Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor,
We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn
PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com/AFR friend we're living in the defining moment. Today, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can order the abortion pill online, often before anyone has the chance to tell her she is loved, that she's not alone, or that there is hope. That's why you are needed right now. You were made for this moment. At PreBorn Network clinics, mothers are welcomed with compassion, practical support and a free ultrasound. And when she sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat for the very first time, fear often gives way to hope. In fact, more than 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound at a PreBorn Network clinic. That one moment can save a baby's life and open a mother's heart to the hope of Jesus Christ. This is our moment to stand. For those who cannot speak for themselves, just $28 provides one life saving ultrasound. $140 helps rescue five babies. Please don't wait. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby. If you're a business owner, would you consider a larger donation to claim a write off? Your best gift would be appreciated. A stand alone gift of $15,000 will sponsor an ultrasound machine for a needy clinic helping to save countless babies lives for years to come. All gifts are tax- deductible. Together we can save lives one heartbeat at a time. preborn.com/AFR 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, my favorite day of the week. It is Friday. Fry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yay.
Dr. Jessica Peck: As my kids like to say. And I'm back with
This week's healthy habit is being hopeful
you to talk about a healthy habit. Now, if you've been following along since January, you know that every Friday we talk about a new healthy habit for healthy families. There is no such thing as a perfect family family. But there is such a thing as a healthy family. And when we started off the year, we talked about four core spiritual disciplines. Then we talked about Six rhythms your family needs. We moved into communication patterns. Spent all summer talking about tech and just finished a series on safety. And today I'm m going to start my own version of the B attitudes. Not scripture, but attitudes that we can have to really help level set our families. And the first habit that we will talk about today, the first be attitude is to be hopeful. Now we hear this all the time. Is it really the worst time to be alive? This is one of my pet peeves, I have to say. When I work with kids all the time, the honest truth is they're getting the message from older generations and from culture that this is a terrible time to be alive and that the world used to be so much better. Oh, you should have seen it how I was growing up. Oh, we had this in our childhood and oh, we didn't have that. And the message and we mean. Well, we mean to share the things that we love about our childhood. But what we're really conveying to kids is yeah, there's not much hope for you don't believe me. Let me give you a few examples. Many of you may have seen the movie Back to the Future. Now I confess I've never seen the movie all the way through, but it is popular enough in pop culture. I'm sure many of you have seen it. Of course, it's a show, that was set, that was made in the 1980s about going way back in time to the 1950s and, and if they made that show today, it would be set in 1996. Okay, people, that is your wake up call. I don't know about you, but I felt a little old for that. But it's still a pop culture phenomenon. We, that movie was about looking back to the past and being nostalgic about that. Stranger Things, also a show I haven't watched and not one I'm recommending, but is very popular. It's a contemporary show that is watched by many, many young people. But here's the thing. It's set in the 1980s and I think it's I see it market. it's marketed very heavily towards nostalgia. Like this is what child looked like pre smartphone, pre social media, kind of more of a free range childhood we saw back in yesteryear. Maybe the TV show the Wonder Years that was built at looking backward at childhood, being nostalgic. Those things are good. But we often say, have you ever heard yourself even saying, I know I have kids, these right kids these days. And we see how we see all kinds of negative things about kids. And basically we're saying I had a better childhood than you. We saw this with the 90s kid phenomenon, the 80s kid phenomenon. You can go on to any social media and you can be drawn into a string of oh my goodness, I forgot about that. I forgot about Cabbage Patch Kids or Tamagotchis or whatever it was that you're nostalgic about. We even see this in what started as a political message, make America be great again. And now that has been marketed because they know that again part is the really powerful part of that phrase, like let's go back to what we were. Whether that is fill in the blank for any number of campaigns. You can see them le the marketing companies leveraging that nostalgia. And you see parenting narratives like we didn't have this when I was growing up. And times are really, these are often affectionate. We're affectionate for the time that I grow up. We grew up in. But when we. And we're not. I'm not saying stop telling stories about your childhood or stop being nostalgic or appreciative of your childhood. I know I am one of the most sentimental people around and I certainly can have some nostalgia for my growing up days pre smartphone where what did I do in my spare time? Well, I was apparently studying to be a professional grandmother. I, I cross stitched in high school, not apologizing for it. I'm nostalgic for that. These stories are prec.
What I'm asking you to do is to really pay attention to when you're sharing those stories, those anecdotes, those times with your kids, with your grandkids
What I'm asking you to do is to really pay attention to when you're sharing those stories, those anecdotes, those times with your kids, with your grandkids. Are you doing that to communicate gratitude for what you experienced or disappointment that your children and grandchildren are not getting to experience that? Now some of those observations are legitimate. Every generation is facing unique challenges and there are plenty of things in Gen Z, Gen Alpha that really are not good. And that's okay to call those out, but, but I'm asking you to think about what happens when our children repeatedly hear that their future is bleak. Because Gen Z, that's young adults and older teenagers, Gen alpha about age 15 and down to about age one. They're not just absorbing information about the world, the information that we're giving them, they're absorbing our interpretation of that information. They're not just taking that information and thinking, oh that's nice, I'm glad you had a good childhood. They think mine stinks compares to yours. Everything is falling apart. And it can really reinforce without them thinking about it audibly. They wouldn't be able to say this back to you, but it reinforces some core wiring for them that, hey, the world is really unsafe. Adults have lost all hope for the future. Nothing can really change. And the future is something to fear and to dread rather than something to steward or look forward to. So here is the key for what I want to communicate today. What if one of the healthiest habits that we can give our families isn't optimism about the future, but a, biblically grounded hope? What if instead of saying, hey, the world isn't what it used to be, we teach our kids, we flip that paradigm and we say, the world isn't what it one day will be. God is still in the work, in the middle of it, and he will redeem all of the broken things. So, yes, the world isn't what it was, but it's also not what it will be. And we can have hope in that now. Nostalgia is part of being human. One of the great things about younger generations is they're actually embracing it. You see a resurgence in selling only cameras, not a part of your phone, or listening to records again. Records are cool again. There's a natural affinity to think back to our own golden years, the best years of our life. We remember the music and the community, the family traditions, the friendships. A lot of us remember the freedoms that we had or the experiences that shaped us. And we often remember more how we felt more than we remember the complete reality of what actually was. Because every generation has its own struggles and blind spots and cultural problems. I mean, we can go through and point out cultural moments in each generation that are not worthy of remembrance. Let's just be honest. But our m memories can be curated, and that's a good thing. But here's an even better thing. Scripture gives us a theology of remembrance because there's an important distinction. Biblical remembrance isn't, oh, everything used to be better in the old days, everything was so much better. Biblical remembrance and looking back. The whole purpose of looking back and being nostalgic and remembering with warm feelings was, look what the Lord has done. Look what God has done. Look at the ways that God has been faithful. And that is a biblical concept. When we look back in the Bible, we see the people of God. Looking back, we see Israel repeatedly building memorials to re to. To really remember God's faithfulness. We and there's so many scriptures of that. Psalm 77, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you. Psalm 103, forget not all his benefits. And we see these celebrations of remembrance. We see Passover. Remember how God delivered you from Egypt. We see memorial stones where Israel placed stone stones at the Jordan so that future generations would say, what does this mean? And we can tell them about the deeds of the Lord. We see the Lord's Supper where the Lord himself said, do this in remembrance of me. Psalm 77, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. It remembers God's past faithfulness that restores our perspective. He's done it before, he will do it again. And Moses repeatedly told the Israelites to remember how God led them, how he provided them, how he sustained them. And we are instructed to give this testimony across generations. Parents are instructed to tell our children and our grandchildren what God has done so that faithfulness will not be forgotten. One of the my favorite hymns talks about raising your Ebenezer, which is really a remembrance. Samuel set up a stone saying, till now the Lord has helped us. And we raise that remembrance. God, our help and ages past, and other great words of a great hymn. God designed remembrance to strengthen our faith, not to amplify our fear, not to manufacture nostalgia about some of the things that may have been broken there. We can tell our kids, hey, there were some beautiful things about the world I grew up in. There were things I love that I wish that you could experience. And I'm so grateful for the memories that I have. But God was not finished with the world when I was young and he is not finished with it now. And one day he will make everything right. We don't need to turn our nostalgia into future generations generation's hopelessness. We can share our childhood stories without making the present generation feel like they inherited the worst version of the world and there's no hope. Because instead of saying, well, kids today don't know how good they have it, they're just not appreciative. We can say, hey, here's something beautiful I experienced growing up. Maybe it will help you. Maybe it's a little something that you need to pull into your life. Maybe that's a communication skill. Maybe that's a way of being off the grid. Maybe that's a way of enjoying nature. Maybe that's a way of being fully present in the moment.
Nostalgia can be an invitation to relationship building
Nostalgia can be an invitation to relationship building rather than an indictment of the world that they're living in with no action point going forward. Because there are reasons to have hope in the next generation. I hear a lot of negative talk a lot. That's really a lot fear based about Younger generations. But I am telling you, you can listen to so many shows that we've done where I've interviewed people who are boots on the ground, who are eye to eye, heart to heart with young people, and they are all incredibly optimistic, not even just cautiously optimistic, but wildly optimistic about what God is doing. We don't want to just say, talk about kids. This generation, mainly what I hear we as, talking about is they're addicted to technology. They're just using their smartphones all the time. They're anxious, they're entitled, they're distracted, they're confused, they're disconnected, they're disrespectful. Now, a lot of those challenges are really real for this generation, but they're not the whole story. And how are we going to gain influence? By leading with an indictment that lectures them and gives them no hope, instead of an invitation that invites them to a living hope. Because young people, at the same time, they're demonstrating remarkable creativity. This is one of the most entrepreneurial generations we have ever had. And while we like to criticize their dependence on technology, who do we call when we need help with our smartphone? I call my kids. I'm like, I need a fifth grader to show me how to use this. That technology fluency is really a great gift if it can be stewarded wisely. And that's why we have to teach them how to disciple that. How do they pull technology into the context of their faith? They're also willing to talk about open health, about openly about mental health. Now, there's a pendulum to that. And we don't want to medicalize every human emotion. That's normal on the spectrum of human feelings. But at the same time, it's okay to say, hey, yeah, I've got a mental health struggle, but God is still good. And here's what I'm doing, and here's the help that I'm getting, and here's maybe the therapy that I'm going to. God is still good. That's still a part of me. I don't feel like I have to not ever acknowledge that this generation desires authenticity much more than Paul's perfection. And I'm a Gen Xer, and I can tell you it was all about perfection. We may not have had social media, but it was all about the perf hair, the perfect bangs, the perfect hairspray. I know some of you girls are, are remembering that, but for you guys, the crease down the front of your pants, the perfect penny, and your penny loafers, whatever it may be. We, we really did not have any exemption from perfection.
This generation desires authenticity. They have passion for causes they believe matter.
This generation desires authenticity. They have passion for causes they believe matter. And we see young people stepping forward to lead in ways where with a, biblical, A biblically rooted courage that I admire, we also see creativity. They're finding all kinds of new ways to share the gospel in ways that have never been done before. New ways of ministry, new ways of sharing the word of God and the love of God. They have a willingness to question systems and ask, hey, is what we've always done before, is that really the best way to do it? We want to do something that has meaning and purpose, and we want our lives to matter. Now we can harness that for the good of God's kingdom. I think there's no limit on, what God can do. We don't have to romanticize the next generation to have hope for them. We don't have to romanticize our generation to have hope for them to be like it is for such a time as this. When we come back, I'll give you some practical ways that you can communicate hope and be hopeful in a world that seems like it's not. I'll be right back after this break.
Without people like you, this podcast would not exist
Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist? And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.net/give that's afr.net/give
All Sufficient Merit by Shane & Shane: At my savior's cross we're all sufficient Mary did what I could not. In love he condescended eternal alive without a bl the maker made to die the law could never save us Our lawlessness at one until the pure as far lamb had finally come it is done. It is m no more than I am paid in for all sufficient wearing now my own.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is all sufficient merit by Shane and Shane and on a day I'm talking about the habit of being hopeful. What else can we be hopeful in but for the wonderful love, and mercy and grace of Christ? If you hear tears in my voice, it's real. It's real. That is the only reason for hope in this world. We look around and culture will tell us that there is nothing to hope for. That the only hope, the best hope that we can have is our own hope to pull ourselves up by our own power to help ourselves to grow ourselves, to manifest our own destiny. I'M telling you there is no destiny that you can create. There is no identity that you can adopt.
There is no image that you can craft that is greater than; than the image that God created in you
There is no image that you can craft that is greater than. Than the image that God created in you. Your identity is. Is not something to create. It's something to receive from God. And God has given us the gift of His Son who it will give eternal life to anyone who asks, to anyone who believes that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him in him will not perish but have eternal life. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from m the dead, you will be saved. And you will access this eternal hope. And that is what I'm living in the light of. And that is the message that younger generations need to hear. No, we don't know what the future holds. Yes, it probably holds things that are scary. It probably holds war and conflict and tragedy and trial and trauma. We don't know specifically what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. And he is good even when the world is not. He is trustworthy. And I'm talking today about, about really conveying hope to younger generations to know that no matter what happens in this world, we have a hope of tomorrow. And when we look at young people, I really, I will. This is a strong word, but I despise the pessimism that avalanches towards them at. God has always raised up young leaders. And we know in Scripture in 1st Timothy 4:12, Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech and word. Indeed, we saw this in the Bible and Joseph, a very young man whose life was shaped through adversity. And we see Joseph, who encountered many things that were so unfair. And what was Joseph's response when what Satan intended for evil, God intended for good and the saving of many lives. We see Samuel, who heard God's voice when he was still a child and show and, and shared that voice with the priest, with, with Eli. We see David, an overlooked young shepherd who was chosen and uniquely prepared by God to lead a nation. We see Josiah, who became king as a child and he pursued reform. We see Daniel and his friends, young people who lived, lived faithfully. They lived counterculturally in a very hostile world. And we see Timothy, a young leader who Paul encouraged not to allow his age to become a limitation. And as he exhorted him, our job is not to tell young people the world is terrible. It is to teach them. It's not to tell them, it's to teach them the world is broken, but God is present. You have a purpose. You have a role. You can be part of what God is, is doing. That is such a dramatically different message, and I fear that we are failing in our job to do that. Romans 15:13 is one of my very favorite scriptures. May the God of hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound, in hope. Not just have a little bit, not just have enough to get through the day, not just have enough to hang on to when life gets really tough. You will, abound in hope. Paul doesn't say, okay, may your circumstances make you hopeful. May your children behave perfectly and make you hopeful. May the news become more encouraging and make you hopeful. He says, the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace. And those are two things that I believe Satan has come to steal in this world. He wants to steal our joy and steal our peace. And when he does that, then he also steals our hope. And we don't have hope because we know exactly what tomorrow will bring. We our hope is not rooted in a prediction or in a circumstance. It is rooted in a person. And we have hope because we know that person holds tomorrow. And we have a hope that does not disappoint. From Romans 5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not push to shame. Hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And talking the Holy Spirit is brought up in both of those words. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to abound in hope. Hope is not a denial of suffering. Sometimes suffering is the very context in which endurance and character are developed, and that produces hope. Hebrews 6:19. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Hope is an anchor. It weighs us down. It grounds us in the best possible way. It's not an escape hatch. It's not, something that we hold onto to fly us away somewhere over the rainbow. First Peter 1:3 says, we have been given a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is so different from the hope that the world offers through wishful thinking, through optimism. How many of you have seen a T shirt that says positive vibes Only that's not a bad thing. But if it's not grounded in the hope of Jesus Christ, then it's pretty shallow. We find hope in assuming everything will work out the way that we want. If it isn't, then you just, you be a go getter. You just, just do it yourself. Christian hope is shaped by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So how do we know that? Maybe you're saying yes to all the things. How do we build that hope at home? Well, number one, change your family conversation. Notice. Ask your kids, no matter how old they are, if they're little, if they're grown and out of the home, ask them to call out conversations that are centered around what's wrong, what's scary, what's happening in Washington, what's happening online, what's happening in culture.
When we start on our diatribes that our saturated with fear, invite your family to call that out
When we start on our diatribes that are saturated with fear, invite your family to call that out. I shared before recently I was able to visit with a pastor in the UK and we were talking about what was wrong in the world and things that are broken in the UK are. There's same things that are broken in here and culture. And the pastor finally said, this conversation has to stop. Why are we sitting around? We are fellowshipping with brothers and sisters who have come to us from across the pond. And yet all we're doing is talking about what's wrong? Where do you see God in the world? Where do you find hope? Where do you find encouragement? What's going well? Where is God at work? Even in the broken places. That's not to ignore the pain and suffering that's happening, but to make sure those conversations are grounded by hope. So ask where did you see something good today? Where did you see God at work today? What are you thankful for? What are you looking forward to? Who encouraged you today? What is something that you think God might be inviting you to do, preparing you to do? Those are way different conversations. So that's habit number one. Change your family conversation. Infuse it with hope. Habit number two, practice that God be still and know that he is God even. And know that God still moves. Practice looking for the ways that God still moves. I know some of you are singing an old song. I'm singing it in my head too. But God still moves in the hearts of his people. He still moves. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't slumber. Even though the world feels chaotic, God is still sovereign. Even though I'm disappointed, I'm hurt. God is still good even Though I don't know what happens next, God is still with me. He will never leave me or forsake me. Even though someone hurt me really badly, God is still able to redeem that hurt. Even though I can't fix this. Even though I can't see God at work, God is still at work. We need to give our children a framework for processing the reality that they're in without being consumed by it. That is what faithful families do. Fear. When we're fearful, we're consumed by our current reality. When we're faithful, we acknowledge that reality and then we pivot to what God is still doing. Number three. Tell stories of God's faithfulness. At dinner, at bedtime, in the car. Often we have trophies from academics or sports or things like that on our mantle. Make remembrance stones. Make a remembrance of something that that God did and put that evidence in your home. Maybe it's a picture of a time when God was with you. Maybe it's a keepsake from a loved one who taught you about God's goodness and really talk about these things. Tell me about a time when you saw God come through. If they're facing something that's scary, well, when have you been scared before and God has been there for you? When have you been worried about this before and God has been faithful. We can share answered prayers. We can share provision that we got that was, was unexpected, maybe even miraculous. We can share about people who God put in our lives to help us, about lessons that we learned through the hardship. Maybe we didn't see it at the time, but we see it now. Moments when a door closed and later you found out that was God's redirection. Maybe it's times that you didn't understand what God was doing until later. We can become carriers of the hope through generational testimonies. Number four. Let your family see your hope on full display. Let them see how you respond to uncertainty. They don't need parents who pretend everything is fine, who is sheltering them from everything. When they see something's wrong, we're telling them, oh, nothing's wrong, there's nothing to worry about. They need parents and grandparents who can say, yeah, that's a scary thing. Yep, I'm concerned about that too. I don't have all the answers. I wish it wasn't happening. But I am not afraid and I'm going to choose to not be afraid because God is with us. And at times when I, I, I fall back and I feel afraid, I'm going to remember that God has Given me a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. That is not weakness. That's not overexposure. That is healthy discipleship. Number five. Give your kids an eternal perspective. Colossians 3:2 tells us, Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. I remember my granny telling me this all the time. I would tell her, you know, one day I knew that I would live in a world without her, and I just couldn't imagine it. And I'd say, I can't imagine in your house not being here. And she'd say, jessica, these things are all going to get burned up in the fire, and you're not going to care about it because you're in heaven. Fix your mind on things that are unseen. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. This stuff is just stuff. And sometimes that stuff that we have is just stuff. And sometimes is really heavy, hard stuff. But it's still just stuff. And God will make it right. 2nd Corinthians 4:18 says, we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. And Romans 8:18 reminds us us, the present suffering cannot be compared with the glory that is to come. So we can teach our kids this moment is real. But it's not all there is. Their grades aren't everything. Their friendships aren't everything. Their social media isn't everything. Politics aren't everything. Cultural chaos isn't everything. Disappointments isn't everything.
Jesus is everything. He is bigger than the moment they're living in
Jesus is everything. He is bigger than the moment they're living in. He is bigger than the promises that we're facing. Hope is not something that we just wait to feel when our circumstances improve. Hope is something that we are actively daily practicing if it's, on practice, because it won't be perfect. And we can do that because of what we know to be true about God. We can remember what God has done. We can recognize where God is working, including in the next generation. And we can rehearse. We can keep telling our family the truth about who God is and what he has promised. We don't have to convince our children that the world is perfect or that everything's going to be okay. We can't give them that reassurance. Our kids know that. And as much as we want to tell them that, we can't tell them that. But we have the opportunity to teach them that God is faithful. We have a savior who is not unacquainted with suffering. We have a savior who knows suffering very well. We have a God who gave his own son. If he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up willingly for us all, how will he not also, along with that, graciously give us all things? The Lord God is a son and a shield. He gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. And one day will understand the things that we don't understand today. Or we won't understand them because they won't matter anymore. We'll be in the presence of God and we can tell kids that you are not born into the wrong generation. You aren't born at the worst time in the world. You were born into this generation for such a time as this, and God is not surprised that you are here. I want to repeat to you Romans 15:13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound, in hope. Make hope a habit, because that everyday habit becomes a generational legacy of hope. Now, when we come back, I'm going to talk about something really, really tough, but something we need to talk about. This is Suicide Prevention Month and I hope that you will come back and listen to the hope that I have for you. If you're walking through that or even if you're not. More help and hope right after this break.
Mark Oss: When you hear the letters afr, there are a lot of things that could come to mind. Automotive Finders Resource, Alligator Frying Research or the association of Flying Rednecks. All great organizations, no doubt.
But we hope the first thing that comes to mind when you hear AFR is American Family Radio
But we hope the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear AFR is American Family Radio, A, listener supported network dedicated to sharing the gospel and promoting godly values. God expects maturity in us. We should not be comfortable living with habitual sins. So that's a news cycle item is at the top. News story to God? No, because he warned us.
: Ah. About all of this. Now, I don't care how nice you think you are, if you're not telling someone the truth, you're not being loving to them. Make no mistake, we're not anglers from Red Bay, but we are afr, American Family Radio. And we're happy you're listening.
Living Hope by Phil Wickham: Who could imagine so great a mercy the sea what heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages step down from glory to where my sin and bear my shame the cross has spoken I am for forgiven the King of kings calls me Is all beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever Jesus Christ my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise, praise the One who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me? You have broken every chain? This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living. Then came the morning that sealed the promise? Your buried body began to breathe? Out of the silence the roaring lion declared the grave has no flame on me, Jesus. Yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me? You have broken in every chain? There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have risen, broken every chain? This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Living Hope by Phil Wickham. And if you're wondering, yep, I just broke for a praise party right there on this Friday. I. I am so convicted even by the words that I'm sharing with you. I'm telling you, this generation needs to know about a hope that is living. And we need to tell them the truth that when came the more. Then came the morning and the and your buried body began to breathe. We have hope in a resurrected Savior. So I hope you turn that up. I, hope that you let the truth of that wash over you. And I. I love nothing more than hope. That is the whole mission of my ministry here to you is to prescribe hope for healthy families. And one of the most beautiful things about this is I hear back from some of you from time to time about hope that you have found through the ministry here on this show and others on American Family Radio. And if the Lord has used American Family Radio in your life, if. If we've been there and given you just the right thought at just the right time, please share your story. We love to hear it. We'd love to hear how Christ has used this ministry in your life. You can call and just share your testimony just for a minute or two. We have a listener storyline. That number is 877-876-8893. That's 877-876-88 93. And you never know that. We may use that story in share a thon, but we need to hear stories of hope. Now before we end our time together, I want to talk to you about something really serious. And, I'll give you a listener advisory. I'm going to talk about the issue of suicide, but it's something that we need to talk about and that we need to hold on to hope. And I also want to say I'm just giving you Educational information, not any individualized medical or mental health advice. You should definitely seek professional evaluation for any suicidal thoughts, ideation, mental health concerns like depression, anxiety. You definitely need to talk to a mental health provider. But let's talk about talking about it in our homes, because talking about suicide does not put ideas into someone's head that were not there before. In fact, asking can save lives. And talking about it may open a door that may allow someone to tell you tell, to tell you what they are carrying. Asking saves lives. Don't be afraid to ask about it, to talk about it.
Suicide is preventable, but prevention begins way long before a crisis
Suicide is preventable, but prevention begins way long before a crisis. And suicide is now depending on how you look at the statistics and how you cut it. It's the first or second is the, one of the leading causes of death for young people. And that is just not okay. And in 2023, 20% of, US high school students, that's about one in five seriously considered attempting suicide. And about 10% reported an attempt in the previous year. This is definitely that I see in my clinical practice. There really is not any day that I'm working in the hospital that I don't see a kid who is dealing with this. And, and we don't need to really, we know that our kids are carrying this burden, but there are things that we can do to help and to give hope. Now suicide is rarely attributable to one event or one diagnosis. Sometimes that can happen, and we're seeing that happen in cancel culture with kids may do something one time and then they're, they have so much shame with that they may engage in sexting one time and then think, I cannot face the shame of that. And at that point they become more afraid of dying than they, they're more afraid of living than they are afraid of dying. But most of the time risk is going to emerge from multiple factors. Individual risk factors, relational community, also those risk factors in the society. And we see a lot of increased risk from the cultural context because not only do we see a mental health epidemic, we see social isolation, we see loneliness, we see cyber bullying, increased academic pressure, increased pressure to be perfect on social media. We do see, substance use continuing. That's always been a risk factor in teens. But family disruption and, and especially digital environments that really intensify that comparison conflict and exposure to harmful con, content. And we still have stigma and fear that makes asking for help seem really, really difficult. And we know that about half of people who die by suicide, they do have a known diagnosed mental health condition. And so that means that people who have mental health conditions, we need extra safety supports around them. It also means the other half don't have such a known diagnosis at the time. So you may not see anything. So prevention can't simply be, well, watch for signs because sometimes there are no outward signs. So instead of just asking what's wrong with my child? And, and is, does my child have these And I'm afraid and let me make sure you're, you're not thinking that, are you? And you're not doing this, are you? We need to ask that flip the paradigm again and take a strengths based approach to say, what is helping my child stay connected to life? Life. Because we do know there are protective factors. We need to invest our energy into those protective factors, not just into letting it feed our fear that those protective factors are being connected to family, having trusted adults around them in their life they know they can go to. I've talked about the five adults that every kid needs in their life. We talked about friendship and belonging. We've talked about school connection. Kids need coping. Those kids who have coping and problem solving skills, when they have tough emotions, those are protective factors. The kids that have a reason for living, they know their purpose, their identity. They feel wanted and they feel purposeful.
Those kids who have a strong cultural and spiritual identity with their family, that's protective
Those kids who have a strong cultural and spiritual identity with their family, that's protective. Those, that connection is protection. And we can't wait until our kids are in crisis to build the relationship that we hope they'll use in that crisis. We've got to build that before. So prevention means means noticing things like changes in sleep or eating or school functioning or friendships or mood or being isolated, just anything where that little spidey sense says something is off. And anytime anybody talks, even in a joking context about wanting to die or the world would be better off without me or I feel like a burden or I'm giving things away. You know, if they say anything about that, we need to step in and say, say, are you talking about killing yourself? Are you talking about suicide? And I know those things can be really difficult to ask about. Asking does not give them ideas. And we need to say, hey, I take that seriously. I care about you and I really want to know. Because a lot of times kids will just, and not just kids, adults too. They'll just kind of float a message out there to see how is this received. We need to stop that. And if they say, yes, I am, then the question to come after that is, have you thought about a plan? And I know that may seem really Uncomfortable. But if the answer is yes, then that means you have discovered an opportunity for immediate emergent intervention. You need to say, hey, we need to get you to somebody right now. Whether that's a mental healthcare provider, if it's an emergency room, a, trusted adult. You need to get that person to somebody right now, immediately, emergently. If they say no, I'm just kind of thinking about it, then that's urgent. You need to get them some mental health help as soon as possible. So asking kids not just, how was your day? But just say, hey, what's been going on with you? What's weighing on you? What's encouraging you? Who do you talk to when things are hard? What do you. What's something you're worried about that you haven't told me about yet? Just really facilitate those conversation skills through relationship building and help our kids cultivate purpose and meaning in life and meaningful relationships.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Who.
Dr. Jessica Peck: From people who are going to convey, I care about you, I care about your future. Give them activities that give them competence and joy. Those things are really, really important. And when somebody shares something with you, the first thing that you could say, this is not a pop quiz for, oh, do I have the right Bible verse or the right words of wisdom? You just say, hey, thank you so much for trusting me to share that with me. I know that that's really heavy. That must have been really hard to show share. Let's see. Who do we need to bring in here to make sure that you get the help and the hope that you need? I want to. I want to help you. I'm sorry you're feeling this way because if you're not prepared to deal with that, if you're not prepared to respond to that, if you think I'm not a trained counselor, don't worry because you don't have to be. Just being there, showing some love and care and connecting them to someone who can help. That is all that you need to do. Those are the ways that we need, need to keep kids safe. So I want to make sure that you know about the suicide and crisis lifeline. The number is 9, 8, 8. Now, we've seen, we know in a medical emergency or in a another kind of emergency where physical safety is. Is important, you can call 911. 988-IS for mental health. And we've seen since the initiation of that, the statistics have really been very dramatic in showing that this effort, calling out and calling someone really does help. And sometimes it's hard for kids to come forward to their parents with thoughts that they're having because they think I don't want them to worry and I don't want them to think less of me. And I, I'm also afraid of what they might do. Maybe they'll freak out, maybe they'll, they won't let me, you know, have my phone or something like that. So sometimes they can reach out to someone who feels like it's a lower threshold. So make sure that your teenagers have this number in their phone to give to a friend. And if a friend seems hopeless, just, they're not saying that they're feeling, that they're having any thoughts of self harm, but just, just say, hey, this is a, ah, this is a crisis lifeline. This is just a mental health number. You can call or text if you, if you ever need to. I just want you to have it. And that is, that's really important now. What we don't do is we don't shame them or threaten them or make it about how that affects you. How could you do this? How you think that? Don't you know how that would hurt or dismiss it as attention seeking? No, you're not. No. We take it all seriously. We don't assume they're safe just because they're better. Because sometimes if they're struggling and then they're making a plan that can seem better. We need to make sure that we are having open conversation about that we don't want to say. You just need to pray more about it. Don't be anxious for anything. We, we can tell them we can bring our deepest pain to God while also accepting that the help he provides can come through people, through counseling, through community, through professional care. And if there's someone out there who's experienced the pain of this on a personal level, I want you to know your grief is real and your loss is real. You don't have to minimize it because it was complicated. You're allowed to grab, grieve without having all of the answers you think, why didn't I know? Could I have stopped it? Why did they tell me? Some questions like that may never have complete answers this side of life. But their death does not erase their life. Their final moments, their final decision, their final struggle does not encompass the entirety of who they were. You are not responsible for carrying the impossible burden of hindsight.
Hindsight gives us information that we didn't have at the time
Hindsight gives us information that we didn't have at the time. And you can hold complicated emotions. Grief can coexist with love and anger and confusion and relief and guilt and sadness and even moments of laughter and gratitude. You don't have to experience that grief in one particular way. You don't have to rush towards an, explanation. Sometimes the most honest prayer is God, I just don't understand. He is not frightened by your confusion. God is not frightened by your questions. And you don't have to walk this grief journey alone. Find people who can sit with you without trying to explain away your pain and know that it was not your fault. Hope doesn't mean forgetting. Hope doesn't mean we aren't hurting. It doesn't require answers. Is not pretending the worst didn't happen. We can still remember the best, even in light of the worst. And hope is not saying everything's going to be okay. It's whatever happens, God will never leave us. He will never abandon us. We can grieve and we can still hope. We can have unanswered questions and we can still hope. We can walk through the darkest valley and we can still have hope and confidence in the character of God. And whatever you're walking through today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And I'll see you right back here on the. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn.
PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com/AFR the views and
Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor,
We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn
PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com/AFR friend we're living in the defining moment. Today, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can order the abortion pill online, often before anyone has the chance to tell her she is loved, that she's not alone, or that there is hope. That's why you are needed right now. You were made for this moment. At PreBorn Network clinics, mothers are welcomed with compassion, practical support and a free ultrasound. And when she sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat for the very first time, fear often gives way to hope. In fact, more than 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound at a PreBorn Network clinic. That one moment can save a baby's life and open a mother's heart to the hope of Jesus Christ. This is our moment to stand. For those who cannot speak for themselves, just $28 provides one life saving ultrasound. $140 helps rescue five babies. Please don't wait. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby. If you're a business owner, would you consider a larger donation to claim a write off? Your best gift would be appreciated. A stand alone gift of $15,000 will sponsor an ultrasound machine for a needy clinic helping to save countless babies lives for years to come. All gifts are tax- deductible. Together we can save lives one heartbeat at a time. preborn.com/AFR 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, my favorite day of the week. It is Friday. Fry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yay.
Dr. Jessica Peck: As my kids like to say. And I'm back with
This week's healthy habit is being hopeful
you to talk about a healthy habit. Now, if you've been following along since January, you know that every Friday we talk about a new healthy habit for healthy families. There is no such thing as a perfect family family. But there is such a thing as a healthy family. And when we started off the year, we talked about four core spiritual disciplines. Then we talked about Six rhythms your family needs. We moved into communication patterns. Spent all summer talking about tech and just finished a series on safety. And today I'm m going to start my own version of the B attitudes. Not scripture, but attitudes that we can have to really help level set our families. And the first habit that we will talk about today, the first be attitude is to be hopeful. Now we hear this all the time. Is it really the worst time to be alive? This is one of my pet peeves, I have to say. When I work with kids all the time, the honest truth is they're getting the message from older generations and from culture that this is a terrible time to be alive and that the world used to be so much better. Oh, you should have seen it how I was growing up. Oh, we had this in our childhood and oh, we didn't have that. And the message and we mean. Well, we mean to share the things that we love about our childhood. But what we're really conveying to kids is yeah, there's not much hope for you don't believe me. Let me give you a few examples. Many of you may have seen the movie Back to the Future. Now I confess I've never seen the movie all the way through, but it is popular enough in pop culture. I'm sure many of you have seen it. Of course, it's a show, that was set, that was made in the 1980s about going way back in time to the 1950s and, and if they made that show today, it would be set in 1996. Okay, people, that is your wake up call. I don't know about you, but I felt a little old for that. But it's still a pop culture phenomenon. We, that movie was about looking back to the past and being nostalgic about that. Stranger Things, also a show I haven't watched and not one I'm recommending, but is very popular. It's a contemporary show that is watched by many, many young people. But here's the thing. It's set in the 1980s and I think it's I see it market. it's marketed very heavily towards nostalgia. Like this is what child looked like pre smartphone, pre social media, kind of more of a free range childhood we saw back in yesteryear. Maybe the TV show the Wonder Years that was built at looking backward at childhood, being nostalgic. Those things are good. But we often say, have you ever heard yourself even saying, I know I have kids, these right kids these days. And we see how we see all kinds of negative things about kids. And basically we're saying I had a better childhood than you. We saw this with the 90s kid phenomenon, the 80s kid phenomenon. You can go on to any social media and you can be drawn into a string of oh my goodness, I forgot about that. I forgot about Cabbage Patch Kids or Tamagotchis or whatever it was that you're nostalgic about. We even see this in what started as a political message, make America be great again. And now that has been marketed because they know that again part is the really powerful part of that phrase, like let's go back to what we were. Whether that is fill in the blank for any number of campaigns. You can see them le the marketing companies leveraging that nostalgia. And you see parenting narratives like we didn't have this when I was growing up. And times are really, these are often affectionate. We're affectionate for the time that I grow up. We grew up in. But when we. And we're not. I'm not saying stop telling stories about your childhood or stop being nostalgic or appreciative of your childhood. I know I am one of the most sentimental people around and I certainly can have some nostalgia for my growing up days pre smartphone where what did I do in my spare time? Well, I was apparently studying to be a professional grandmother. I, I cross stitched in high school, not apologizing for it. I'm nostalgic for that. These stories are prec.
What I'm asking you to do is to really pay attention to when you're sharing those stories, those anecdotes, those times with your kids, with your grandkids
What I'm asking you to do is to really pay attention to when you're sharing those stories, those anecdotes, those times with your kids, with your grandkids. Are you doing that to communicate gratitude for what you experienced or disappointment that your children and grandchildren are not getting to experience that? Now some of those observations are legitimate. Every generation is facing unique challenges and there are plenty of things in Gen Z, Gen Alpha that really are not good. And that's okay to call those out, but, but I'm asking you to think about what happens when our children repeatedly hear that their future is bleak. Because Gen Z, that's young adults and older teenagers, Gen alpha about age 15 and down to about age one. They're not just absorbing information about the world, the information that we're giving them, they're absorbing our interpretation of that information. They're not just taking that information and thinking, oh that's nice, I'm glad you had a good childhood. They think mine stinks compares to yours. Everything is falling apart. And it can really reinforce without them thinking about it audibly. They wouldn't be able to say this back to you, but it reinforces some core wiring for them that, hey, the world is really unsafe. Adults have lost all hope for the future. Nothing can really change. And the future is something to fear and to dread rather than something to steward or look forward to. So here is the key for what I want to communicate today. What if one of the healthiest habits that we can give our families isn't optimism about the future, but a, biblically grounded hope? What if instead of saying, hey, the world isn't what it used to be, we teach our kids, we flip that paradigm and we say, the world isn't what it one day will be. God is still in the work, in the middle of it, and he will redeem all of the broken things. So, yes, the world isn't what it was, but it's also not what it will be. And we can have hope in that now. Nostalgia is part of being human. One of the great things about younger generations is they're actually embracing it. You see a resurgence in selling only cameras, not a part of your phone, or listening to records again. Records are cool again. There's a natural affinity to think back to our own golden years, the best years of our life. We remember the music and the community, the family traditions, the friendships. A lot of us remember the freedoms that we had or the experiences that shaped us. And we often remember more how we felt more than we remember the complete reality of what actually was. Because every generation has its own struggles and blind spots and cultural problems. I mean, we can go through and point out cultural moments in each generation that are not worthy of remembrance. Let's just be honest. But our m memories can be curated, and that's a good thing. But here's an even better thing. Scripture gives us a theology of remembrance because there's an important distinction. Biblical remembrance isn't, oh, everything used to be better in the old days, everything was so much better. Biblical remembrance and looking back. The whole purpose of looking back and being nostalgic and remembering with warm feelings was, look what the Lord has done. Look what God has done. Look at the ways that God has been faithful. And that is a biblical concept. When we look back in the Bible, we see the people of God. Looking back, we see Israel repeatedly building memorials to re to. To really remember God's faithfulness. We and there's so many scriptures of that. Psalm 77, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you. Psalm 103, forget not all his benefits. And we see these celebrations of remembrance. We see Passover. Remember how God delivered you from Egypt. We see memorial stones where Israel placed stone stones at the Jordan so that future generations would say, what does this mean? And we can tell them about the deeds of the Lord. We see the Lord's Supper where the Lord himself said, do this in remembrance of me. Psalm 77, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. It remembers God's past faithfulness that restores our perspective. He's done it before, he will do it again. And Moses repeatedly told the Israelites to remember how God led them, how he provided them, how he sustained them. And we are instructed to give this testimony across generations. Parents are instructed to tell our children and our grandchildren what God has done so that faithfulness will not be forgotten. One of the my favorite hymns talks about raising your Ebenezer, which is really a remembrance. Samuel set up a stone saying, till now the Lord has helped us. And we raise that remembrance. God, our help and ages past, and other great words of a great hymn. God designed remembrance to strengthen our faith, not to amplify our fear, not to manufacture nostalgia about some of the things that may have been broken there. We can tell our kids, hey, there were some beautiful things about the world I grew up in. There were things I love that I wish that you could experience. And I'm so grateful for the memories that I have. But God was not finished with the world when I was young and he is not finished with it now. And one day he will make everything right. We don't need to turn our nostalgia into future generations generation's hopelessness. We can share our childhood stories without making the present generation feel like they inherited the worst version of the world and there's no hope. Because instead of saying, well, kids today don't know how good they have it, they're just not appreciative. We can say, hey, here's something beautiful I experienced growing up. Maybe it will help you. Maybe it's a little something that you need to pull into your life. Maybe that's a communication skill. Maybe that's a way of being off the grid. Maybe that's a way of enjoying nature. Maybe that's a way of being fully present in the moment.
Nostalgia can be an invitation to relationship building
Nostalgia can be an invitation to relationship building rather than an indictment of the world that they're living in with no action point going forward. Because there are reasons to have hope in the next generation. I hear a lot of negative talk a lot. That's really a lot fear based about Younger generations. But I am telling you, you can listen to so many shows that we've done where I've interviewed people who are boots on the ground, who are eye to eye, heart to heart with young people, and they are all incredibly optimistic, not even just cautiously optimistic, but wildly optimistic about what God is doing. We don't want to just say, talk about kids. This generation, mainly what I hear we as, talking about is they're addicted to technology. They're just using their smartphones all the time. They're anxious, they're entitled, they're distracted, they're confused, they're disconnected, they're disrespectful. Now, a lot of those challenges are really real for this generation, but they're not the whole story. And how are we going to gain influence? By leading with an indictment that lectures them and gives them no hope, instead of an invitation that invites them to a living hope. Because young people, at the same time, they're demonstrating remarkable creativity. This is one of the most entrepreneurial generations we have ever had. And while we like to criticize their dependence on technology, who do we call when we need help with our smartphone? I call my kids. I'm like, I need a fifth grader to show me how to use this. That technology fluency is really a great gift if it can be stewarded wisely. And that's why we have to teach them how to disciple that. How do they pull technology into the context of their faith? They're also willing to talk about open health, about openly about mental health. Now, there's a pendulum to that. And we don't want to medicalize every human emotion. That's normal on the spectrum of human feelings. But at the same time, it's okay to say, hey, yeah, I've got a mental health struggle, but God is still good. And here's what I'm doing, and here's the help that I'm getting, and here's maybe the therapy that I'm going to. God is still good. That's still a part of me. I don't feel like I have to not ever acknowledge that this generation desires authenticity much more than Paul's perfection. And I'm a Gen Xer, and I can tell you it was all about perfection. We may not have had social media, but it was all about the perf hair, the perfect bangs, the perfect hairspray. I know some of you girls are, are remembering that, but for you guys, the crease down the front of your pants, the perfect penny, and your penny loafers, whatever it may be. We, we really did not have any exemption from perfection.
This generation desires authenticity. They have passion for causes they believe matter.
This generation desires authenticity. They have passion for causes they believe matter. And we see young people stepping forward to lead in ways where with a, biblical, A biblically rooted courage that I admire, we also see creativity. They're finding all kinds of new ways to share the gospel in ways that have never been done before. New ways of ministry, new ways of sharing the word of God and the love of God. They have a willingness to question systems and ask, hey, is what we've always done before, is that really the best way to do it? We want to do something that has meaning and purpose, and we want our lives to matter. Now we can harness that for the good of God's kingdom. I think there's no limit on, what God can do. We don't have to romanticize the next generation to have hope for them. We don't have to romanticize our generation to have hope for them to be like it is for such a time as this. When we come back, I'll give you some practical ways that you can communicate hope and be hopeful in a world that seems like it's not. I'll be right back after this break.
Without people like you, this podcast would not exist
Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist? And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.net/give that's afr.net/give
All Sufficient Merit by Shane & Shane: At my savior's cross we're all sufficient Mary did what I could not. In love he condescended eternal alive without a bl the maker made to die the law could never save us Our lawlessness at one until the pure as far lamb had finally come it is done. It is m no more than I am paid in for all sufficient wearing now my own.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is all sufficient merit by Shane and Shane and on a day I'm talking about the habit of being hopeful. What else can we be hopeful in but for the wonderful love, and mercy and grace of Christ? If you hear tears in my voice, it's real. It's real. That is the only reason for hope in this world. We look around and culture will tell us that there is nothing to hope for. That the only hope, the best hope that we can have is our own hope to pull ourselves up by our own power to help ourselves to grow ourselves, to manifest our own destiny. I'M telling you there is no destiny that you can create. There is no identity that you can adopt.
There is no image that you can craft that is greater than; than the image that God created in you
There is no image that you can craft that is greater than. Than the image that God created in you. Your identity is. Is not something to create. It's something to receive from God. And God has given us the gift of His Son who it will give eternal life to anyone who asks, to anyone who believes that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him in him will not perish but have eternal life. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from m the dead, you will be saved. And you will access this eternal hope. And that is what I'm living in the light of. And that is the message that younger generations need to hear. No, we don't know what the future holds. Yes, it probably holds things that are scary. It probably holds war and conflict and tragedy and trial and trauma. We don't know specifically what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. And he is good even when the world is not. He is trustworthy. And I'm talking today about, about really conveying hope to younger generations to know that no matter what happens in this world, we have a hope of tomorrow. And when we look at young people, I really, I will. This is a strong word, but I despise the pessimism that avalanches towards them at. God has always raised up young leaders. And we know in Scripture in 1st Timothy 4:12, Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech and word. Indeed, we saw this in the Bible and Joseph, a very young man whose life was shaped through adversity. And we see Joseph, who encountered many things that were so unfair. And what was Joseph's response when what Satan intended for evil, God intended for good and the saving of many lives. We see Samuel, who heard God's voice when he was still a child and show and, and shared that voice with the priest, with, with Eli. We see David, an overlooked young shepherd who was chosen and uniquely prepared by God to lead a nation. We see Josiah, who became king as a child and he pursued reform. We see Daniel and his friends, young people who lived, lived faithfully. They lived counterculturally in a very hostile world. And we see Timothy, a young leader who Paul encouraged not to allow his age to become a limitation. And as he exhorted him, our job is not to tell young people the world is terrible. It is to teach them. It's not to tell them, it's to teach them the world is broken, but God is present. You have a purpose. You have a role. You can be part of what God is, is doing. That is such a dramatically different message, and I fear that we are failing in our job to do that. Romans 15:13 is one of my very favorite scriptures. May the God of hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound, in hope. Not just have a little bit, not just have enough to get through the day, not just have enough to hang on to when life gets really tough. You will, abound in hope. Paul doesn't say, okay, may your circumstances make you hopeful. May your children behave perfectly and make you hopeful. May the news become more encouraging and make you hopeful. He says, the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace. And those are two things that I believe Satan has come to steal in this world. He wants to steal our joy and steal our peace. And when he does that, then he also steals our hope. And we don't have hope because we know exactly what tomorrow will bring. We our hope is not rooted in a prediction or in a circumstance. It is rooted in a person. And we have hope because we know that person holds tomorrow. And we have a hope that does not disappoint. From Romans 5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not push to shame. Hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And talking the Holy Spirit is brought up in both of those words. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to abound in hope. Hope is not a denial of suffering. Sometimes suffering is the very context in which endurance and character are developed, and that produces hope. Hebrews 6:19. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Hope is an anchor. It weighs us down. It grounds us in the best possible way. It's not an escape hatch. It's not, something that we hold onto to fly us away somewhere over the rainbow. First Peter 1:3 says, we have been given a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is so different from the hope that the world offers through wishful thinking, through optimism. How many of you have seen a T shirt that says positive vibes Only that's not a bad thing. But if it's not grounded in the hope of Jesus Christ, then it's pretty shallow. We find hope in assuming everything will work out the way that we want. If it isn't, then you just, you be a go getter. You just, just do it yourself. Christian hope is shaped by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So how do we know that? Maybe you're saying yes to all the things. How do we build that hope at home? Well, number one, change your family conversation. Notice. Ask your kids, no matter how old they are, if they're little, if they're grown and out of the home, ask them to call out conversations that are centered around what's wrong, what's scary, what's happening in Washington, what's happening online, what's happening in culture.
When we start on our diatribes that our saturated with fear, invite your family to call that out
When we start on our diatribes that are saturated with fear, invite your family to call that out. I shared before recently I was able to visit with a pastor in the UK and we were talking about what was wrong in the world and things that are broken in the UK are. There's same things that are broken in here and culture. And the pastor finally said, this conversation has to stop. Why are we sitting around? We are fellowshipping with brothers and sisters who have come to us from across the pond. And yet all we're doing is talking about what's wrong? Where do you see God in the world? Where do you find hope? Where do you find encouragement? What's going well? Where is God at work? Even in the broken places. That's not to ignore the pain and suffering that's happening, but to make sure those conversations are grounded by hope. So ask where did you see something good today? Where did you see God at work today? What are you thankful for? What are you looking forward to? Who encouraged you today? What is something that you think God might be inviting you to do, preparing you to do? Those are way different conversations. So that's habit number one. Change your family conversation. Infuse it with hope. Habit number two, practice that God be still and know that he is God even. And know that God still moves. Practice looking for the ways that God still moves. I know some of you are singing an old song. I'm singing it in my head too. But God still moves in the hearts of his people. He still moves. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't slumber. Even though the world feels chaotic, God is still sovereign. Even though I'm disappointed, I'm hurt. God is still good even Though I don't know what happens next, God is still with me. He will never leave me or forsake me. Even though someone hurt me really badly, God is still able to redeem that hurt. Even though I can't fix this. Even though I can't see God at work, God is still at work. We need to give our children a framework for processing the reality that they're in without being consumed by it. That is what faithful families do. Fear. When we're fearful, we're consumed by our current reality. When we're faithful, we acknowledge that reality and then we pivot to what God is still doing. Number three. Tell stories of God's faithfulness. At dinner, at bedtime, in the car. Often we have trophies from academics or sports or things like that on our mantle. Make remembrance stones. Make a remembrance of something that that God did and put that evidence in your home. Maybe it's a picture of a time when God was with you. Maybe it's a keepsake from a loved one who taught you about God's goodness and really talk about these things. Tell me about a time when you saw God come through. If they're facing something that's scary, well, when have you been scared before and God has been there for you? When have you been worried about this before and God has been faithful. We can share answered prayers. We can share provision that we got that was, was unexpected, maybe even miraculous. We can share about people who God put in our lives to help us, about lessons that we learned through the hardship. Maybe we didn't see it at the time, but we see it now. Moments when a door closed and later you found out that was God's redirection. Maybe it's times that you didn't understand what God was doing until later. We can become carriers of the hope through generational testimonies. Number four. Let your family see your hope on full display. Let them see how you respond to uncertainty. They don't need parents who pretend everything is fine, who is sheltering them from everything. When they see something's wrong, we're telling them, oh, nothing's wrong, there's nothing to worry about. They need parents and grandparents who can say, yeah, that's a scary thing. Yep, I'm concerned about that too. I don't have all the answers. I wish it wasn't happening. But I am not afraid and I'm going to choose to not be afraid because God is with us. And at times when I, I, I fall back and I feel afraid, I'm going to remember that God has Given me a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. That is not weakness. That's not overexposure. That is healthy discipleship. Number five. Give your kids an eternal perspective. Colossians 3:2 tells us, Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. I remember my granny telling me this all the time. I would tell her, you know, one day I knew that I would live in a world without her, and I just couldn't imagine it. And I'd say, I can't imagine in your house not being here. And she'd say, jessica, these things are all going to get burned up in the fire, and you're not going to care about it because you're in heaven. Fix your mind on things that are unseen. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. This stuff is just stuff. And sometimes that stuff that we have is just stuff. And sometimes is really heavy, hard stuff. But it's still just stuff. And God will make it right. 2nd Corinthians 4:18 says, we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. And Romans 8:18 reminds us us, the present suffering cannot be compared with the glory that is to come. So we can teach our kids this moment is real. But it's not all there is. Their grades aren't everything. Their friendships aren't everything. Their social media isn't everything. Politics aren't everything. Cultural chaos isn't everything. Disappointments isn't everything.
Jesus is everything. He is bigger than the moment they're living in
Jesus is everything. He is bigger than the moment they're living in. He is bigger than the promises that we're facing. Hope is not something that we just wait to feel when our circumstances improve. Hope is something that we are actively daily practicing if it's, on practice, because it won't be perfect. And we can do that because of what we know to be true about God. We can remember what God has done. We can recognize where God is working, including in the next generation. And we can rehearse. We can keep telling our family the truth about who God is and what he has promised. We don't have to convince our children that the world is perfect or that everything's going to be okay. We can't give them that reassurance. Our kids know that. And as much as we want to tell them that, we can't tell them that. But we have the opportunity to teach them that God is faithful. We have a savior who is not unacquainted with suffering. We have a savior who knows suffering very well. We have a God who gave his own son. If he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up willingly for us all, how will he not also, along with that, graciously give us all things? The Lord God is a son and a shield. He gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. And one day will understand the things that we don't understand today. Or we won't understand them because they won't matter anymore. We'll be in the presence of God and we can tell kids that you are not born into the wrong generation. You aren't born at the worst time in the world. You were born into this generation for such a time as this, and God is not surprised that you are here. I want to repeat to you Romans 15:13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound, in hope. Make hope a habit, because that everyday habit becomes a generational legacy of hope. Now, when we come back, I'm going to talk about something really, really tough, but something we need to talk about. This is Suicide Prevention Month and I hope that you will come back and listen to the hope that I have for you. If you're walking through that or even if you're not. More help and hope right after this break.
Mark Oss: When you hear the letters afr, there are a lot of things that could come to mind. Automotive Finders Resource, Alligator Frying Research or the association of Flying Rednecks. All great organizations, no doubt.
But we hope the first thing that comes to mind when you hear AFR is American Family Radio
But we hope the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear AFR is American Family Radio, A, listener supported network dedicated to sharing the gospel and promoting godly values. God expects maturity in us. We should not be comfortable living with habitual sins. So that's a news cycle item is at the top. News story to God? No, because he warned us.
: Ah. About all of this. Now, I don't care how nice you think you are, if you're not telling someone the truth, you're not being loving to them. Make no mistake, we're not anglers from Red Bay, but we are afr, American Family Radio. And we're happy you're listening.
Living Hope by Phil Wickham: Who could imagine so great a mercy the sea what heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages step down from glory to where my sin and bear my shame the cross has spoken I am for forgiven the King of kings calls me Is all beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever Jesus Christ my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise, praise the One who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me? You have broken every chain? This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living. Then came the morning that sealed the promise? Your buried body began to breathe? Out of the silence the roaring lion declared the grave has no flame on me, Jesus. Yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me? You have broken in every chain? There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have risen, broken every chain? This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Living Hope by Phil Wickham. And if you're wondering, yep, I just broke for a praise party right there on this Friday. I. I am so convicted even by the words that I'm sharing with you. I'm telling you, this generation needs to know about a hope that is living. And we need to tell them the truth that when came the more. Then came the morning and the and your buried body began to breathe. We have hope in a resurrected Savior. So I hope you turn that up. I, hope that you let the truth of that wash over you. And I. I love nothing more than hope. That is the whole mission of my ministry here to you is to prescribe hope for healthy families. And one of the most beautiful things about this is I hear back from some of you from time to time about hope that you have found through the ministry here on this show and others on American Family Radio. And if the Lord has used American Family Radio in your life, if. If we've been there and given you just the right thought at just the right time, please share your story. We love to hear it. We'd love to hear how Christ has used this ministry in your life. You can call and just share your testimony just for a minute or two. We have a listener storyline. That number is 877-876-8893. That's 877-876-88 93. And you never know that. We may use that story in share a thon, but we need to hear stories of hope. Now before we end our time together, I want to talk to you about something really serious. And, I'll give you a listener advisory. I'm going to talk about the issue of suicide, but it's something that we need to talk about and that we need to hold on to hope. And I also want to say I'm just giving you Educational information, not any individualized medical or mental health advice. You should definitely seek professional evaluation for any suicidal thoughts, ideation, mental health concerns like depression, anxiety. You definitely need to talk to a mental health provider. But let's talk about talking about it in our homes, because talking about suicide does not put ideas into someone's head that were not there before. In fact, asking can save lives. And talking about it may open a door that may allow someone to tell you tell, to tell you what they are carrying. Asking saves lives. Don't be afraid to ask about it, to talk about it.
Suicide is preventable, but prevention begins way long before a crisis
Suicide is preventable, but prevention begins way long before a crisis. And suicide is now depending on how you look at the statistics and how you cut it. It's the first or second is the, one of the leading causes of death for young people. And that is just not okay. And in 2023, 20% of, US high school students, that's about one in five seriously considered attempting suicide. And about 10% reported an attempt in the previous year. This is definitely that I see in my clinical practice. There really is not any day that I'm working in the hospital that I don't see a kid who is dealing with this. And, and we don't need to really, we know that our kids are carrying this burden, but there are things that we can do to help and to give hope. Now suicide is rarely attributable to one event or one diagnosis. Sometimes that can happen, and we're seeing that happen in cancel culture with kids may do something one time and then they're, they have so much shame with that they may engage in sexting one time and then think, I cannot face the shame of that. And at that point they become more afraid of dying than they, they're more afraid of living than they are afraid of dying. But most of the time risk is going to emerge from multiple factors. Individual risk factors, relational community, also those risk factors in the society. And we see a lot of increased risk from the cultural context because not only do we see a mental health epidemic, we see social isolation, we see loneliness, we see cyber bullying, increased academic pressure, increased pressure to be perfect on social media. We do see, substance use continuing. That's always been a risk factor in teens. But family disruption and, and especially digital environments that really intensify that comparison conflict and exposure to harmful con, content. And we still have stigma and fear that makes asking for help seem really, really difficult. And we know that about half of people who die by suicide, they do have a known diagnosed mental health condition. And so that means that people who have mental health conditions, we need extra safety supports around them. It also means the other half don't have such a known diagnosis at the time. So you may not see anything. So prevention can't simply be, well, watch for signs because sometimes there are no outward signs. So instead of just asking what's wrong with my child? And, and is, does my child have these And I'm afraid and let me make sure you're, you're not thinking that, are you? And you're not doing this, are you? We need to ask that flip the paradigm again and take a strengths based approach to say, what is helping my child stay connected to life? Life. Because we do know there are protective factors. We need to invest our energy into those protective factors, not just into letting it feed our fear that those protective factors are being connected to family, having trusted adults around them in their life they know they can go to. I've talked about the five adults that every kid needs in their life. We talked about friendship and belonging. We've talked about school connection. Kids need coping. Those kids who have coping and problem solving skills, when they have tough emotions, those are protective factors. The kids that have a reason for living, they know their purpose, their identity. They feel wanted and they feel purposeful.
Those kids who have a strong cultural and spiritual identity with their family, that's protective
Those kids who have a strong cultural and spiritual identity with their family, that's protective. Those, that connection is protection. And we can't wait until our kids are in crisis to build the relationship that we hope they'll use in that crisis. We've got to build that before. So prevention means means noticing things like changes in sleep or eating or school functioning or friendships or mood or being isolated, just anything where that little spidey sense says something is off. And anytime anybody talks, even in a joking context about wanting to die or the world would be better off without me or I feel like a burden or I'm giving things away. You know, if they say anything about that, we need to step in and say, say, are you talking about killing yourself? Are you talking about suicide? And I know those things can be really difficult to ask about. Asking does not give them ideas. And we need to say, hey, I take that seriously. I care about you and I really want to know. Because a lot of times kids will just, and not just kids, adults too. They'll just kind of float a message out there to see how is this received. We need to stop that. And if they say, yes, I am, then the question to come after that is, have you thought about a plan? And I know that may seem really Uncomfortable. But if the answer is yes, then that means you have discovered an opportunity for immediate emergent intervention. You need to say, hey, we need to get you to somebody right now. Whether that's a mental healthcare provider, if it's an emergency room, a, trusted adult. You need to get that person to somebody right now, immediately, emergently. If they say no, I'm just kind of thinking about it, then that's urgent. You need to get them some mental health help as soon as possible. So asking kids not just, how was your day? But just say, hey, what's been going on with you? What's weighing on you? What's encouraging you? Who do you talk to when things are hard? What do you. What's something you're worried about that you haven't told me about yet? Just really facilitate those conversation skills through relationship building and help our kids cultivate purpose and meaning in life and meaningful relationships.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Who.
Dr. Jessica Peck: From people who are going to convey, I care about you, I care about your future. Give them activities that give them competence and joy. Those things are really, really important. And when somebody shares something with you, the first thing that you could say, this is not a pop quiz for, oh, do I have the right Bible verse or the right words of wisdom? You just say, hey, thank you so much for trusting me to share that with me. I know that that's really heavy. That must have been really hard to show share. Let's see. Who do we need to bring in here to make sure that you get the help and the hope that you need? I want to. I want to help you. I'm sorry you're feeling this way because if you're not prepared to deal with that, if you're not prepared to respond to that, if you think I'm not a trained counselor, don't worry because you don't have to be. Just being there, showing some love and care and connecting them to someone who can help. That is all that you need to do. Those are the ways that we need, need to keep kids safe. So I want to make sure that you know about the suicide and crisis lifeline. The number is 9, 8, 8. Now, we've seen, we know in a medical emergency or in a another kind of emergency where physical safety is. Is important, you can call 911. 988-IS for mental health. And we've seen since the initiation of that, the statistics have really been very dramatic in showing that this effort, calling out and calling someone really does help. And sometimes it's hard for kids to come forward to their parents with thoughts that they're having because they think I don't want them to worry and I don't want them to think less of me. And I, I'm also afraid of what they might do. Maybe they'll freak out, maybe they'll, they won't let me, you know, have my phone or something like that. So sometimes they can reach out to someone who feels like it's a lower threshold. So make sure that your teenagers have this number in their phone to give to a friend. And if a friend seems hopeless, just, they're not saying that they're feeling, that they're having any thoughts of self harm, but just, just say, hey, this is a, ah, this is a crisis lifeline. This is just a mental health number. You can call or text if you, if you ever need to. I just want you to have it. And that is, that's really important now. What we don't do is we don't shame them or threaten them or make it about how that affects you. How could you do this? How you think that? Don't you know how that would hurt or dismiss it as attention seeking? No, you're not. No. We take it all seriously. We don't assume they're safe just because they're better. Because sometimes if they're struggling and then they're making a plan that can seem better. We need to make sure that we are having open conversation about that we don't want to say. You just need to pray more about it. Don't be anxious for anything. We, we can tell them we can bring our deepest pain to God while also accepting that the help he provides can come through people, through counseling, through community, through professional care. And if there's someone out there who's experienced the pain of this on a personal level, I want you to know your grief is real and your loss is real. You don't have to minimize it because it was complicated. You're allowed to grab, grieve without having all of the answers you think, why didn't I know? Could I have stopped it? Why did they tell me? Some questions like that may never have complete answers this side of life. But their death does not erase their life. Their final moments, their final decision, their final struggle does not encompass the entirety of who they were. You are not responsible for carrying the impossible burden of hindsight.
Hindsight gives us information that we didn't have at the time
Hindsight gives us information that we didn't have at the time. And you can hold complicated emotions. Grief can coexist with love and anger and confusion and relief and guilt and sadness and even moments of laughter and gratitude. You don't have to experience that grief in one particular way. You don't have to rush towards an, explanation. Sometimes the most honest prayer is God, I just don't understand. He is not frightened by your confusion. God is not frightened by your questions. And you don't have to walk this grief journey alone. Find people who can sit with you without trying to explain away your pain and know that it was not your fault. Hope doesn't mean forgetting. Hope doesn't mean we aren't hurting. It doesn't require answers. Is not pretending the worst didn't happen. We can still remember the best, even in light of the worst. And hope is not saying everything's going to be okay. It's whatever happens, God will never leave us. He will never abandon us. We can grieve and we can still hope. We can have unanswered questions and we can still hope. We can walk through the darkest valley and we can still have hope and confidence in the character of God. And whatever you're walking through today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And I'll see you right back here on the. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn.
PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com/AFR the views and
Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
It's Ask Dr. Nurse Mama Friday! Jessica talks about this week's healthy habit of being hopeful. She also talks about the latest Homefront Headlines. September is Suicide Prevention Month. Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for free, confidential support.
https://giving.preborn.com/preborn/checkout/afa?sc=43490GF2022&campaign=404750
Chapters:
(00:02) We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn
(02:16) This week's healthy habit is being hopeful
(06:30) What I'm asking you to do is to really pay attention to when you're sharing those stories, those anecdotes, those times with your kids, with your grandkids
(12:47) Nostalgia can be an invitation to relationship building
(15:35) This generation desires authenticity. They have passion for causes they believe matter.
(16:47) Without people like you, this podcast would not exist
(19:43) There is no image that you can craft that is greater than; than the image that God created in you
(26:10) When we start on our diatribes that our saturated with fear, invite your family to call that out
(31:38) Jesus is everything. He is bigger than the moment they're living in
(34:25) But we hope the first thing that comes to mind when you hear AFR is American Family Radio
(40:39) Suicide is preventable, but prevention begins way long before a crisis
(44:11) Those kids who have a strong cultural and spiritual identity with their family, that's protective
(49:53) Hindsight gives us information that we didn't have at the time
(51:20) PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
