made a little, Advent calendars for my kids who are away at college. Something just a little note to open up every day, a little point of connection. So I think those points of connection are, are so great, but being intentional and thinking, how are we going to do that? We're going to have the connection, we're going to do all of the family things, we're going to eat all the cookies, we're going to sing all the carols, we're going to open all the presents, you know, do all of those things. But also how do we thread into that the hope and the longing in every human heart? When we come back.

Advent can provide rhythm of intentional discipleship amid all that Christmas chaos

We're coming up on our first break here, but I want to talk about this visual theology because I love this concept, how tangible it is. Hands on learning helps to deepen discipleship for families. And that's really important. So in thinking about Advent for your families and for your kids, Advent really can provide a rhythm of intentional discipleship amid all that Christmas chaos. It can be there. And kids can learn that the season isn't just about the gifts that are under the tree. Of course, they are about God's greatest gift to us. And if you want to check out these Advent blocks right here, they are a beautiful, meaningful way for families to count down to Christmas. You can go to goodkind Shop for more products to help you build spiritual habits in your home, or you can follow the Goodkind podcast on Spotify or Apple. And we will be right back with more talking about Advent and those four traditional themes, hope, peace, joy and love. And I hope today that you enjoy this little Christmas break in October. I know. I appreciate those of you who are just saying, I don't like it, but I'll go with it. And thanks to all of you who are like, yes, when we come back, there will be some Christmas music. We'll see you on the other side of this break.

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It's Christmas (Medley/Live) by Chris Tomlin: Away in a manger no crib for a bed the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head the stars in the sky look down where he lay the little Lord Jesus Asleep on the hay the cattle are lowing the baby awakes but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes I love thee Lord Jesus Look down from the sky and stay by my cradle 'Til morning is nigh It's Christmas the angels are singing and I know the reason the Savior is born

Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome m back friends. That is, it's Christmas yes, that is Christmas Music coming to you from Chris Tomlin. Yes, I know it is still only October. I am going to ask you to hang with me because I. We are talking today about how to prepare your families for Advent. And this is something you should be thinking about now, because once the Christmas tree goes up, once Thanksgiving is over. I know, I know. I want to give a shout out to all of my after Thanksgiving adherence. I know we're not asking you to put up your tree today. I'm not asking you to play any other Christmas music. Some of you are like, yeah, let's. Let's do it. This is all great, but today I am talking about Advent, and we've got to talk about that now.

Chris Pappalardo and Clayton Greene discuss Advent blocks for kids

my guests today have been on the show before. we have Chris Pappalardo, Clayton Greene We're talking about Advent blocks. And one of the most beautiful parts of Advent blocks, which I have right here with me in my studio today, is that it doesn't just start with the angel visiting Mary. It starts all the way back in Genesis and tells the story of God's presents from the very beginning. And I even can't say that now without thinking about my sons telling me baseball jokes. Mom, in the big inning, it happened. There was baseball in the Bible. No, this is theology that we're going to give our kids that are sound and a reminder that Christmas is not just a single moment. It's not just a single month. It is the whole story of the goodness of the good news, of the gospel, of. Of Christ. And it's a God who kept coming closer even when sin was pushing us away. And so through each day's story, through these blocks, families ask one question. Will God come back to stay? And with every block that's turned, that anticipation builds until the answer finally comes. And that answer of came to us wrapped in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in humility, but full of glory. And so, Chris, I love that the Advent blocks don't just start with the manger. Clayton, whoever wants to explain, I want you to walk me through this and show. Let's do a little demonstration here, and we'll show how easy it is for families to use Advent blocks at Christmas.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Now, there. There is. It was revealed to us. But also, if you are using Advent blocks, I won't reveal the surprise at the very end. There is a big reveal at the end that actually tells that story. It actually narrates it on the blocks, which is why there's letters on the blocks, which you'll show here. In just a second. So if you're watching before you even see the blocks, I just want you to notice that Jessica has a great Christmas red on today. So we're listening to music.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That was intentional, actually. Thank you.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah, thank you. I expected that it was intentional, and I recognize your, your intentionality. so the way the blocks work is you get 27 blocks, that 25 of them are numbered 1 through 25. And then there's a star block and there's a globe block. Now, the 1 through 25 have. Also. Have. Also have images on the side. And so the way it works is every day you read a story and you turn the block. That is the day of December. So if it's the December 1st, you turn that block and it reveals an image that corresponds to the story in the book. So the apple or the fruit on the first day is the story of Adam and Eve. And then you put the star on top of that block. And then on the second, you read the story and you turn the block and it reveals a rainbow, which is Noah. right. So then you move the star to sit on top of that block. And then the next one, it reveals stars, which is Abraham. And it continues to move in. The star sits on top of those blocks as it moves closer and closer to the globe block, which is all the way on the other end on the top of the 25. And it is. The star is moving closer and closer to that globe every day, representing that God is coming to earth to stay. On the 24th Christmas Eve, there is this great special reveal where you turn it one more time and all those letters do make words. I won't spoil it right now for you, but it is fantastic and so exciting whenever. Oh, there's an E. There's an E. But there's.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I just showed one E. Right. I feel like I needed a vanna white moment.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Tons of words. Yeah. If you do wordle, you got an E in there somewhere. You know, so well.

Dr. Jessica Peck: How'd I do? How'd I do with the visual? If you're watching online, how did. See, that's so easy to do. So easy and so fun to manipulate. Like, for kids, this is going to be a great visual. And as I said before the break, this is a visual theology. So this is not, you know, for kids, especially with Gen Alpha. I talked about that. I've been talking about that a lot, and I'm going to be talking about that continuing how we engage, especially Gen Alpha, who is a very visually oriented generation. It's not going to be. Sit down and let me read to you a sermon. This is something that's fun and interactive, and it's pretty quick. So tell me how this translates to visual theology.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Well, Jessica, it's interesting you mentioned this with Gen Alpha. I would argue that God has always been really interested in tactile and visual representations of our faith. when God saved His people from Egypt, and he brought them out of the Exodus, he didn't say, all right, now every year, sit down and you're going to hear people tell stories. You're going to kind of visualize it in your mind, but just sit and listen. No, he said, no. Have some bread, have this wine, drink and share this meal to remember that event. And then Jesus, when He comes, doesn't say, well, that was really 101. We can do away with all the visual stuff, all the tangible stuff. Now you need the real thing, which is, I've got sermons for you. Oh. Instead he said, hey, remember this meal we've been doing for centuries? I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm just going to give you a new meaning to this to carry you forward. For centuries and centuries. God made us as embodied creatures, and he doesn't intend for us to act like we aren't embodied in that way. Like, there's only one way to learn. So I just love the grace of God, that it's not just a recent trend for people to see things and be like, oh, that draws me in because it uses all of my senses. God knows that we need all of our senses to learn about him, which is why all throughout Scripture, he's invited us to use all of those senses as we come to worship him and remember what he's done.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That is very well said. I feel like it just had a little bit of an epiphany, because you're right. We always talk about that for Gen Alpha. But even as I'm holding this block in my hand with the rainbow on it, I'm thinking about how God placed His rainbow in the sky. He gave a visual of that to his people. You're so absolutely right. And then even, even thinking about the tactile, that is involved with that, even Passover and making bread and all of the things that go along with that. This is for any generation. And one of the things I have, I love about children's ministry is that it's a great place to put people who are relatively new in their faith, who are being discipled because they're going to get those things in, in the way that kids are getting them. But we all need that in some way and it really doesn't matter where you are in your faith in that and you can, you can feel that way. Did you want to add anything? You're jumping in?

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah, I'm just very excited by everything you're saying.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: I love it.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: this is one of the beautiful things as I was writing this and anybody in kids ministry, I think will tell you this, that as you're trying to take these big ideas and distill it down for say, a seven year old, you begin to understand these concepts in a way that you didn't before. Because trying to boil it down and say, all right, how do I explain God's presents in the midst of suffering? I could use seminary words for it. It, but I actually need to describe it to a second grader. It forces you to kind of take what is the real meat of this. And this is why you'll have people who read things like the Jesus storybook Bible and they're moved to tears by it. And it's not because they're thinking, you know, that they think at a third grade level. It's because the beauty of that at a simple level kind of touches our hearts in a new way. CS Lewis once said that anybody who's not able to, to write at a kids level shouldn't be writing to adults either. So I'm a firm believer that if we can't put it at that bottom shelf, we don't actually get it at the top shelf the way we, we think we do.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I think it is so important to make it accessible for everybody so it's accessible for kids. It's understandable, but still meaningful for adults to have that, that simplicity. I know there's some times, you know, where I am just at a, a place where I'm overwhelmed and I'm thinking, you know, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. And the song that comes back over my heart is Jesus Loves Me. And that's what I'm singing to myself. Just sometimes those simple truths, it just comes back to that. And I just think about like if we just need the faith of a child. And again, one of the things I love about these Advent blocks that you've created is that it is the whole arc of the gospel. I mean, we already talked about it, starting with Genesis, starting in the garden. We've got the rainbow here for, for Noah and the ark and the fl. But going all the way back through the continuing, answering that question of when will God Come back to stay. Will God come back to stay? Because we're kind of living in between, in between those promises that he gave us that, that Jesus would come and that he will come again. How do you see that arc playing out here in the blocks? But more importantly, how do you see that truth resonating with families and where we need to be and talking with our families no matter. It doesn't matter if we have toddlers or if we're parenting adult kids. How do we convey that gospel truth to our family?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Well, over time for our family, Jessica. I mean, Chris wrote the stories, but our family's done it for six years now. And these stories have gotten embedded in our. My girls hearts, in the way they've prayed. The stories, they remind me of the different stories, more than the meaningful moments. Not more, but at least equally. They remind me of the jokes that Chris makes. My daughter Kara sometimes points out some of the edits that she's made over the years. I mean it's flawless now of course, but like, you know, in the beginning, you know, it's like she, she actually still has one point of disagreement with him. But my point is like they engage, they engage with these stories, especially when you do it year over year in a way that really begins to tell them that whole story. It's very uncommon for a series or the curriculum in, in kids, in kids class or kids curriculum or even in a sermon, a sermon series at this point to really tell that whole story. So once a year we're review whole story. And I'll tell you the way that it has impacted us is our girls now because we'll talk about the, that meta narrative and there's, there's many meta narratives, right? But like that meta narrative of like God has. Wants to be with his people, but it sometimes feels like he's not. There's some sort of distance. But he's the one that's pursuing us and he's the one that is going to come do what is necessary in order to be with us. That's that through line is completely embedded in their mind. Mind to the point that there are times when like they feel lonely and they'll actually refer to the King is Coming, which is the name of the book that actually goes along with the blocks. They'll refer to that story. Talk about the fact that right now it doesn't feel like God is with me, but I know that he is. So that's how like that, that story of God's presents with his people and his continual pursuit of his people is so, Has embedded itself in our girls minds and hearts, I think, because it is still very true to our experience. Like there are times when we don't feel like God is close, though he is. Right. And so I think this story and repeating it year after year has impacted them, has impacted probably our whole family.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You're absolutely right. I'm thinking of this, the words to the song Waymaker. And I think that's one of the reasons why it, it resonated with so many people. Because even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. I, I've been in Congregations where I've sang that song. I've sang that song in private worship, just saying that, saying that. And you. And I remember interviewing Darlene Zschech saying she sang it until she believed it, like I sing it until I believe it. Because you don't, you don't feel that way sometimes. And it really is such a beautiful thing to think about the people who are waiting for the birth of Jesus, you know, who are waiting in that period of silence and that period of longing and, you know, thinking about, you know, oh, come O come Emmanuel, you can tell. I really love Christmas music because I feel like it's such a great tool to really remind us of the theology and remind us of what happened. And now we're in that similar place of longing and in that interim we're called to be disciples.

Advent blocks can be a jumpstart to intentional discipleship for the new year

So I want to know how you see this, all of this, that we're talking about, this Christmas narrative. The King is coming. How does this play into the discipleship? And I really feel like just picking up something like this, like Advent blocks, that can really be a jumpstart to intentional discipleship for the new year. Because so often we as Christian parents, we say, oh yes, we want to be intentional, we want to disciple our kids. But our calendars, our credit card receipts, they tell a different story. Their accountability and showing where we're putting our time, where we're putting our financial resources. And it doesn't have to be like some big production for, you know, that that is worthy of going on social media. It can be. It's. It's in that, that simple everyday rhythm and discipline. And I've just got the warning. We're coming up on our second break already, but one of you want to give me just a preview of that answer and we can talk more after the break.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah. I would just say, you know, you've got a lot of motivation, you as an adult, maybe in January to start a new habit. But it's really nice to ride the wave that is Christmas and all the anticipation, excitement that's going on then. So if you can get in a rhythm where every day in December, or your kids are looking forward to doing this Bible story together, then by the time Christmas is over. We've had this experience in our house. We know so many families who have. They finish Advent blocks and they say, well, okay, what's next? Like, the kids at that point are saying they've gotten this rhythm. Like, this can actually be fun and rewarding. Let's hunt for another thing to do to fill that gap and get that little Bible deposit.

Dr. Jessica Peck: And you have some resources for that, do you not?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah. So Easter blocks is a great thing for Easter, but that was gonna be my thought is, the reason Advent blocks work so well, I think, is because it is a, ah, promise to your kids to hang out with them, and it's a tangible reminder that you will. So the most daily piece for that is the gratitude. And if we want to talk about that in a little bit, we can kind of talk about how that, helps you build on that momentum.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Absolutely. Oh, you just said a promise to your kids that you will spend time with them in a tangible reminder that you will. That was. That was really great because that is really what the gift is all about. It is about the gift of your presents Kids do not need perfect families because, spoiler alert, no such perfect family exists. But you can give your family the gift of your presents and you can do that through Advent blocks. I really encourage you to think through what you want to do intentionally. And we'll be back in just a minute with, yes, some more Christmas music. Some of you are so excited. Some of you. Hang on. You'll make it. We'll see you on the other side of this break. One Million Moms Mom is a face washer, a coupon clipper, and a listening ear. She's a diaper changer, a laundry folder, and a mender of hearts. She's a master juggler of the jobs of the day. She's simply incredible and incredibly busy. At One Million Moms, we understand the hurried pace of the average mom. That's why we've made it so easy for you to take a stand against the trash that's in today's media. Visit onemillionmoms.com.

Walker Wildmon: The American Family Association's mission. Is to inform equip and activate individuals. To strengthen the moral foundations of our culture. We also support the church. Our goal is to be a leading organization in biblical worldview training for cultural transformation. We believe true morality flows from biblical principles and directs people to the manner in which God intends them to live. Thank you for standing with the American Family association as we seek to stop the erosion of godly values.

The Music of Christmas by Steven Curtis Chapman: There's a man who stands in the cold wind tonight and he greets everyone passing by With a smile and a ringing bell and the song that he's playing is his own way of saying Love is here it's the music of Christmas and there's a lady who sits all alone with her thoughts and the memories of all that she's lost When. She hears a sound at her door and the song comes to find her as a gentle reminder Love is here it's the music of Christmas with your heart you will hear a song in the laughter Won't you listen for the sound, the sound of home? You will hear the music of Christmas for the music of Christmas.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is indeed the Music of Christmas by Steven Curtis Chapman. And yes, it is Christmas music. Yes, it is October. Listen, if you are one of those people who says, but wait, I don't listen till Christmas music till after Thanksgiving, it's okay. It's going to be okay. And if you're saying play more, well, you're my kind of people, and that's okay.

The time is now to prepare your family for Advent

We are all welcome, welcome here. But we're talking about it today in October, because the time is now to prepare your family for Advent. I know there are a lot of people, a lot of families who think, oh, this year I really want to do something intentional. Well, this is the time to think about it so that you're not stressed about it when December 1st rolls around. And there is something really beautiful about being able to slow down in December. So we're working to help you be able to prepare for the holidays and a season that tells us, buy more, do more, hurry more. The gospel is inviting us to something radically different. It's saying, slow down, lean in, listen, anticipate, make room for wonder in your heart again. And I'm talking to you about Advent blocks. It is a great tool for your family. I have my own set here, so if you're watching online, you can see it. It is a beautiful set of blocks and a great tool for your family. And by family, I don't mean this is just for kids. This is for any family anywhere. If you are a, married Couple, if you are single, if you have toddlers, if you have teens, if you have grown up kids. It's a great way to share the gospel with your family and to share the whole arc of that. Because we start in the beginning with creation and go all the way through to when the king will return. And it is a great, a, great resource for families. I'm talking to Chris Pappalardo and Clayton Greene and you can go and find out more at goodkind.shop That's goodkind.shop Because they have a lot more resources to help intentionally disciple your family. These things are not just going to happen on their own. If you listened in Friday's Habits, which I've been talking with Clayton and Chris a lot about, every week we've been introducing a new habit for healthy families. These habits are also all stackable. And last Friday we talked about being intentional and heard from a lot of you that really resonated. This is a way to do that. And so, guys, I would love to hear more about the other things that you have before that, my producer is reminding me. Operation Christmas Child. So if you are really feeling in the Christmas spirit, that National Collection week is going to be November 17th through the 24th. You can prepare pack a box to send to a child somewhere around the world. You can go to samaritanspurse.org/occ that's samaritanspurse.org/occ to learn more about packing a shoebox. So there are so many things you can start to be doing now for Christmas, but also for the rest of the year. We've got things like a gratic cube, Easter cube, sticky prayers, a Sabbath box. Who wants to go first and jump in and tell us about these tools that you've so thoughtfully created to help families disciple families.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Well, Jessica, I feel like we're on Team Christmas over here and I just want to continue to give you, if, if you want a reason to talk about, about Christmas before Thanksgiving, you just gave it because you have to pack your Operation Christmas Child box before Thanksgiving.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That's right.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: So the next time someone gives you a hard time about it, be like, did you pack your box yet? You know, I guess not. You know, if you're gonna wait till after Thanksgiving. But I don't know if guilt tripping is definitely the angle you want to take. But hey, you got to have enough ammunition for, for everything that you, you know, need. you know, when you're looking at, ah, commercials around Christmas, commercials in general, right. They're promising you something if you just buy this, your life will be better. If you just buy this, you'll look better. If you just buy this, you'll blah, blah, blah, right? And that is not true except in this situation. If you buy Advent blocks and just hand them to your kids, it, the rest of it almost takes care of itself. And we were as surprised as many of our customers were whenever they said, you know, we always tried to do an Advent set, but like, this was the first time that we actually finished it because like we talked about earlier in the show, the kids become accountability devices. I will spend time with you every day if you just remind me to turn this block. And then all of a sudden people are finishing these Advent guys, something that is actually a pretty difficult thing to do in a very busy season. So we actually, that's where all of our products started. We reverse engineered what we felt like was successful. Learning from habit science, also looking into scripture to see how, how God is encouraging us in order to live out our faith. And then we reverse engineered those things and said, can we create other products that do a similar thing? The very next one that we created was Easter blocks. It follows a very similar pattern. It's, it's just for Holy Week. So it's eight days, Sunday to Sunday. it's beautiful. I think Chris's writing is actually even better there. and then there also is this beautiful piece with a fabric, fabric that represents the tomb. And then there's this big reveal at the end because the tomb is empty. Oh my gosh, I love it so much. But the one that is probably easiest to describe on a day by day basis is a small, little unassuming product called the Graticube. It's a 12 sided die, which is actually a dodecahedron. If you're watching online, Chris is holding one right now. and that has eight, 12 different sides that have prompts that you then read the prompt which might say something like, like food or a difficult time or nature as Chris is holding it up. And then you say, God, thank you for the daffodils. Right. And what that ends up doing is it provides great conversation at the table centered around gratit gratitude. But it also prompts parents who are ready and willing to disciple their kids to take an opportunity where they're sitting down for a longer period of time and make a meaningful moment happen. Making a meaningful conversation happen when. And manufacturing that at the end of a long day can be really, really hard for an adult. Picking up a wooden die and rolling it is Very easy for a kid. And so we're really just like, we're, we're hacking the system in order to prompt us to do the things that we all want to do. But we don't always have the intentionality or the energy to do. And so, that's just a couple of the examples of what we have on the website.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Clayton, I love it. I am, I am all Team Christmas. And y' all can be on every day now until Dec, because I am so excited about preparing families for Christmas.

Jessica: I think you bring up an important point about the marketing

But I think you bring up an important point about the marketing. And it is really sobering when we think about how intentional companies are in seeking to influence our marketing persuasions. That is what social media is about. That's what any online platform is about. They want you to stay on the platform as long as possible so you have as much exposure to advertising as, as possible so people can generate as much revenue as possible. And that, that marketing is really even becoming so passive. We're not even, you know, it used to be you would pick and choose what you would look at, or you might fast forward through the commercials. Well now with the algorithms and the way that they are, AI is influencing all of our online behavior. And then they're feeding us what they think that we will buy, and then it's just auto scroll, autoplay, and we have to be intentional. And that's one of the reasons why I am boldly lifting you, guys up in your marketing impacts. Because I'm going to guess, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't think that you probably have the budget of toy companies that are out there, you know, putting social media in there. And as Christian families, we've got to be intentional about seeking products that help our families. And when I hear you both share your heart, your heart is to help help families. Your heart is to equip them. Your heart is to help them prepare and to have those points of connection. And, that is not the same for other products that are out there. And so I think this is really important for us to be intentional about seeking that and, and buying products that, that really are. We're investing in discipleship in our family. That's really what this is about, is an investment in discipleship. Would you with.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Agree.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Agree.

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah, absolutely. It reminds me of something Andy, Crouch mentioned, and I, can never remember because I've read so many of his books, but he talks about the physical space of our houses and how everything has a bit of A nudge, power to it that it, it kind of nudges you towards a way of thinking and being. And like you're saying, Jessica, most of the nudges we experience in our life are trying to get us to purchase something thing to move a little quicker to be somebody that we're not. It makes us, makes our self esteem feel terrible. And so that's why in very intentionally the stuff that we've created is trying to pull people away to a different center of gravity. All of the, all of our stuff is analog. Not that there's anything wrong necessarily with the screen. But if we want slower moments of discipleship, we recognize it's going to be really tough to do while there's split attention with screens all over the place. and we can yell about that and say the TV is the worst and social media is the devil, or we can put the right object in front of people that has a different center of gravity. And that's what we've been so thrilled with with all of our products at Goodkind is that it cultivates a different sort of pull that's not guilt related. Get off your phone. But it really does. It connects. The way we often say to Goodkind is we're trying to get people to engage with God and engage with one another, another. And it's wonderful that a physical object can be that catalyst for that sort of engagement horizontally and vertically. Now it doesn't do all the work. You know, you roll the graticube and it comes up on, you know, something about God and your kid's like, I don't understand how God can be everywhere all at once. We're not going to be in the room to help you. Right? You still as a parent have to do some of the work. But man, it does so much of the work of intentionality, of making the conversations. I don't know if you're anything like me. I, I feel like I could probably handle a lot of the conversations. I just am too beat and exhausted to take the step to bring us there. So it's nice to have products that take you to the spot of having the spiritual conversation. Because it's already hard enough. I could just use the help to getting to that spot of starting the conversation.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah, Chris, I'm so glad that you brought that up because I think that that is one of the reasons I've talked about this often too. Why the Anxious Generation. That book by Jonathan Haidt really captured the mind public because it gave everybody a common enemy and just Saying it's the smartphones. Let's get rid of the smartphones. And my question to that is, and then what? And now what? We've got to replace that with moments of intentionality. Because if you just have that vacuum there that the smartphone has taken up, we have got to provide a compelling alternative. If you take away their phone, and especially, you know, that that's been. Been such a reflex method of punishment. You know, anytime any kid does anything, it's like, let's just take away their connection. And that's really what you're doing. You're not taking away their device, you're taking away their connection to their world. And you've got to provide a more compelling connection in this world with all of these digital distractions, with all of this technological noise. And that's one of the things I appreciate so much about what you are trying to do, is to provide that. And you know, I, I think, Chris, that when we do something simple like this, when we have this simple tradition, I mean, you may think, is it really that simple as rolling a gratic cube at a dinner table? As in turning a block, you know, at Christmas, I am m amazed. Now I am at the stage of parenting where I've got three kids in college, one kid at home in high school. Those are the things that they remember, they cannot recount to me. Every gift that they opened under the tree, you know, that I so, so, you know, painstakingly thought about. But they do remember those moments of connection. Oh, we're out of time. I'm so sad that we are out of time. Clayton, do you have any last words that you want to say? Any, any words of encouragement that you would share as we close our. Our Christmas time together?

Clayton Greene and Chris Pappalardo: Yeah. Whenever you're listening to a podcast or whenever you get to the day after Christmas, there's always the temptation of thinking, well, that could have been better, or I could be better, or if you're listening, those people have it better. Just remind your the beginning of this. Get started with my daughter Cara telling me that I was getting it all wrong and that we were missing the. Missing the point. She was 6, she is now 13, and God has that girl's heart on fire. And reading this guide or whatever guide you're reading is a part of that. So if you haven't done something in the past year, you did something that's great, do something again this year. And over time, we think that God will reward that because he is the one. we say this in our book. that he is the one that actually is going starts the work and in us and is going to finish the work in us. And so you can have confidence in him if you're taking a step towards him.

Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true. I remember a time going to a Good Friday service with my daughter, who was a pre teen at the time. And I. We came out and I said, oh, that was nice. And she was bawling, just crying. And I said, what's wrong with you? And she said, what's wrong with you? How was your heart not convicted? You hear about Christ's sacrifice and your response to that is, that's nice. It was very, very convicting. Well, listen, I hope today has not been convicting, but it, has been encouraging and inspiring. Go to goodkind.shop Get your own set of Advent vlogs for Christmas. Whatever you do for Advent, wherever you are, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow. And it probably won't be Christmas, but that'll be okay, too. See you then.

Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Chris Pappalardo and Clayton Greene talk with Jessica about meaningful ways to prepare for Christmas with children and grandchildren.

Rx for Hope: Prepare Your Family for Advent

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