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: 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 today we are going to talk about a woman of extraordinary faith. And we're going to talk about how do we share the lives and faiths and Christian testimonies of heroes of our faith? How do we share those stories with our children? Our children are growing up in a world that gives them no shortage of cultural role models. And how do we point them back to people who lived their lives not perfectly, but but faithfully? You know how much I love and am such an advocate for children's reading, reading actual physical books. And I hope that your kids read some books this summer. But Even so, even going back to school, it's good to read books that aren't textbooks. And we're bringing to you a children's book today. Now, this book is called Elisabeth Elliot, the Woman who Did Hard Things for God. And it's by author Megan Hill. And I have her today.
A new children's biography about Elisabeth Elliot is worth talking about
But before I bring her on, let me just say there are some people from Christian history whose lives are so remarkable, we kind of want to put them on a pedestal. We think about people like C.S. lewis or Charles Spurgeon, and then there's people who are complicated, who have complicated lives. And honestly, most of those are both. Most people, surprise, surprise, are not perfect, who live on. On this earth. But Elisabeth Elliott was a woman of tremendous faith, of extraordinary courage, and deeply devoted to her faith. She became a missionary, an author, a speaker, and a radio host whose words influenced generations of Christians. Many of you may be familiar with the story of her losing her first husband, a missionary named Jim Elliot. He was killed alongside four other missionaries in Ecuador in 1956. And despite that, Elisabeth eventually returned to live among and minister to the very people who had killed her husband. And I will tell you, I've shared before on the air, I was at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Of course, he is a prolific Christian music artist, and he actually has, on one of his albums, he featured one of the men who killed Jim Elliott and those other missionaries who later became a Christian and is singing praises to God. One of the most impactful, powerful testimonies I've ever seen. And I was privileged to interview Steven Curtis Chapman about that. Just a truly remarkable story. Most people would not offer that kind of forgiveness. And when we, in today's culture, we see bad things happen and we see those things go to court, and we cheer on people who eviscerate those people and say, you know, or use words like that that are very. And we understand. We understand that hurt. We understand that desire for justice. But Elisabeth Elliot really modeled something completely radical. Now, she went on to write more than 20 books. Elisabeth did. She hosted the Gateway to Joy radio program for many years. And she was one of the most recognizable Christian voices of the 20th century. And I know that there has been a lot of talk about, different aspects of her public ministry and her legacy after her death. But we do not have to pretend a Christian hero was perfect to learn from their faithfulness. We can acknowledge questions honestly, while still recognizing the unmistakable evidence of a woman who loved Jesus, who took scripture very seriously, who endured profound suffering, but still spent decades pointing people to Christ. And that is particularly important for children. Whereas I said we live in an age of celebrity culture, what we're constantly told who our, heroes should be. Those are usually singers or sports, sports heroes, politicians, athletes, influencers, entrepreneurs, people with millions of followers. But what if our children also knew the stories of ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives because they followed an extraordinary God? What if courage isn't defined as being fearless, but is still following God's will, even when you're afraid? What if faith isn't something we just talk about at church or something that we just turn to when life turns traumatic? It's something that we follow every day. And that's why I think this new children's biography, Elisabeth Elliot, is worth talking about. It is not just a book about a famous missionary. It's an opportunity for parents to introduce children to a woman whose life represented courage and suffering and forgiveness and what it means to follow Jesus when the path isn't easy.
Megan Hill is the managing editor of the Gospel Coalition
So today we're joined by the author of this book, Megan Hill. And Megan is the managing editor of the Gospel Coalition. She's author of numerous books for both children and adults. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and her four kids. And her own love of Christian storytelling began when she was a child attending church prayer meetings with her father. Megan, we are so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Megan Hill: It's great to be here.
Megan, how did your love of Christian storytelling begin?
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Megan, I want to go right to that point, right to when you were a child attending a church prayer meeting with your father. How did your love of Christian storytelling begin? I do want to hear that story.
Megan Hill: Yeah, I was. Well, first of all, I didn't used to go to the church prayer meeting. And at some point I got it in my head that it was a very grown up thing to do to go to the church prayer meeting. And so, I asked my father, could I please go to this church prayer meeting? Because that's what grownups did, right? And so he said, of course, you know, you're welcome to come. And so I got to go. And even just sitting there, hearing these adults bring up things for prayer, whether that was a story from their own life, something that they needed the Lord's help with, or there would be people who would bring the missionary letters. You know, at that time, it was physical letters. It wasn't emails or social, media posts that we used to get. But, you know, the missionary would send out a physical letter and they would bring the ones that they had gotten and read some highlights from them so that we could pray for them. And that really opened my eyes to not only the value of stories and bringing our stories before the Lord and asking the Lord to intervene in our stories, and also just the. The power of story to connect us one with another in the church. And so hearing the stories of these missionaries, hearing the stories of the people in these room, this room that I worshiped with on Sundays, and realizing that the Lord was working in all of us and bringing us together in that way was really influential to me as a child.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I share that Christian heritage. I grew up in a strong missions environment in my church. I was a part of GA's, if anybody remembers that, Girls in Action. And we. I would wait every Sunday. I couldn't wait to hear the stories and see those letters. I am that many years old too, Megan. Where I remember. I. I actually, I digress for a second, but I had to teach one of my kids the other day who's in college, how to stamp a letter because they're like, mom, we just don't do this. This isn't our generation. But I do remember that. And reading the stories of Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon and, of course, Elisabeth Elliot. And I think this is really important because in a world that has dramatically changed since that time, we have no shortage of influencers that have put in front of our kids and they're told who to follow. And I know I could get some parents fired up real fast if we started going through that list of people that the world tells our kids to follow. You, your book is written for girls aged 4 to 8, children aged 4 to 8, at. How are we teaching them? How can we reclaim that even at this young age, and putting Christian role models in front of them instead of just ones that culture praises?
Megan Hill: I think, honestly, you know, children learn from what their parents think are. Is important and what their parents spend time on and what their parents spend energy on. And they can see really quickly, if you say, oh, we follow Jesus, but you don't actually spend any time or energy or thought on following Jesus. And kind of in the same way, you know, the fact that, hey, mom and dad sat down with me and read me this book about a Christian hero, or mom and dad told me the story of this Christian hero, well, that says something. Not just kind of the content that we're communicating to our kids, but also the fact that, hey, I thought it was worth sitting down on the couch and asking to come and talking to you about this story. Kids immediately realize, oh, this must be important. You know, that mom and dad put down something in order to spend time on this. It must be important. So as we're, you know, we know that they're getting the. The YouTubers or the whatever in their. In their brain, but we're saying, hey, in this house, we're going to spend time actually on what we think is important, and that's people who follow the Lord.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, it's extraordinary when you look at the influence of some of those YouTubers, like you said, I mean, how many millions or even billions of followers that they have, people who are hanging on to their move. But still, even though those times have changed, what has not changed is the influence of a parent in the home. And exactly like you just described it, Megan, a parent taking the time, taking a book, saying this person is someone worth following, that still has meaning, that still, carries a lot of weight. But it's just hard. I think, in these days and age, when we live at the speed of a smartphone, we don't take the time and attention to do that.
Megan, what drew you to the life of Elisabeth Elliot?
And you, you've written a lot of books, Megan. What drew you to the life of Elisabeth Elliot? And what did you think? Okay, what elements do children need to know about her story? What can we learn from that and apply to our own faith today?
Megan Hill: I think I took away from Elisabeth Elliot the fact that life was not easy for her. I mean, we all sort of know maybe the story of her first husband's death. And so we know that was not easy. But the more you dig into her life, you realize that how so many things were not easy for her. You know, she spent a long time translating the Bible, and it didn't really come to anything. She had difficulty in friendships. Sometimes people weren't kind to her. Sometimes, honestly, she wasn't kind to others. You know, not all of her marriages were happy. Not, you know, she struggled to write books like that did not come easily to her. And, I think that's something kids can relate to. Like, kids find a lot of stuff hard to do, and it's not easy to sit in church in your scratchy Sunday dress in your tight shoes. You know, it's not easy to go to school when you feel like, I don't think everyone likes me there. It's not easy to do your homework when you're not great at math. You know, that's something that children can relate to. And so it was great to be able to tell how Elisabeth really relied on the Lord and really found strength in the Lord and so was able to do hard Things, which is kind of the theme of the book, which I think kids can relate to that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, I absolutely think kids can relate to that. I think even more now than ever, I think. I think it's a tough time to be a kid. And each generation has definitely had their challenge. You know, we look at the global conflicts, the wars that our country has been through, and just all of the things, you know, that past generations have had, and a Great Depression or economic collapse, all of those things. But right now, the social pressures are so different. And when we look at models that are put in front of kids, it really is a, prosperity gospel kind of message, you know, and. And for that self help, it's like, oh, you have to be your own advocate, follow your heart, speak your truth. All of these things that are not biblically based, and there's this kind of promise of happiness. They see people who are rich and famous and who, you know, all the YouTube influencers who seem to have it all. And yet, if you talk to those people, if you listen to interviews, they talk about how you can have it all and still feel like you have nothing. Now, Elizabeth's life, on the other hand, is a radical contrast to. I mean, like you said, she did a lot of hard things that were difficult. She didn't get rich. She wasn't, you know, she wasn't promised happiness. But that really is the message of the gospel that we're called. To deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. And yet, in the end, it's still worth it. You still find hope and joy when looking at the world's path. How do you present that? Now, that. That's kind of a tough, complex topic. How do you present that and break that down for kids 4 to 8? Because I think it's a message they need to hear. Now. How do we best deliver it?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I mean, I think, obviously, by our own lives, in saying, you know, what's most important to me as your mom is following Jesus, and that you would follow Jesus too. And that's really important to me. And in fact, you know, there might be other things that are great, and we can cheer at our sports win, and we can cheer at the A you got on your test, and we can cheer at, you know, the new toy that you got, and thank you, Lord, for that. But really, what's. Those things are not as important. That's not the priority of our family. The priority of our family is following the Lord and studying the Scriptures and praying and worshiping together and talking about the things of The Lord. That's really what's important to us. And I think through our own lives, making it the most important thing for us then communicates to our kids. That's the most important thing for them too.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is the most important thing because I think that, you know, that's. I see it as a real contributor to a general feeling of anxiety. And we see a lot of anxiety and depression in this generation. And I think we're giving them messages like, you've got to make your own image, like you've got to build your own self. You've got to, you know, just make this version of yourself that's marketable to the world. And what you say today might be celebrated and then it's canceled tomorrow because the winds of culture shift so dramatically. But showing them you can build your life on this, that is trustworthy, on the foundations of God's word. And here is how people have done it in generations before. Here are people who lived before you, who held the same standard, who found hope and joy and the promise of eternal life. I think that is something that we are. We spend a lot of time telling our kids, like, what not to do in culture, but we rarely present to them the testimony of lives lived. And I'm so glad that you have done that. When we come back, we're going to talk about how do we teach children to trust God when life is hard? We'll have more with Megan Hill when we come right back.
American Family Radio is listener supported and without financial support this podcast would not exist
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Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac: The view from the top of the world and the sorrow by the bitter grace side I've seen some bre and I per My Sharon knows But there's never been a moment that you let me go I've been uptown I've been down down in the spotlight I've been broke down I've seen so much Might not know much but there ain't nothing sweeter than his love in the good times through the hard times Filled my pockets full of stuff.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac And to me there's nothing sweeter than a good book. I love, love, love to read. And today we're talking about a Children's book called Elisabeth Elliott. It's part of BH Kids Here I Am biography series. And this book by Megan Hill, Elisabeth Elliott. It releases tomorrow, August 18th and is designed specifically for kids from age 4 to 8. Now Megan has told me the other the other Christians in that series are Bonhoeffer, Lottie Moon, C.S. lewis, St. Augustine and Lulu Fleming. So you may want to check it out. I always think it is great to have books on your shelf that kids that age can just explore. And as Megan said, that the fact that you will take the time, parent, grandparent, any other invested adult in a kid's life to take that book out and to talk with them about it is really important. And Elisabeth Elliot's life was not easy. She was the wife of a missionary in Ecuador. He was killed along with four of his fellow, there were four fellow missionaries that were killed. And that can be the. How do we tell that story to 4 to 8 year olds? Well, let me tell you this. I've seen plenty of Christian comedians talk about the irony that is Noah's Ark, how we use that as a nursery theme. And it's like, like rain and God destroyed the earth and it's really kind of a scary story. But there is hope, there is hope that we can point to in that. And so I think today when we look at messages that kids, that parents give kids, we tend to be. And it always seems like there's a pendulum swinging. We tend in the 80s there was a little underprotective of parents of kids and now we've swung to a little overprotective. And we don't want them to hear anything. Our intention is so good. We don't want them to hear anything that not pleasant. But there is great, great strength, there is great opportunity to really model to our kids what life is really like and to help equip them for that to say life is hard, but God is good. Life sometimes isn't always good, but God is always good, even when it doesn't seem that way. Giving them these messages from scripture that if God is for you, who can be against you and God has not given you a spirit of fear and he has commanded you to be courage, he will not leave you wherever you go. And we can show them lives of Christians who have held onto that faith, who have held fast to that even when it seems like their life was maybe difficult. And that is what we can learn from Elisabeth Elliot because when we look ah, at her life, there's pain in her life. Of course our Instinct is protect kids from pain. That's not wrong. We should absolutely protect our kids from everything we can. But we cannot protect them from every disappointment, every loss, every unanswered prayer, every rejection they will have, every illness they will experience, every friendship struggle that they will go through, every uncertainty they'll encounter in life. And they and kids, even from a very young age, are asking the question, can I still trust God even when I don't understand what he's doing? And the answer is yes. And the life of Elisabeth Elliott gives us a case study in that, as you've heard Megan share, she experienced the violent death of her first husband. She returned to the mission field. Second husband died from cancer. She faced loneliness, uncertainty, seasons of profound suffering. And yet suffering became one of the central themes of her writing and teaching that gave hope. So Megan, how do we teach children that trusting God does not mean that God is going to say yes to everything, that God is not chatgpt. He is not a, an AI companion that's designed to learn our preferences and please, usually he is for our good and for his glory. How do we start teaching kids that? And how do you see kids learning that through the life of Elisabeth Elliot?
Megan Hill: I think with our kids, you know, we can just look for opportunities to highlight what the Lord is doing, you know, oh, look, you know, that didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, did it? That is disappointing. But look at what else the Lord provided. Wasn't, you know, wasn't he so good to us in that? And, oh, you know, this thing happened that is really, really sad. But also we're sad about it. But also we can see, you know, this kindness of the Lord that somebody came and brought us a meal, or somebody came, was kind to us, or, you know, just as we just sort of verbalize and highlight those things for our kids, I think is really helpful of, looking for those threads of the Lord's grace and the Lord's kindness, even in the disappointments and sadnesses of life. And I think in the same, when we give them biographies of Christian heroes, we have an opportunity to say, and look, the Lord does this for other people too. Look, look at Elisabeth Elliot. See how the Lord was faithful to her and helped her, even in really sad and hard things. And we would feel really sad if those things happened to us. And yet the Lord would be faithful to us too. And so I think it's good for us. You know, children do need, you know, you read the Bible and there are hard, hard things that happen in the Bible and these sad happen in the Bible. But the theme of the Bible is not, look how hard and sad everything is. The theme of the Bible is the Lord is at work and he's sending Jesus and he's caring for his people and he's sending his spirit. And so in the same way we read Elisabeth Elliot and there are hard and sad things that happen to her, but the theme is, look how faithful the Lord was. And kids can learn to see. Oh, that could be the theme of my life too. Yes, hard things happened, but also look how good the Lord is.
Sometimes sharing stories of suffering or hardship can make kids afraid
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think a common pushback that I hear from parents a lot is that sometimes sharing stories of suffering or hardship or even sharing the fact that Elisabeth Elliot's husband was a missionary who was killed, it makes them afraid. And I actually talked to Todd Nettleton about this. He is with Voice of the Martyrs and he talked about his dad reading to him stories growing up about Christian martyrs even, which a lot of parents say, like, oh gosh, I don't, I don't know if I could read about that. But as you Megan, when we just open up our Bible, I mean, we talking about Daniel in a lion's den, I mean, Joseph being thrown in a pit and sold into slavery by his brothers. And sometimes we tend to sanitize those Bible stories a little bit, but those are real elements of human suffering. And I think we can, we can present that to kids in a simple way that helps them to trust God, that doesn't make them afraid. How did you try to do that in your book?
Megan Hill: Yeah, it was really challenging and interesting to think about. I have a nine year old daughter, so that is helpful to me to think like what, what would she, you know, what would be interesting to her? What would be too much for her? What would not be, you know, what would she be interested in? One of the things that I tried to do is in the book there's also lots of lighter moments. So there are hard things and sad things, but there are also lighter moments about Elisabeth Elliott's childhood, about the pets that she had. You know, she had a pet groundhog and so, you know, groundhog that they had. You know, there are, The book itself has a theme of birds throughout it because there's kind of a theme of birds in her life. And so there are hidden birds on every page and the kids are finding these birds as they go through and finding them. And so I think even, you know, even as parents we have to be careful sometimes. I think we can be Too, like, well, the Christian life is hard, and it's just going to be hard, kids, you know, and for us to. To celebrate the laughter and the joy and the gifts of the Lord at the same time as we're acknowledging the. I think is really great.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is. It's all about a balance. I feel like it's always a pendulum swinging, and I'm like, oh, I'm swinging too far on the doom and gloom. Oh, nope, now I've got too much of the. Everything's fine. It's a bed of roses. I think part of that just comes back to prayer. Just asking God to give you wisdom of when and how to lean in and to use some of those environmental cues around you to have conversations like that. But one conversation that parents need to be having with their kids from an early age is a. The. A conversation about biblical courage, about courage to follow your faith, courage to speak up and to share your faith, even when that can feel a little bit scary, because the world can be hostile to our faith. And I think giving them some confidence in that, knowing that God is with them, knowing that you are praying for them, knowing that people of faith have walked that path before and have shared, even at great cost to them, I think that is really encouraging. How can we talk about them in a way, talk with. With kids in a way that doesn't scare them about how to be courageous and how to take strength from the faith of others?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I think we look for sort of some of those common themes. Right. You know, so in Elisabeth Elliot's life, you know, some of her friendships were hard. Well, we don't have to go into all the details of, you know, of the feud that she had with someone and, you know, but our kids know that friendships can be hard. And, you know, they just have to go on the playground to know that sometimes the people that you like don't want to play with you, or sometimes people are mean to you. And so we can kind of draw those threads out. You know, Elisabeth Elliot really found it difficult to write books and to speak, even though if you went to read her books or to hear her speak, you would probably think this comes naturally to her, you know, but it was really difficult for her. And yet she relied on the Lord to do that. And so I think we can bring that down to where our kids are. They've all got hard things that they're doing as well, and they can also rely on the Lord to help them with those things.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, can you get in, the. In the interest of Balance.
Elisabeth Elliot's parents told her that chores are good missionary training
Can you give us a fun fact about Elisabeth something that was surprising to you as you did your research, Something that would be encouraging or uplifting?
Megan Hill: Well, it was kind of interesting to me that her parents, when the children, when her, she was growing up with her siblings, if they like complained about their chores or whatever their parents, her parents would tell them. That's good missionary training and that is that this is training you to be a missionary, doing this chore that you don't want to do. And I think that's a good model even for us as parents. Like this will help you to do what God's called you to do, even this hard thing that you have to do. On the lighter side, Elisabeth Elliot had a diary when she was a kid and she wrote in her diary that no boys were allowed to read her diary. She didn't mind. She said, women and men and girls can read my diary, but no boys can read my diary.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, that sounds remarkably similar. I feel like, you know, ah, as times change, girlhood really doesn't change that much. That is something really relatable.
What has it been like to share your stories with your own children?
What has it been like for you? You said you're a mom, you have some, a girl, a daughter who's nine I think is what you just said. What has it been like to share your stories with them, the stories that you write? What has it been like to those, to your own children?
Megan Hill: Yeah, it's been really fun. I have three boys who are older, teenagers, young adults, and I didn't start writing children's books until they were older, so they've enjoyed them, but from the perspective of, you know, teenagers.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Good job, mom.
Megan Hill: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But to have a daughter who is that sort ah, of target age for picture books has been really fun. And also the children in our church too, ah, whenever the publisher sends me a box of books, when the book is published, and so then I always just give it out to all the children in my church. And it's been fun to hear how they're m. You know, my books have become some of their favorites, I think, because they love me and I love them and so it's been really sweet.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, even as, as an adult, you know, you, it doesn't matter if you're reading a children's book or not. I, I just find that we can be really encouraged by people who live lives of faith. You.
Reading about how C.S. Lewis came to faith is inspiring
We talked about the other people who are in this series. I mean, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even just saying his name. People have long admired his work. Just recently I was in the UK and followed a lot of the footsteps of CS Lewis and just such a prolific theologian. And some of the things that he said, despite some of the challenges that he had been through, and really just, you know, reading about how he came to faith and, and even that unlikely story is so encouraging. How did you, as, as an adult, when you were doing this research, how do you find elements of that faith? Why do you think that that encourages us so much?
Megan Hill: I think it's because, you know, we serve the same God that Bonhoeffer serves, and we serve the same God that Lewis served and the same God that Elisabeth Elliot served. And so when we see how the Lord gave them courage and gave them faith and helped them to take a stand for important things or to do work that benefited people or to point to Christ in unlikely places, think, well, the same God that helped them is the God who can help me too. And so I think it's really encouraging, even as adults to, you know, with your kids reading children's books by Christian biography, to be encouraged yourself, not just for them, but also for you, that the same God that was helpful to them can help you and can help your children as well.
Corrie Ten Boom was imprisoned during WWII but forgave her captors
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah. One of the, the people who has really encouraged me, the biography that's really encouraged me even as an adult adult, is Corrie Ten Boom. And my family has read the Hiding Place together as a family. And my husband had actually never read her story before. But just seeing the elements and for those, listening who maybe are not familiar with her story, she was arrested during World War II and put in a concentration camp because her family helped hide Jews in her father's clockmaker shop in their home. And she just experienced untold suffering in the concentration camps, but forgave her captors and went on to be, of course, a speaker and a writer. And there were so many times where I would think of her life and think of what she had gone through and think about the hardship that she had. Much like Elisabeth Elliott. I can't imagine what it's like. I have not had that experience of having a missionary husband who was killed in the jungle and imagine what it was like to come back so long ago when you didn't have social media or phones at how isolating that must feel. And same for Corrie 10 boom and, and their faith, the strength of their faith to say that. I will never forget Corrie hearing Corrie Tim Boom. of course, a video of her talking about meeting her captor after she. After he. She, was released from the concentration camp and. And she met him outside of that and just really fighting with her spirit and saying, no, I cannot forgive him. And really arguing with the Lord and saying, I cannot forgive him. I cannot. I cannot. And then reminding her of what how Jesus suffered for her and for her sins and how he forgave her. Just absolutely amazing. And we know that Romans 8 doesn't promise us that everything that happens to us is good. It promises that God works in all things for his purposes in an age of doom. Scrolling. Our kids are already seeing it. We can't protect them from that, but we can point them to a greater hope. Hope in the midst of suffering. We don't have to tell them everything's going to work out, everything's the way you want, everything's going to be okay. We tell them. I don't know what God will do, but I do know who God is. And I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. And he is good. He is trustworthy. He is good even when life is not. That is a biblical trust. When we come back, we'll have some some more with Megan Hill talking about Elisabeth Elliot. See you on the other side of this break.
Christianity is a historical religion; studying the New Testament is critical
: Here's Dr. Ben Witherington from the American Family Studios documentary the God who Speaks.
Dr. Ben Witherington: I like to say a text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean. In other words without the historical context. You can twist that text and make it mean whatever you would like it to mean. And more importantly, Christianity is a historical religion. I would put it this way. Nothing is theologically true that's historically false. The historical foundation of the Christian faith is fundamental to to our faith. So therefore it follows that studying the historical context of the New Testament is critical to understanding it at all.
: Visit thegodwhospeaks.org.
Christ Is Enough by Meredith Andrews: Christ is my reward all of my devotion. Now there's nothing in this world that can ever satisfy through and real My soul will see no turning back I've been set free Christ is enough for me Christ is enough for me M Everything I need is in you Everything I need.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Christ Is Enough by Meredith Andrews. And that sounds like a simple title, a simple phrase. But teaching our kids that in today's day and age is radically countercultural. When we sit, tell them Christ is enough. In a world that is screaming and shouting at them about how, how they can never have enough, they can never treat themselves enough, they can never get enough fame, enough success, enough money, enough social status, enough impressive accolades behind their name Telling our kids from a very early age that, hey, all that glitters is not gold and Christ is enough. And Christ is more than enough. He is better than the things that the world provides to you.
Megan Hill writes a children's book about Elisabeth Elliott
We're talking today children's book author Megan Hill about her new book, Elisabeth Elliott, which is in B and H Kids new, series of books about Christian biographies. It's called Here I Am. It covers other Christians like Bon Diedrich, Bonhoeffer, Lottie Moon, C.S. lewis, St. Augustine, Lulu Fleming. It is so important for us to give stories to our kids of people who had faithful service, who had extraordinary faith in, and God led to do extraordinary things. And this book intentionally introduces children to Elisabeth Elliott's journey through both hardship and triumph. And the goal is helping them understand that courage isn't being fearless like it looks on tv. It's just trusting God one step at a time. It's choosing to be faithful even when you feel fearful, that is important. So it's important to read these kinds of stories with our kids, stop at the hard parts and ask questions. Talk about those things like fear. What do you do when you feel afraid? And then that's when we point them back to Scripture. When I am afraid, I will trust in God and talk about obedience. Talk about what it means to trust God when you don't know what happens next. In a world of infotainment, edutainment, everything being gamified, we, there's nothing that is going to replace parents taking the time to disciple their kids, to sit down with your kids and to really talk with them through these tough issues and what it looks like in real life. And when we share with them the lives of other faithful Christians who are faithful through the good times and through the hard times, that is encouraging. And it's real and it's tangible and it's important. The Bible stories are the most important thing to share. But sometimes it can feel a little removed from, you know, Shadrach Meshach and, Abednego. Right. We can see, oh, this is a person who lived where I lived or who lived in the world I'm living in. And she followed the gospel that was 2,000 years old. Now there's a dimension to Elisabeth Elliott story. News flash, she wasn't perfect. And news flash, nobody was perfect. None of our Christian heroes are perfect. And I think all of these heroes, if I could be so bold as to say they would be the first to tell you, I am not perfect. Christ is perfect. But when we look at stories like, like Lee Strobel or C.S. lewis, people who are atheists but radically encountered Christ and dramatically changed their lives to a life of service. That is a beautiful thing. And the answer is not to canonize these people necessarily or to cancel them. It's just to learn to think about how we think about Christian living. The question isn't were they perfect? We know that they weren't. The better questions are, what can we faithfully learn from them? And what should we thoughtfully evaluate? How can we be inspired? And Megan, during the break, you and I were talking about how the lost art of reading. And so I'm never going to pass up, the opportunity to, to give you, to give our listeners encouragement that reading still does matter.
As a children's book author, you talk about the benefits of reading
So as a children's book author, I'd love to just let you get up on a soapbox for a second and talk about the benefits of reading. Parents, grandparents, loved ones, reading books to kids.
Megan Hill: Yeah, you know, we live in such a, sort of disconnected age. We're connected in one level, but we' interfacing through our devices so often. And you know, with kids, a picture book is something you have to experience together because most children, you know, under, you know, the age of eight or whatever, can't read picture books by themselves anyway, so they need a grownup to share it with. When it's a picture book. Right. You have to both be able to see the pictures. So you're going to have to sit up really close on that couch so that you can all, all see it, you know, and, and there's just something wonderful and tactile about books and turning pages and just experiencing them in real time. And as you said earlier, you know, you have the opportunity then to stop and ask questions. And what did you think about that? Let's. Oh, did you notice this thing in the picture? See if you can find this thing. And so it's, it's really just a sweet opportunity for us to spend time together. And I think that then communicates to our kids what's important. You know, this was important enough for mom to put down her phone or to put down the errands or to put down the whatever and to share this with me. And so that must be what's really important. And so I think it's a way that we communicate to our kids what, what is important is that, that those shared moments around the life of someone. I also think when you're talking about a biography, just even, you know, this, Elisabeth Elliott, you know, in her life in the 1950s, you know, seems kind of distant from children today. But when you're sharing that story with a real person and looking at a real book together, it brings alive in a way where it's not just distant history, it's an experience that I've had with my mom or my caregiver. And so it does bring biographies alive to share them with real people.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It's amazing to me how ancient history you. The more that I learn about ancient history, the more that I learned that people are people and people really haven't changed that much. And I think I've shared this before, but even walking through ancient ruins, recently I was a 2000 year old Roman fort that is in the UK and it was the same. The first writing sample that they had was the invitation to a birthday party. A woman was inviting another woman from another fort, go come over and celebrate this birthday party. And you know, they had they had fast food even that they would have to take in to watch, the athletes play. And I'm like, this sounds remarkably similar to modern life. And sometimes when we bridge those ancient paths, we see that, okay, people are the same. And the gospel is still as relevant today, even more so in a culture where kids are saturated with bad news and doom and gloom. It can be really encouraging to look at the life of a faithful person and to see that. And I, you know, I would encourage people who are listening to think about who was instrumental in your faith, whose faith really strengthened your own. Because all of us are watching someone that may be someone that we're, we're watching from afar. Maybe we're watching back through the pages of a history book. Maybe we're watching them two pews over in our church and we know the things that they've been through and we, yet we see the strength of their faith. And recently when I was in the uk, Megan, I was having dinner with a pastor and his family and we were just kind of talking about all the doom and gloom. And he said, I didn't want to change the subject. Let's talk about people who have inspired our faith, the ways that we see God at work. And I think sometimes we forget that in this fear saturated culture we talk about the bad things that can happen, but talking about the good things is really good. And when I, I think about reading those inspiring stories, you know, kids read inspiring stories and they may think, oh, I, want to be an astronaut. You know, I, I'm an H town Houston girl, so definitely grew up in that culture. Lots of people wanted to grow up and go to space camp or Maybe they want to be a firefighter, they want to be a teacher, they want to be a mom. But there are kids still and that are growing up today who have an aspiration, who have a dream that God's put in their heart to be a missionary. How do you see that being encouraged? How can the life of Elisabeth Elliot encourage nursing, nurture that God given desire that maybe a kid has today?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I think, you know, I think one part of Elisabeth Elliott story that we haven't talked about is how, you know, her first husband was killed in this missionary endeavor to this unreached people group. And yet Elisabeth and the, and her daughter as well went back to that group to bring the good news of Jesus to that group of people. And ultimately, some of them did come to faith in Christ and were saved. And I think that can be hugely encouraging to children that yes, mission work is difficult and sometimes really hard things happen in mission work. And yet when people faithfully persist in it by, by the help of the Lord, that the Lord does bring the fruit that he intends and that he is pleased to use ordinary people, even, you know, know, even Elisabeth Elliott's daughter Val, who was just a small girl at the time, you know, to use her to point people to the Lord Jesus. And I really do hope that children, as they read biography, think, yeah, maybe I could do that, you know, maybe the Lord would call me to do something like that and it gives them a vision for something that maybe they haven't thought about before, that the Lord might do with their life.
What do you hope that families will take away from the life of Elisabeth Elliott?
Dr. Jessica Peck: What do you hope that families will take away from the life of Elisabeth Elliott? What are the, the, what are the major lessons to learn?
Megan Hill: I think the thing that was most striking to me was just how completely Elisabeth Elliott wanted to do whatever God wanted her to do. And so often I think in my own life, I think, okay, Lord, I'll follow you this far, or I'll follow you if it costs me this much, or I'll follow you within these parameters I've seen set up. And yet she just over and over again told the Lord, you know, do with me whatever you want. I will follow you wherever. I will do whatever you ask me to do. And just to cultivate that submission in my own life of, Lord, I want what you want, and so I want to be willing to do whatever you would ask of me is something that was really transformative to me even in writing a children's biography, to think about ways in which I have said to the, the Lord. Yeah, but not that. And I want to be. When I grow up, I want to be more like Elisabeth Elliot and say, anything, Lord. I'll do anything.
Dr. Jessica Peck: That is easier said than done. That is a really hard thing to do. Because I think, you know, we. We do kind of, even as adults think, okay, yeah, all we kind of have this if. Then, you know, proposition with God, like, okay, I'll follow all your commandments. I'll live a, faithful Christian life, and then you will put bless me. And that's not what the life of Elisabeth Elliot showed in the way that we would expect here on this earth.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Earth.
Megan Hill: Ah.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She wasn't blessed with worldly riches or ease or our comfort. She still did have hardship. But how do. How do we wrestle with that? Because that can be a hard thing to tell kids. Much like what you were saying in the beginning. Megan, we want to be realistic with kids. We want to prepare them, but you don't want to be like, life is hard and then you die. Like, that's. That's not good either. How do we. How do we maintain that balance? Balance. And what did Elisabeth Elliott's life show you how to do that?
Megan Hill: I think Elisabeth Elliot was consumed with the Lord and that the Lord was so lovely to her and so precious to her that whatever he would ask of her would. Would be good, because it would be what the Lord would have. And so she would have more of the Lord in it, as it were. And so I think that's what we tell our children that, you know, as we follow the Lord. Yeah, it might be hard, but. But it will draw us closer to Him. We'll know more of Him. We'll experience him in new ways. And that's the hope that we have, is that. That. That, you know, that we will be drawn to the Lord, even in whether it's hard circumstances or happy circumstances, that. That those things would cause us to love the Lord more.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you know what? I. I see. I have this conversation with my own kids a lot, with my own family and with kids who I'm serving, as, you know, even as a healthcare provider, because they come in and a lot of times, you know, they're sick or they're injured or they've experienced really tough things, and that can happen, and it's really hard. And then when I think about, you know, conversations we've had, even among my own kids, they see that hard things happen to everybody. You know, the. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Right. You know, there's. There's, There's tragedy and trauma and trials that happen to everybody. But the differentiating Mark is the hope that you have. And you can choose to have a hope that says, okay, well, this world is all there is. So I'm all that I have and I'm going to make the most of my circumstances and I'm going to build the best life that I can, and I'm going to follow my heart and I'm just going to make this the best that I can. Or you can trust in a God who is big enough. If, God was big enough to be. If he was small enough to be understood, understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And we can choose to trust that somehow, in a way we don't understand, that God will make all things new and that God will make all things right. And one day we'll live in heaven forever with Jesus, where there'll be no more crying and no more pain and no more suffering. And all of the former things will pass away. And we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and now is at the right hand of God. We have a Savior who is not unacquainted with suffering. And that sets us apart from every other religion in the world. And that is the important thing to share with kids. Christians are not called to follow celebrities. We are called to follow Christ. And Paul could say, imitate me, only because his life was pointing beyond his himself to Jesus. First Corinthians 3 reminds us not to elevate human leaders into something they were never meant to be. But most importantly, we can teach our kids that the heroes of our faith are witnesses pointing us to the ultimate hero. And this book, Megan, I thank you for it because it gives us something. A story, a real story. A story of courage, suffering, missions, obedience, and a woman who trusted God through circumstances as she never would have chosen and pointed us to Jesus. And that is the best thing we can do. I pray as we do that the Lord will bless you and keep you. I'll see you tomorrow.
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: 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 today we are going to talk about a woman of extraordinary faith. And we're going to talk about how do we share the lives and faiths and Christian testimonies of heroes of our faith? How do we share those stories with our children? Our children are growing up in a world that gives them no shortage of cultural role models. And how do we point them back to people who lived their lives not perfectly, but but faithfully? You know how much I love and am such an advocate for children's reading, reading actual physical books. And I hope that your kids read some books this summer. But Even so, even going back to school, it's good to read books that aren't textbooks. And we're bringing to you a children's book today. Now, this book is called Elisabeth Elliot, the Woman who Did Hard Things for God. And it's by author Megan Hill. And I have her today.
A new children's biography about Elisabeth Elliot is worth talking about
But before I bring her on, let me just say there are some people from Christian history whose lives are so remarkable, we kind of want to put them on a pedestal. We think about people like C.S. lewis or Charles Spurgeon, and then there's people who are complicated, who have complicated lives. And honestly, most of those are both. Most people, surprise, surprise, are not perfect, who live on. On this earth. But Elisabeth Elliott was a woman of tremendous faith, of extraordinary courage, and deeply devoted to her faith. She became a missionary, an author, a speaker, and a radio host whose words influenced generations of Christians. Many of you may be familiar with the story of her losing her first husband, a missionary named Jim Elliot. He was killed alongside four other missionaries in Ecuador in 1956. And despite that, Elisabeth eventually returned to live among and minister to the very people who had killed her husband. And I will tell you, I've shared before on the air, I was at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Of course, he is a prolific Christian music artist, and he actually has, on one of his albums, he featured one of the men who killed Jim Elliott and those other missionaries who later became a Christian and is singing praises to God. One of the most impactful, powerful testimonies I've ever seen. And I was privileged to interview Steven Curtis Chapman about that. Just a truly remarkable story. Most people would not offer that kind of forgiveness. And when we, in today's culture, we see bad things happen and we see those things go to court, and we cheer on people who eviscerate those people and say, you know, or use words like that that are very. And we understand. We understand that hurt. We understand that desire for justice. But Elisabeth Elliot really modeled something completely radical. Now, she went on to write more than 20 books. Elisabeth did. She hosted the Gateway to Joy radio program for many years. And she was one of the most recognizable Christian voices of the 20th century. And I know that there has been a lot of talk about, different aspects of her public ministry and her legacy after her death. But we do not have to pretend a Christian hero was perfect to learn from their faithfulness. We can acknowledge questions honestly, while still recognizing the unmistakable evidence of a woman who loved Jesus, who took scripture very seriously, who endured profound suffering, but still spent decades pointing people to Christ. And that is particularly important for children. Whereas I said we live in an age of celebrity culture, what we're constantly told who our, heroes should be. Those are usually singers or sports, sports heroes, politicians, athletes, influencers, entrepreneurs, people with millions of followers. But what if our children also knew the stories of ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives because they followed an extraordinary God? What if courage isn't defined as being fearless, but is still following God's will, even when you're afraid? What if faith isn't something we just talk about at church or something that we just turn to when life turns traumatic? It's something that we follow every day. And that's why I think this new children's biography, Elisabeth Elliot, is worth talking about. It is not just a book about a famous missionary. It's an opportunity for parents to introduce children to a woman whose life represented courage and suffering and forgiveness and what it means to follow Jesus when the path isn't easy.
Megan Hill is the managing editor of the Gospel Coalition
So today we're joined by the author of this book, Megan Hill. And Megan is the managing editor of the Gospel Coalition. She's author of numerous books for both children and adults. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and her four kids. And her own love of Christian storytelling began when she was a child attending church prayer meetings with her father. Megan, we are so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Megan Hill: It's great to be here.
Megan, how did your love of Christian storytelling begin?
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Megan, I want to go right to that point, right to when you were a child attending a church prayer meeting with your father. How did your love of Christian storytelling begin? I do want to hear that story.
Megan Hill: Yeah, I was. Well, first of all, I didn't used to go to the church prayer meeting. And at some point I got it in my head that it was a very grown up thing to do to go to the church prayer meeting. And so, I asked my father, could I please go to this church prayer meeting? Because that's what grownups did, right? And so he said, of course, you know, you're welcome to come. And so I got to go. And even just sitting there, hearing these adults bring up things for prayer, whether that was a story from their own life, something that they needed the Lord's help with, or there would be people who would bring the missionary letters. You know, at that time, it was physical letters. It wasn't emails or social, media posts that we used to get. But, you know, the missionary would send out a physical letter and they would bring the ones that they had gotten and read some highlights from them so that we could pray for them. And that really opened my eyes to not only the value of stories and bringing our stories before the Lord and asking the Lord to intervene in our stories, and also just the. The power of story to connect us one with another in the church. And so hearing the stories of these missionaries, hearing the stories of the people in these room, this room that I worshiped with on Sundays, and realizing that the Lord was working in all of us and bringing us together in that way was really influential to me as a child.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I share that Christian heritage. I grew up in a strong missions environment in my church. I was a part of GA's, if anybody remembers that, Girls in Action. And we. I would wait every Sunday. I couldn't wait to hear the stories and see those letters. I am that many years old too, Megan. Where I remember. I. I actually, I digress for a second, but I had to teach one of my kids the other day who's in college, how to stamp a letter because they're like, mom, we just don't do this. This isn't our generation. But I do remember that. And reading the stories of Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon and, of course, Elisabeth Elliot. And I think this is really important because in a world that has dramatically changed since that time, we have no shortage of influencers that have put in front of our kids and they're told who to follow. And I know I could get some parents fired up real fast if we started going through that list of people that the world tells our kids to follow. You, your book is written for girls aged 4 to 8, children aged 4 to 8, at. How are we teaching them? How can we reclaim that even at this young age, and putting Christian role models in front of them instead of just ones that culture praises?
Megan Hill: I think, honestly, you know, children learn from what their parents think are. Is important and what their parents spend time on and what their parents spend energy on. And they can see really quickly, if you say, oh, we follow Jesus, but you don't actually spend any time or energy or thought on following Jesus. And kind of in the same way, you know, the fact that, hey, mom and dad sat down with me and read me this book about a Christian hero, or mom and dad told me the story of this Christian hero, well, that says something. Not just kind of the content that we're communicating to our kids, but also the fact that, hey, I thought it was worth sitting down on the couch and asking to come and talking to you about this story. Kids immediately realize, oh, this must be important. You know, that mom and dad put down something in order to spend time on this. It must be important. So as we're, you know, we know that they're getting the. The YouTubers or the whatever in their. In their brain, but we're saying, hey, in this house, we're going to spend time actually on what we think is important, and that's people who follow the Lord.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, it's extraordinary when you look at the influence of some of those YouTubers, like you said, I mean, how many millions or even billions of followers that they have, people who are hanging on to their move. But still, even though those times have changed, what has not changed is the influence of a parent in the home. And exactly like you just described it, Megan, a parent taking the time, taking a book, saying this person is someone worth following, that still has meaning, that still, carries a lot of weight. But it's just hard. I think, in these days and age, when we live at the speed of a smartphone, we don't take the time and attention to do that.
Megan, what drew you to the life of Elisabeth Elliot?
And you, you've written a lot of books, Megan. What drew you to the life of Elisabeth Elliot? And what did you think? Okay, what elements do children need to know about her story? What can we learn from that and apply to our own faith today?
Megan Hill: I think I took away from Elisabeth Elliot the fact that life was not easy for her. I mean, we all sort of know maybe the story of her first husband's death. And so we know that was not easy. But the more you dig into her life, you realize that how so many things were not easy for her. You know, she spent a long time translating the Bible, and it didn't really come to anything. She had difficulty in friendships. Sometimes people weren't kind to her. Sometimes, honestly, she wasn't kind to others. You know, not all of her marriages were happy. Not, you know, she struggled to write books like that did not come easily to her. And, I think that's something kids can relate to. Like, kids find a lot of stuff hard to do, and it's not easy to sit in church in your scratchy Sunday dress in your tight shoes. You know, it's not easy to go to school when you feel like, I don't think everyone likes me there. It's not easy to do your homework when you're not great at math. You know, that's something that children can relate to. And so it was great to be able to tell how Elisabeth really relied on the Lord and really found strength in the Lord and so was able to do hard Things, which is kind of the theme of the book, which I think kids can relate to that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, I absolutely think kids can relate to that. I think even more now than ever, I think. I think it's a tough time to be a kid. And each generation has definitely had their challenge. You know, we look at the global conflicts, the wars that our country has been through, and just all of the things, you know, that past generations have had, and a Great Depression or economic collapse, all of those things. But right now, the social pressures are so different. And when we look at models that are put in front of kids, it really is a, prosperity gospel kind of message, you know, and. And for that self help, it's like, oh, you have to be your own advocate, follow your heart, speak your truth. All of these things that are not biblically based, and there's this kind of promise of happiness. They see people who are rich and famous and who, you know, all the YouTube influencers who seem to have it all. And yet, if you talk to those people, if you listen to interviews, they talk about how you can have it all and still feel like you have nothing. Now, Elizabeth's life, on the other hand, is a radical contrast to. I mean, like you said, she did a lot of hard things that were difficult. She didn't get rich. She wasn't, you know, she wasn't promised happiness. But that really is the message of the gospel that we're called. To deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. And yet, in the end, it's still worth it. You still find hope and joy when looking at the world's path. How do you present that? Now, that. That's kind of a tough, complex topic. How do you present that and break that down for kids 4 to 8? Because I think it's a message they need to hear. Now. How do we best deliver it?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I mean, I think, obviously, by our own lives, in saying, you know, what's most important to me as your mom is following Jesus, and that you would follow Jesus too. And that's really important to me. And in fact, you know, there might be other things that are great, and we can cheer at our sports win, and we can cheer at the A you got on your test, and we can cheer at, you know, the new toy that you got, and thank you, Lord, for that. But really, what's. Those things are not as important. That's not the priority of our family. The priority of our family is following the Lord and studying the Scriptures and praying and worshiping together and talking about the things of The Lord. That's really what's important to us. And I think through our own lives, making it the most important thing for us then communicates to our kids. That's the most important thing for them too.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is the most important thing because I think that, you know, that's. I see it as a real contributor to a general feeling of anxiety. And we see a lot of anxiety and depression in this generation. And I think we're giving them messages like, you've got to make your own image, like you've got to build your own self. You've got to, you know, just make this version of yourself that's marketable to the world. And what you say today might be celebrated and then it's canceled tomorrow because the winds of culture shift so dramatically. But showing them you can build your life on this, that is trustworthy, on the foundations of God's word. And here is how people have done it in generations before. Here are people who lived before you, who held the same standard, who found hope and joy and the promise of eternal life. I think that is something that we are. We spend a lot of time telling our kids, like, what not to do in culture, but we rarely present to them the testimony of lives lived. And I'm so glad that you have done that. When we come back, we're going to talk about how do we teach children to trust God when life is hard? We'll have more with Megan Hill when we come right back.
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Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac: The view from the top of the world and the sorrow by the bitter grace side I've seen some bre and I per My Sharon knows But there's never been a moment that you let me go I've been uptown I've been down down in the spotlight I've been broke down I've seen so much Might not know much but there ain't nothing sweeter than his love in the good times through the hard times Filled my pockets full of stuff.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac And to me there's nothing sweeter than a good book. I love, love, love to read. And today we're talking about a Children's book called Elisabeth Elliott. It's part of BH Kids Here I Am biography series. And this book by Megan Hill, Elisabeth Elliott. It releases tomorrow, August 18th and is designed specifically for kids from age 4 to 8. Now Megan has told me the other the other Christians in that series are Bonhoeffer, Lottie Moon, C.S. lewis, St. Augustine and Lulu Fleming. So you may want to check it out. I always think it is great to have books on your shelf that kids that age can just explore. And as Megan said, that the fact that you will take the time, parent, grandparent, any other invested adult in a kid's life to take that book out and to talk with them about it is really important. And Elisabeth Elliot's life was not easy. She was the wife of a missionary in Ecuador. He was killed along with four of his fellow, there were four fellow missionaries that were killed. And that can be the. How do we tell that story to 4 to 8 year olds? Well, let me tell you this. I've seen plenty of Christian comedians talk about the irony that is Noah's Ark, how we use that as a nursery theme. And it's like, like rain and God destroyed the earth and it's really kind of a scary story. But there is hope, there is hope that we can point to in that. And so I think today when we look at messages that kids, that parents give kids, we tend to be. And it always seems like there's a pendulum swinging. We tend in the 80s there was a little underprotective of parents of kids and now we've swung to a little overprotective. And we don't want them to hear anything. Our intention is so good. We don't want them to hear anything that not pleasant. But there is great, great strength, there is great opportunity to really model to our kids what life is really like and to help equip them for that to say life is hard, but God is good. Life sometimes isn't always good, but God is always good, even when it doesn't seem that way. Giving them these messages from scripture that if God is for you, who can be against you and God has not given you a spirit of fear and he has commanded you to be courage, he will not leave you wherever you go. And we can show them lives of Christians who have held onto that faith, who have held fast to that even when it seems like their life was maybe difficult. And that is what we can learn from Elisabeth Elliot because when we look ah, at her life, there's pain in her life. Of course our Instinct is protect kids from pain. That's not wrong. We should absolutely protect our kids from everything we can. But we cannot protect them from every disappointment, every loss, every unanswered prayer, every rejection they will have, every illness they will experience, every friendship struggle that they will go through, every uncertainty they'll encounter in life. And they and kids, even from a very young age, are asking the question, can I still trust God even when I don't understand what he's doing? And the answer is yes. And the life of Elisabeth Elliott gives us a case study in that, as you've heard Megan share, she experienced the violent death of her first husband. She returned to the mission field. Second husband died from cancer. She faced loneliness, uncertainty, seasons of profound suffering. And yet suffering became one of the central themes of her writing and teaching that gave hope. So Megan, how do we teach children that trusting God does not mean that God is going to say yes to everything, that God is not chatgpt. He is not a, an AI companion that's designed to learn our preferences and please, usually he is for our good and for his glory. How do we start teaching kids that? And how do you see kids learning that through the life of Elisabeth Elliot?
Megan Hill: I think with our kids, you know, we can just look for opportunities to highlight what the Lord is doing, you know, oh, look, you know, that didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, did it? That is disappointing. But look at what else the Lord provided. Wasn't, you know, wasn't he so good to us in that? And, oh, you know, this thing happened that is really, really sad. But also we're sad about it. But also we can see, you know, this kindness of the Lord that somebody came and brought us a meal, or somebody came, was kind to us, or, you know, just as we just sort of verbalize and highlight those things for our kids, I think is really helpful of, looking for those threads of the Lord's grace and the Lord's kindness, even in the disappointments and sadnesses of life. And I think in the same, when we give them biographies of Christian heroes, we have an opportunity to say, and look, the Lord does this for other people too. Look, look at Elisabeth Elliot. See how the Lord was faithful to her and helped her, even in really sad and hard things. And we would feel really sad if those things happened to us. And yet the Lord would be faithful to us too. And so I think it's good for us. You know, children do need, you know, you read the Bible and there are hard, hard things that happen in the Bible and these sad happen in the Bible. But the theme of the Bible is not, look how hard and sad everything is. The theme of the Bible is the Lord is at work and he's sending Jesus and he's caring for his people and he's sending his spirit. And so in the same way we read Elisabeth Elliot and there are hard and sad things that happen to her, but the theme is, look how faithful the Lord was. And kids can learn to see. Oh, that could be the theme of my life too. Yes, hard things happened, but also look how good the Lord is.
Sometimes sharing stories of suffering or hardship can make kids afraid
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think a common pushback that I hear from parents a lot is that sometimes sharing stories of suffering or hardship or even sharing the fact that Elisabeth Elliot's husband was a missionary who was killed, it makes them afraid. And I actually talked to Todd Nettleton about this. He is with Voice of the Martyrs and he talked about his dad reading to him stories growing up about Christian martyrs even, which a lot of parents say, like, oh gosh, I don't, I don't know if I could read about that. But as you Megan, when we just open up our Bible, I mean, we talking about Daniel in a lion's den, I mean, Joseph being thrown in a pit and sold into slavery by his brothers. And sometimes we tend to sanitize those Bible stories a little bit, but those are real elements of human suffering. And I think we can, we can present that to kids in a simple way that helps them to trust God, that doesn't make them afraid. How did you try to do that in your book?
Megan Hill: Yeah, it was really challenging and interesting to think about. I have a nine year old daughter, so that is helpful to me to think like what, what would she, you know, what would be interesting to her? What would be too much for her? What would not be, you know, what would she be interested in? One of the things that I tried to do is in the book there's also lots of lighter moments. So there are hard things and sad things, but there are also lighter moments about Elisabeth Elliott's childhood, about the pets that she had. You know, she had a pet groundhog and so, you know, groundhog that they had. You know, there are, The book itself has a theme of birds throughout it because there's kind of a theme of birds in her life. And so there are hidden birds on every page and the kids are finding these birds as they go through and finding them. And so I think even, you know, even as parents we have to be careful sometimes. I think we can be Too, like, well, the Christian life is hard, and it's just going to be hard, kids, you know, and for us to. To celebrate the laughter and the joy and the gifts of the Lord at the same time as we're acknowledging the. I think is really great.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is. It's all about a balance. I feel like it's always a pendulum swinging, and I'm like, oh, I'm swinging too far on the doom and gloom. Oh, nope, now I've got too much of the. Everything's fine. It's a bed of roses. I think part of that just comes back to prayer. Just asking God to give you wisdom of when and how to lean in and to use some of those environmental cues around you to have conversations like that. But one conversation that parents need to be having with their kids from an early age is a. The. A conversation about biblical courage, about courage to follow your faith, courage to speak up and to share your faith, even when that can feel a little bit scary, because the world can be hostile to our faith. And I think giving them some confidence in that, knowing that God is with them, knowing that you are praying for them, knowing that people of faith have walked that path before and have shared, even at great cost to them, I think that is really encouraging. How can we talk about them in a way, talk with. With kids in a way that doesn't scare them about how to be courageous and how to take strength from the faith of others?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I think we look for sort of some of those common themes. Right. You know, so in Elisabeth Elliot's life, you know, some of her friendships were hard. Well, we don't have to go into all the details of, you know, of the feud that she had with someone and, you know, but our kids know that friendships can be hard. And, you know, they just have to go on the playground to know that sometimes the people that you like don't want to play with you, or sometimes people are mean to you. And so we can kind of draw those threads out. You know, Elisabeth Elliot really found it difficult to write books and to speak, even though if you went to read her books or to hear her speak, you would probably think this comes naturally to her, you know, but it was really difficult for her. And yet she relied on the Lord to do that. And so I think we can bring that down to where our kids are. They've all got hard things that they're doing as well, and they can also rely on the Lord to help them with those things.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, can you get in, the. In the interest of Balance.
Elisabeth Elliot's parents told her that chores are good missionary training
Can you give us a fun fact about Elisabeth something that was surprising to you as you did your research, Something that would be encouraging or uplifting?
Megan Hill: Well, it was kind of interesting to me that her parents, when the children, when her, she was growing up with her siblings, if they like complained about their chores or whatever their parents, her parents would tell them. That's good missionary training and that is that this is training you to be a missionary, doing this chore that you don't want to do. And I think that's a good model even for us as parents. Like this will help you to do what God's called you to do, even this hard thing that you have to do. On the lighter side, Elisabeth Elliot had a diary when she was a kid and she wrote in her diary that no boys were allowed to read her diary. She didn't mind. She said, women and men and girls can read my diary, but no boys can read my diary.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, that sounds remarkably similar. I feel like, you know, ah, as times change, girlhood really doesn't change that much. That is something really relatable.
What has it been like to share your stories with your own children?
What has it been like for you? You said you're a mom, you have some, a girl, a daughter who's nine I think is what you just said. What has it been like to share your stories with them, the stories that you write? What has it been like to those, to your own children?
Megan Hill: Yeah, it's been really fun. I have three boys who are older, teenagers, young adults, and I didn't start writing children's books until they were older, so they've enjoyed them, but from the perspective of, you know, teenagers.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Good job, mom.
Megan Hill: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But to have a daughter who is that sort ah, of target age for picture books has been really fun. And also the children in our church too, ah, whenever the publisher sends me a box of books, when the book is published, and so then I always just give it out to all the children in my church. And it's been fun to hear how they're m. You know, my books have become some of their favorites, I think, because they love me and I love them and so it's been really sweet.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, even as, as an adult, you know, you, it doesn't matter if you're reading a children's book or not. I, I just find that we can be really encouraged by people who live lives of faith. You.
Reading about how C.S. Lewis came to faith is inspiring
We talked about the other people who are in this series. I mean, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even just saying his name. People have long admired his work. Just recently I was in the UK and followed a lot of the footsteps of CS Lewis and just such a prolific theologian. And some of the things that he said, despite some of the challenges that he had been through, and really just, you know, reading about how he came to faith and, and even that unlikely story is so encouraging. How did you, as, as an adult, when you were doing this research, how do you find elements of that faith? Why do you think that that encourages us so much?
Megan Hill: I think it's because, you know, we serve the same God that Bonhoeffer serves, and we serve the same God that Lewis served and the same God that Elisabeth Elliot served. And so when we see how the Lord gave them courage and gave them faith and helped them to take a stand for important things or to do work that benefited people or to point to Christ in unlikely places, think, well, the same God that helped them is the God who can help me too. And so I think it's really encouraging, even as adults to, you know, with your kids reading children's books by Christian biography, to be encouraged yourself, not just for them, but also for you, that the same God that was helpful to them can help you and can help your children as well.
Corrie Ten Boom was imprisoned during WWII but forgave her captors
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah. One of the, the people who has really encouraged me, the biography that's really encouraged me even as an adult adult, is Corrie Ten Boom. And my family has read the Hiding Place together as a family. And my husband had actually never read her story before. But just seeing the elements and for those, listening who maybe are not familiar with her story, she was arrested during World War II and put in a concentration camp because her family helped hide Jews in her father's clockmaker shop in their home. And she just experienced untold suffering in the concentration camps, but forgave her captors and went on to be, of course, a speaker and a writer. And there were so many times where I would think of her life and think of what she had gone through and think about the hardship that she had. Much like Elisabeth Elliott. I can't imagine what it's like. I have not had that experience of having a missionary husband who was killed in the jungle and imagine what it was like to come back so long ago when you didn't have social media or phones at how isolating that must feel. And same for Corrie 10 boom and, and their faith, the strength of their faith to say that. I will never forget Corrie hearing Corrie Tim Boom. of course, a video of her talking about meeting her captor after she. After he. She, was released from the concentration camp and. And she met him outside of that and just really fighting with her spirit and saying, no, I cannot forgive him. And really arguing with the Lord and saying, I cannot forgive him. I cannot. I cannot. And then reminding her of what how Jesus suffered for her and for her sins and how he forgave her. Just absolutely amazing. And we know that Romans 8 doesn't promise us that everything that happens to us is good. It promises that God works in all things for his purposes in an age of doom. Scrolling. Our kids are already seeing it. We can't protect them from that, but we can point them to a greater hope. Hope in the midst of suffering. We don't have to tell them everything's going to work out, everything's the way you want, everything's going to be okay. We tell them. I don't know what God will do, but I do know who God is. And I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. And he is good. He is trustworthy. He is good even when life is not. That is a biblical trust. When we come back, we'll have some some more with Megan Hill talking about Elisabeth Elliot. See you on the other side of this break.
Christianity is a historical religion; studying the New Testament is critical
: Here's Dr. Ben Witherington from the American Family Studios documentary the God who Speaks.
Dr. Ben Witherington: I like to say a text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean. In other words without the historical context. You can twist that text and make it mean whatever you would like it to mean. And more importantly, Christianity is a historical religion. I would put it this way. Nothing is theologically true that's historically false. The historical foundation of the Christian faith is fundamental to to our faith. So therefore it follows that studying the historical context of the New Testament is critical to understanding it at all.
: Visit thegodwhospeaks.org.
Christ Is Enough by Meredith Andrews: Christ is my reward all of my devotion. Now there's nothing in this world that can ever satisfy through and real My soul will see no turning back I've been set free Christ is enough for me Christ is enough for me M Everything I need is in you Everything I need.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Christ Is Enough by Meredith Andrews. And that sounds like a simple title, a simple phrase. But teaching our kids that in today's day and age is radically countercultural. When we sit, tell them Christ is enough. In a world that is screaming and shouting at them about how, how they can never have enough, they can never treat themselves enough, they can never get enough fame, enough success, enough money, enough social status, enough impressive accolades behind their name Telling our kids from a very early age that, hey, all that glitters is not gold and Christ is enough. And Christ is more than enough. He is better than the things that the world provides to you.
Megan Hill writes a children's book about Elisabeth Elliott
We're talking today children's book author Megan Hill about her new book, Elisabeth Elliott, which is in B and H Kids new, series of books about Christian biographies. It's called Here I Am. It covers other Christians like Bon Diedrich, Bonhoeffer, Lottie Moon, C.S. lewis, St. Augustine, Lulu Fleming. It is so important for us to give stories to our kids of people who had faithful service, who had extraordinary faith in, and God led to do extraordinary things. And this book intentionally introduces children to Elisabeth Elliott's journey through both hardship and triumph. And the goal is helping them understand that courage isn't being fearless like it looks on tv. It's just trusting God one step at a time. It's choosing to be faithful even when you feel fearful, that is important. So it's important to read these kinds of stories with our kids, stop at the hard parts and ask questions. Talk about those things like fear. What do you do when you feel afraid? And then that's when we point them back to Scripture. When I am afraid, I will trust in God and talk about obedience. Talk about what it means to trust God when you don't know what happens next. In a world of infotainment, edutainment, everything being gamified, we, there's nothing that is going to replace parents taking the time to disciple their kids, to sit down with your kids and to really talk with them through these tough issues and what it looks like in real life. And when we share with them the lives of other faithful Christians who are faithful through the good times and through the hard times, that is encouraging. And it's real and it's tangible and it's important. The Bible stories are the most important thing to share. But sometimes it can feel a little removed from, you know, Shadrach Meshach and, Abednego. Right. We can see, oh, this is a person who lived where I lived or who lived in the world I'm living in. And she followed the gospel that was 2,000 years old. Now there's a dimension to Elisabeth Elliott story. News flash, she wasn't perfect. And news flash, nobody was perfect. None of our Christian heroes are perfect. And I think all of these heroes, if I could be so bold as to say they would be the first to tell you, I am not perfect. Christ is perfect. But when we look at stories like, like Lee Strobel or C.S. lewis, people who are atheists but radically encountered Christ and dramatically changed their lives to a life of service. That is a beautiful thing. And the answer is not to canonize these people necessarily or to cancel them. It's just to learn to think about how we think about Christian living. The question isn't were they perfect? We know that they weren't. The better questions are, what can we faithfully learn from them? And what should we thoughtfully evaluate? How can we be inspired? And Megan, during the break, you and I were talking about how the lost art of reading. And so I'm never going to pass up, the opportunity to, to give you, to give our listeners encouragement that reading still does matter.
As a children's book author, you talk about the benefits of reading
So as a children's book author, I'd love to just let you get up on a soapbox for a second and talk about the benefits of reading. Parents, grandparents, loved ones, reading books to kids.
Megan Hill: Yeah, you know, we live in such a, sort of disconnected age. We're connected in one level, but we' interfacing through our devices so often. And you know, with kids, a picture book is something you have to experience together because most children, you know, under, you know, the age of eight or whatever, can't read picture books by themselves anyway, so they need a grownup to share it with. When it's a picture book. Right. You have to both be able to see the pictures. So you're going to have to sit up really close on that couch so that you can all, all see it, you know, and, and there's just something wonderful and tactile about books and turning pages and just experiencing them in real time. And as you said earlier, you know, you have the opportunity then to stop and ask questions. And what did you think about that? Let's. Oh, did you notice this thing in the picture? See if you can find this thing. And so it's, it's really just a sweet opportunity for us to spend time together. And I think that then communicates to our kids what's important. You know, this was important enough for mom to put down her phone or to put down the errands or to put down the whatever and to share this with me. And so that must be what's really important. And so I think it's a way that we communicate to our kids what, what is important is that, that those shared moments around the life of someone. I also think when you're talking about a biography, just even, you know, this, Elisabeth Elliott, you know, in her life in the 1950s, you know, seems kind of distant from children today. But when you're sharing that story with a real person and looking at a real book together, it brings alive in a way where it's not just distant history, it's an experience that I've had with my mom or my caregiver. And so it does bring biographies alive to share them with real people.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It's amazing to me how ancient history you. The more that I learn about ancient history, the more that I learned that people are people and people really haven't changed that much. And I think I've shared this before, but even walking through ancient ruins, recently I was a 2000 year old Roman fort that is in the UK and it was the same. The first writing sample that they had was the invitation to a birthday party. A woman was inviting another woman from another fort, go come over and celebrate this birthday party. And you know, they had they had fast food even that they would have to take in to watch, the athletes play. And I'm like, this sounds remarkably similar to modern life. And sometimes when we bridge those ancient paths, we see that, okay, people are the same. And the gospel is still as relevant today, even more so in a culture where kids are saturated with bad news and doom and gloom. It can be really encouraging to look at the life of a faithful person and to see that. And I, you know, I would encourage people who are listening to think about who was instrumental in your faith, whose faith really strengthened your own. Because all of us are watching someone that may be someone that we're, we're watching from afar. Maybe we're watching back through the pages of a history book. Maybe we're watching them two pews over in our church and we know the things that they've been through and we, yet we see the strength of their faith. And recently when I was in the uk, Megan, I was having dinner with a pastor and his family and we were just kind of talking about all the doom and gloom. And he said, I didn't want to change the subject. Let's talk about people who have inspired our faith, the ways that we see God at work. And I think sometimes we forget that in this fear saturated culture we talk about the bad things that can happen, but talking about the good things is really good. And when I, I think about reading those inspiring stories, you know, kids read inspiring stories and they may think, oh, I, want to be an astronaut. You know, I, I'm an H town Houston girl, so definitely grew up in that culture. Lots of people wanted to grow up and go to space camp or Maybe they want to be a firefighter, they want to be a teacher, they want to be a mom. But there are kids still and that are growing up today who have an aspiration, who have a dream that God's put in their heart to be a missionary. How do you see that being encouraged? How can the life of Elisabeth Elliot encourage nursing, nurture that God given desire that maybe a kid has today?
Megan Hill: Yeah, I think, you know, I think one part of Elisabeth Elliott story that we haven't talked about is how, you know, her first husband was killed in this missionary endeavor to this unreached people group. And yet Elisabeth and the, and her daughter as well went back to that group to bring the good news of Jesus to that group of people. And ultimately, some of them did come to faith in Christ and were saved. And I think that can be hugely encouraging to children that yes, mission work is difficult and sometimes really hard things happen in mission work. And yet when people faithfully persist in it by, by the help of the Lord, that the Lord does bring the fruit that he intends and that he is pleased to use ordinary people, even, you know, know, even Elisabeth Elliott's daughter Val, who was just a small girl at the time, you know, to use her to point people to the Lord Jesus. And I really do hope that children, as they read biography, think, yeah, maybe I could do that, you know, maybe the Lord would call me to do something like that and it gives them a vision for something that maybe they haven't thought about before, that the Lord might do with their life.
What do you hope that families will take away from the life of Elisabeth Elliott?
Dr. Jessica Peck: What do you hope that families will take away from the life of Elisabeth Elliott? What are the, the, what are the major lessons to learn?
Megan Hill: I think the thing that was most striking to me was just how completely Elisabeth Elliott wanted to do whatever God wanted her to do. And so often I think in my own life, I think, okay, Lord, I'll follow you this far, or I'll follow you if it costs me this much, or I'll follow you within these parameters I've seen set up. And yet she just over and over again told the Lord, you know, do with me whatever you want. I will follow you wherever. I will do whatever you ask me to do. And just to cultivate that submission in my own life of, Lord, I want what you want, and so I want to be willing to do whatever you would ask of me is something that was really transformative to me even in writing a children's biography, to think about ways in which I have said to the, the Lord. Yeah, but not that. And I want to be. When I grow up, I want to be more like Elisabeth Elliot and say, anything, Lord. I'll do anything.
Dr. Jessica Peck: That is easier said than done. That is a really hard thing to do. Because I think, you know, we. We do kind of, even as adults think, okay, yeah, all we kind of have this if. Then, you know, proposition with God, like, okay, I'll follow all your commandments. I'll live a, faithful Christian life, and then you will put bless me. And that's not what the life of Elisabeth Elliot showed in the way that we would expect here on this earth.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Earth.
Megan Hill: Ah.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She wasn't blessed with worldly riches or ease or our comfort. She still did have hardship. But how do. How do we wrestle with that? Because that can be a hard thing to tell kids. Much like what you were saying in the beginning. Megan, we want to be realistic with kids. We want to prepare them, but you don't want to be like, life is hard and then you die. Like, that's. That's not good either. How do we. How do we maintain that balance? Balance. And what did Elisabeth Elliott's life show you how to do that?
Megan Hill: I think Elisabeth Elliot was consumed with the Lord and that the Lord was so lovely to her and so precious to her that whatever he would ask of her would. Would be good, because it would be what the Lord would have. And so she would have more of the Lord in it, as it were. And so I think that's what we tell our children that, you know, as we follow the Lord. Yeah, it might be hard, but. But it will draw us closer to Him. We'll know more of Him. We'll experience him in new ways. And that's the hope that we have, is that. That. That, you know, that we will be drawn to the Lord, even in whether it's hard circumstances or happy circumstances, that. That those things would cause us to love the Lord more.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you know what? I. I see. I have this conversation with my own kids a lot, with my own family and with kids who I'm serving, as, you know, even as a healthcare provider, because they come in and a lot of times, you know, they're sick or they're injured or they've experienced really tough things, and that can happen, and it's really hard. And then when I think about, you know, conversations we've had, even among my own kids, they see that hard things happen to everybody. You know, the. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Right. You know, there's. There's, There's tragedy and trauma and trials that happen to everybody. But the differentiating Mark is the hope that you have. And you can choose to have a hope that says, okay, well, this world is all there is. So I'm all that I have and I'm going to make the most of my circumstances and I'm going to build the best life that I can, and I'm going to follow my heart and I'm just going to make this the best that I can. Or you can trust in a God who is big enough. If, God was big enough to be. If he was small enough to be understood, understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And we can choose to trust that somehow, in a way we don't understand, that God will make all things new and that God will make all things right. And one day we'll live in heaven forever with Jesus, where there'll be no more crying and no more pain and no more suffering. And all of the former things will pass away. And we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and now is at the right hand of God. We have a Savior who is not unacquainted with suffering. And that sets us apart from every other religion in the world. And that is the important thing to share with kids. Christians are not called to follow celebrities. We are called to follow Christ. And Paul could say, imitate me, only because his life was pointing beyond his himself to Jesus. First Corinthians 3 reminds us not to elevate human leaders into something they were never meant to be. But most importantly, we can teach our kids that the heroes of our faith are witnesses pointing us to the ultimate hero. And this book, Megan, I thank you for it because it gives us something. A story, a real story. A story of courage, suffering, missions, obedience, and a woman who trusted God through circumstances as she never would have chosen and pointed us to Jesus. And that is the best thing we can do. I pray as we do that the Lord will bless you and keep you. I'll see you tomorrow.
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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Author Megan Hill joins Jessica to discuss the need for kids to have examples of ordinary people who trusted an extraordinary God. She shares about her new book for kids about the life of Christian Missionary Elisabeth Elliot.
https://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/contributors/megan-hill/
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/megan-hill/
https://giving.preborn.com/preborn/checkout/afa?sc=43490GF2022&campaign=404750
Chapters:
(02:50) A new children's biography about Elisabeth Elliot is worth talking about
(06:32) Megan Hill is the managing editor of the Gospel Coalition
(07:00) Megan, how did your love of Christian storytelling begin?
(11:25) Megan, what drew you to the life of Elisabeth Elliot?
(16:34) American Family Radio is listener supported and without financial support this podcast would not exist
(23:44) Sometimes sharing stories of suffering or hardship can make kids afraid
(27:50) Elisabeth Elliot's parents told her that chores are good missionary training
(28:58) What has it been like to share your stories with your own children?
(30:04) Reading about how C.S. Lewis came to faith is inspiring
(31:28) Corrie Ten Boom was imprisoned during WWII but forgave her captors
(33:59) Christianity is a historical religion; studying the New Testament is critical
(36:55) Megan Hill writes a children's book about Elisabeth Elliott
(40:07) As a children's book author, you talk about the benefits of reading
(45:45) What do you hope that families will take away from the life of Elisabeth Elliott?
(51:05) Preborn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
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