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: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for healthy Families here on American Family Radio. And here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy families. Can you believe we are already almost at the end of September? I don't mean to make any of y' all angry or say something controversial, but I do want to give you a little psa. That Friday is exactly three months until Christmas and we're going to be helping
Dr. Jessica Peck: you get ready for that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Don't worry. And that's all to say about it now. But one of the things that we are getting ready for that is happening before that is Share a Thon. Now this is twice a year where American Family Radio comes to you and reminds you that we are listener supported and we are so grateful for those of you who faithfully give. And one of the things that I'm asking you to give today is your listener story. We are gathering stories right now to play during our fall Share a Thon and we would love to hear from you. Has AFR American Family Radio been there at just the right time with just the right word of encouragement? We would love to hear your AFR story. It could be a blessing, such an encouragement to others. It's one of my favorite things of Sharathon being able to co host. I'll be co hosting with Wesley per usual and I'm looking forward to that. And we love to play listener stories. So we would love to hear how Christ has used AFR has used this specific program in your life. Call and share your story just for a minute or two and you might hear yourself during Shareathon. Our listener storyline is 877-876-8893. That's 877-87-68893. It's kind of like an old fashioned answering machine. You just call and leave your story and we will, we may play that on the air. We'd love to hear from you. And today we're talking about something else that you have the opportunity to do before Christmas. We're talking about something called Activate Kids. Now what is Activate Kids? Well, building a strong biblical worldview is something that doesn't have to wait till the end of the year. It shouldn't wait till the end of the year. It needs to start today. That is something we talk about all the time on this program. And actually in the last year we had a series Worldview Wednesdays where we talked with Josh Mulvihill a pastor and some others in there and you can look at for some of those Wednesday shows about how to create a biblical worldview for your kids. And we're bringing you another resource called Activate Kids. Now. This is an in depth worldview training course to help kids stand on the truth of God's word. And I am telling you like at no point in human history is there are there people and sources and products who are waiting to fill the void if we do not as parents, as grandparents, as ah other committed caring adults in a child's life step into in to direct their biblical worldview. AI and online social media and all kinds of voices when we're looking at how much content is out there, really trying to market to kids. We need to step in and take the lead. Now. Activate Kids tackles crucial topics like the sanctity of human life. How do we talk about that in a developmentally appropriate way? The true definition of marriage and family and other Christian values that we see a competing worldview coming at kids with all kinds of confusing messages. And each of the units of Activate Kids contains a powerful video lesson and a workbook. There's stickers there, interactive activities. There's a parent leader guide, which is the most important part of all of this. And it's designed for kids ages 6 to 12. And we're joined today by Kendra White. You may know her as one of the co hosts of Hannah's Heart. I know a lot of you listen to that show on American Family Radio. Such a great encouragement. A half hour to encourage couples. Families walking through infertility, miscarriage, child loss, clinging to Christ, the ultimate hope. But today she is here to talk about her role in Activate Kids. Kendra, so glad that you are here with us. So glad to see you here. Thanks for joining us and for telling us about Activate Kids.
Kendra White: Thank you so much. We have
Kendra White discusses her role in Activate Kids
been eagerly awaiting the release of this product. If, your listeners don't know, afa, actually has an ACTIVATE worldview training curriculum for adults that we released about two years ago that's already. The whole course is available. We've had people, going through it bit by bit. And basically the way that works, is we've had so many listeners that have reached out to AFA over the years and have said, I've heard like on your show, you talking about the need to be able to articulate these things. But how do I bring this into my community, into my church? How do I actually do it? Like, what are the action steps? So we named it Activate because we really wanted to kind of wake up sleeper cells of Christians who do believe God's word, but they don't know how to engage in our culture and all of these controversial issues and how to stand for righteousness. so we started creating that curriculum and it created, there were five kind of categories that we felt like were the primary issues that, truth was under attack in our country. so that is released. But as I was working on that project, I immediately knew we gotta do this for kids. Like, we have to be able to somehow bring this down to the level so that families can do these things together. And I loved in your intro how you, you Were talking about how, we cannot wait with worldview training for our kids, because I think it's when you hear some of the topics that we talk about in this series, and we do it in a very age appropriate way that doesn't focus on all the negatives of culture, but focuses on what the Bible actually says about marriage and family and, life and all of those things. But the enemy is not going to look at your kids and say, you know what, they're so young. I'm going to wait until they're a little less innocent to try to destroy their life. He is going to strike as early as possible to have confusion. And I think as parents, sometimes we think, you know, what if I just keep the TV off and try to, you know, avoid some of the cartoons that are having two mommies and all of that awful stuff, Then my kid's safe and we don't have to talk about everything, you know, right away. But the sad thing is, the minute you go out of your door, you are entering a war zone. And they will see it at the coffee shop. They will have questions that naturally come, come up. And if you're not ready to point back to the roots of God's word and why they can trust God's word, they will be targeted by the enemy.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, Kendra, you're talking about something that we've been talking about on this show. You're talking about a parenting style that's called gatekeeping. And it's been very popular, especially among Christian communities. And I hear a lot of enthusiasm about it, and I applaud enthusiasm and engaging and being intentional about parenting. I absolutely do. But really, the premise of gatekeeping is, hey, we, we are going to build this really strong gate, and we are going to close the gate as parents, and we're going to keep our kids on the inside of a fortress, and we are going to protect them from all of the outside influences, influences of the world. And we are going to decide when to open the gate and when to close the gate, and we will just control what our child is exposed to. And, Kendra, I can't tell you how much it breaks my heart to say this to our listeners here, but that ship has sailed. It really is not possible anymore. The enemy has overtaken us. They build tunnels underground. They are dropping drones overhead. They are luring our kids to open the gate themselves. And I mean, it is a battle that is really changed a lot in the last few years. So one of the, one of the parenting style that I resonate with most that I think is most aligned with a biblical worldview is something that's really coming out more onto the academic scene. And it's called lighthouse parenting. And if you can imagine a lighthouse, you know, you are on the shore, you are built on a firm foundation. That lighthouse is not going anywhere. The lighthouse keeper is dedicated, extraordinarily dedicated, to making sure that he is or she is watching out for those stormy seas. And that's where our kids are. They are on the stormy seas of culture. And we cannot, as much as we want to, and not that we shouldn't stop trying.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We still need to continue to try
Dr. Jessica Peck: to protect them, from every negative influence that's coming in from culture, but also recognizing that that's impossible. I'll give you a quick example here, Kendra. I remember so vividly when my daughter was about five years old, I took her to the grocery store.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And when we think about the music that's playing in the grocery store.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And then what happened was she saw a headline on the tabloids. She was just sitting there holding onto the cart because, you know, I told her, hold on to the cart.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hold on to the cart so you don't wander off while I'm putting all these groceries up here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she saw a headline there that I was completely unprepared for her to see. So it's a both and, yes, protect your kids, but also equip them for culture. And that is one of the things that you are doing in this ACTIVATE curriculum. Let's talk about the first unit, Kendra. It's the Bible 101. And really, there are a lot of conflicting messages about the Bible, what it is and what it is not. What is unit one of Activate Kids? The Bible 101. Teach them about God's word.
Kendra White: Well, I'm so excited about this specific unit as a foundation for the whole series. just a quick background.
I got to work for American Family Studios on a project called The God Who Speaks
I got to work for American, Family Studios on a project called the God who Speaks. And it was all about the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. And I was raised in a church that, you know, we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and is his revelation to man of his plan of salvation. And I could quote that from a young age. but sometimes there would be these little questions that would come up in my heart. And, unfortunately, the Bible itself doesn't tell us how it was put together. So you have to look to Christian history, and you have to do a little bit of an academic study to be able to answer some of those Questions that come up of, okay, so it was written by humans, but humans were sinners. We make mistakes. And then, you know, I think kids are going to hear these messages about, well, it's. The Bible was filled with this many thousands of manuscript, you know, errors, or these were just stories created by humans to get attention. Or they're going to hear the gospels actually contradict each. Each. And, they're going to hear these even at a young age. And I think as parents, sometimes we take the easy route out when we hear that because we don't know the answers. And I think, an academic approach to really studying the body has, the Bible has been lost in our culture. So when our kids come m to us and say, well, mama, you know, I heard that the Bible has errors, we just say, no, it doesn't. Just trust me. It's God's word. and sometimes kids think that the Bible, literally, the way that it was created, was that like an eagle dropped a book from heaven, and that's how we got it. And so it can be very, scary to them when they realize the way that humans were involved because it opens the door for the enemy to lie to them about it not being trustworthy. But through working on the project, the God who Speaks, I have the privilege of traveling. I got to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls and film them. I got to go, interview some of the, people who were on the committees that did some of the most popular translations that we use today. And, got to interview scholars. And what I found was that the more that I dug, the more evidence and the more confident and the more my heart just glowed with love and appreciation for God's Word. And so one of the things that I really wanted to bring to this unit was for kids to say, don't be afraid to ask your questions, because God is a big God and there is an answer for everything. And so we actually do some fun things in this unit where I dress up as some different skeptics. I dress up as an, intellectual person who's gonna, come at them with all these different intellectual arguments. And then I dress up as, like a kind of a hippie character who is just like, oh, peace and love. The Bible means whatever you want it to be, and use these kind of characters to, present some of the common arguments that I feel these kids are going to hear. And then we really want to teach them how to give a response so they literally get to practice that with their parents. and in. In the workbook. And in the discussion, you know, we'll ask, how would you answer somebody who says the Bible is just a bunch of stories made up by somebody who wants attention? and we, we teach them about all of the Bible authors and how the fierce persecution that they faced. And we have them, I'm just looking in our parent leader guide that I have open right here. We have them look at a painting of Christian martyrs in, the stadium. It's a famous painting called Christian, martyrs Last Prayer. And we say, you know, what do you think's happening in this, in this painting? And we talk about what was at stake for the people who wrote this. Did they really just want attention? And, yeah, we systematically kind of attack each one of those arguments and try to equip them to give their own answers.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you know, Kendra, I have some more questions and I think we have some more to talk about because this is so exciting to me, engaging in conversation like this, because I'm reminded of a show I did not too long ago. I was blessed to have a conversation with Lee Strobel about one of his books. He, he wrote a book for adults, much like AFA Activate. He, he wrote a book for adults called Is God Real? And then he made Is God Real? For teens. And he talked about how God is
Dr. Jessica Peck: not afraid of our questions. And when we ask God questions, like
Dr. Jessica Peck: Job did under great persecution, God comes back with even better questions like, where
Dr. Jessica Peck: were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Oh, I wasn't there.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And that can be something that parents are afraid of because
A lot of parents are afraid that kids are going to walk away from the faith
a lot of parents are afraid that kids are going to walk away from the faith. And that is a, well, foundation fear, because we do have kids doing that. But we'll talk about how inviting their questions, inviting conversations, has the opposite effect on strengthening their faith. I'll be right back with more from Kendra White on AFA Activate for Kids.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We'll see you on the other side of this break.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Did you know that this content is listener supported?
Without people like you, this podcast would not exist
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
I See Grace by Micah Tyler: I've seen shame the kind that comes from mistakes the kind that won't go away. When I turned around they were right there to remind me. I've seen regret the Kind that messes with your hair. The failures and the can't forget. But standing here now I'm, thinking, God, it's behind me. Cause I've seen nails, scarred hands reach out, and wipe it off away. Yeah, now I see grace. Hallelujah, I stand. Amen. I'm staring at an empty grave? And the stone that you rolled away When I was a prodigal, you saw son, when I left in 99, you saw the 1. And just like that, oh, my past is be.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is I See Grace by Micah Tyler. And I do see grace every day. And I see families talking about the grace of God with their kids every single day. And I am so grateful for that. And what I would love to see is some of our listeners sharing their listener story and sharing the way that God has poured out grace in your life through the ministry of afr, through the ministry of this, this show right here. If you want to share just a one or two minute testimony about how God has used AFR in your life, we would love for you to call and leave a message on our listener storyline. That number is 877-876-8893. That's 877-876-88 93. Now, my kids give me such a hard time because they say that my gift is making people cry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Everywhere I go, I have a conversation, but it's just because I love to
Dr. Jessica Peck: talk about things of is your turn. You can make me cry because the
Dr. Jessica Peck: listener stories always make me cry when I hear them for the first time.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'll be co hosting with Wesley. We would love to hear those. And I'm right in the middle of a conversation and talking to Kendra White, who is host of Hannah's Heart. Now, I've talked to Kendra several times before on the show and have been on Hannah's Heart. Kendra is a real woman with a real story, a real life, a real testimony. She has been through some things and shares those things. Her story on Hannah's Heart, and that may be a program that you need to share with someone. It's a half hour program that encourages couples and families walking through infertility, miscarriage, child loss. And Kendra, you know, there was a time not too long ago where I was at a listener meet and greet event that was here in Houston and I was sitting next to, a couple who said they didn't have any kids and they were supporters of afr and after a while, she shared, I listen to Hannah's Heart. That is, that is how I found afr. I didn't even know about AFR until a friend sent me this program. And now I'm. Oh, it gives me goosebumps still to think about her. And I'm still praying for. For her and for her husband. But you today, what you're talking about is AFA Activate kids. And we were just in the middle of really imploring parents to say, wake up, wake up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, sleeper here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Wake up and see the forces that are after your children. And really, a lot of those forces, Kendra, are about marketing. They want to sell our kids a. That it's. Convince our kids they had a problem they didn't even know they had, so then they can market to them a solution and then even sell our kids in some way, because kids are marketable in so many ways. And we have got to wake up.
We've got to be a lighthouse for our kids who are navigating the seas of culture
We've got to be a lighthouse for our kids who are navigating the seas of culture. And before the break, I was just talking about, my conversation with Lee Strobel. Such an encouraging conversation. And you were just talking about preparing kids for. And to give an answer. This is basic apologetics. Don't be afraid. When kids have questions about faith, if they ask questions like the title of Lee's book, is God Real? This is a normal developmental process for them as they start to move from something called concrete thinking, where they think about things very much in black and white, very concrete terms, to thinking about abstract things. That's a sign that they're working to make their faith their own. They're not saying, you know, because my mom and dad said so, but because I have investigated this, I have looked at this, my conviction is that. And I'd love for you to pick up where you were leaving off, Kendra, and how the AFA Activate curriculum equips families and kids to prepare them to have an answer for the hope that they have.
Kendra White: You know, not only to let them be willing to express their doubts and fears, but I think it also engages them on a new level. When you, as the teach, can say, you know what? I've had doubts. All of a sudden they're like, oh, but you're my mom. You're my teacher. You've had doubts. And then when you break down for them what God has done personally in your life and how he brought you through seasons of doubt and how he showed up in your life to make himself known, to make his word shine, how sometimes, you know, I've had times when, I've been wrestling with a passage of scripture, and I'll turn On afr and I heard a sermon that immediately addressed a very specific thing that I was struggling with. And I knew that that was God giving me an answer. I think it helps kids realize that we have the Holy Spirit, you know, Jesus when, and we talk about this a little bit in unit one, you know, when he ascended and went into heaven, he didn't leave us alone. He said that he was going to give us a helper who would remind us of everything that Jesus said. Right. And that same helper is the one who inspired the authors of the Bible. One of the critique that. Well, how did they remember all of those, specific facts? Well, they had the Holy Spirit to guide them and to help that. But we focus a lot in this unit about the power of listening to the Holy Spirit to guide us through His Word. and I just want to say one thing to parents who might be a little bit intimidated of what we talked about in the first segment of the show. when we're talking about manuscript evidence and what skeptics say you might be thinking, I can't leave this for my kids because I don't know it myself. And I'm going to be honest, I always learn through teaching. I learned through creating this curriculum. But I wanted to, equip our teachers to know the course is designed where you do not have to have a master's degree to be able to, address this. really the only thing that you need is a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and real world experience of what he's done in your life to be able to lead them through the parent Leader guide. So the way the course kind of works is they start off with a video, and these are pretty short, short. They'll watch about, maybe three to ten minute lesson. and it's packed with a lot of information. I would actually encourage people to maybe have their kids watch the video like two or three times. because the theological foundations that we're building in this unit might seem very ambitious. But I really believe that kids can grasp this. and so they start off by watching this video. And it's engaging. It's not on a, you know, we're speaking to kids age 6 to 12. So we have lots of videos and pictures and objects, lessons and things to help bring it home to them. So they watch this video, and then you go over to the parent leader guide and there's a discussion question that you lead with your family or your small group, if you're leading a small group. And here's the thing, you guys, we put some possible answers for you. So if you just absolutely are like, I don't know the answer to this one, you can look ahead. And I think that parents are going to learn a lot from doing this curriculum as well. The more that you have to articulate it to your kids, the more it's going to even sink down into your heart and become a foundational part of who you are. so we have those answers there. and then the kids flip over. And I'm, I'm so excited about our workbook, you guys. We have a student workbook that is really fun and interactive, and it comes with stickers, so they have to do these fun little activities. Like, for instance, we talk about how the Bible is just one book. It's 66 books that all come together to tell one story. So we have, like, an image of a little, bookshelf, and they have stickers that, each shelf has a different category. Law, history, gospels. And they have to put the books of the Bible on the shelf that they belong on in the category that they belong. it's also designed to be a very interactive, using all of your senses curriculum, because not every kid, can just sit and listen and absorb. So, the parent leader guide and the student workbook have three different categories. It's share, do and memorize. And share is that interactive discussion with your family. And then they're going into their workbook and they're sharing about what they've learned, and they're doing a fun little activity there. And then the do actually you get up and you do an activity that is going to help bring this lesson home. For instance, we're talking about how a lot of the manuscripts were preserved on papyrus paper. So we have a craft where you get strips of paper and you soak them in a glue water mixture and you make a papyrus paper. And then the students have to let it dry, and they have to try to write their memory verse on it. And they learn about how the scribes had to be so very careful and how they would burn if they made mistakes, and, how carefully God's word was written and translated, over the years. So they're doing stuff like that. We actually, even in unit one, we have some snacks that tie into the lesson. You talked about how there was, you know, we're supposed to be a lighthouse. Well, we talk about God's word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path, and how we are called to be salt and Light in our world. And what as Christians does it mean to be salt to help preserve our world. And we're supposed to add flavor to our culture and not let culture change us. And so they, they get to taste mashed potatoes with and without salt. And pro tip for the parents, if you really want to make the object lesson good, put a lot of butter in the good. In the good batch. But, yeah, so they taste them and they're like, wow, the one without salt is awful. So it's, it is very interactive. I don't want parents to think that just because we're talking about these ambitious things that I really think kids can grasp that it won't be fun.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You had me at crafts and snacks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: The VBS girl in me is like all about, yes, there's crafts and snacks. I am in.
Kendra White: We got you, we got you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so glad about that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Kendra, there's so many important things to, to pull apart and what you're saying here, I really want to lean in to what you're doing and encouraging parents to say, yes, this is you. One of the things I'm thinking about as you're talking is if you'll remember last summer, the movie the Odyssey was everywhere. You know, the remake of Homer's classic and we saw all of these big movie stars and even if you didn't go see it, you probably heard about it, saw an advertisement for it. And when I listened some of the interviews, Kendra, it was really striking to me how the, how the, the producers, everybody who was working on this film would talk about the credibility of this book of the Odyssey and the Iliad and the Odyssey and they would say like, you know, oh, and just.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And really sounds so academic, you know,
Dr. Jessica Peck: and you think, wow, that's impressive. That's, you know, that's a 2000 year
Dr. Jessica Peck: old book or, or whatever it is. I, I don't even, I, I can't speak about the specific details, but the
Dr. Jessica Peck: impression that I got was that this is a credible piece of work. And one of the interesting things, Kendra, is that when you compare manuscript reliability, the Iliad, the Odyssey are often used. When you look at the comparison of the Bible and the, the scriptures that were written and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These are really exciting things that you can co learn with your kids. One of the things that we know about screen time is co view is so powerful. Watching what your kids are watching and then being able to speak into that in real time. It's the same thing with this AFA Activate curriculum If you don't know it, learning alongside your kids, that's such a great model for being a lifelong learner. And I know that, you know, we talked a little bit about unit one in the Bible, so I would love to hear your thoughts on that. Kendra, did you see any of that media hype? Did you have any of the same thoughts I did?
Kendra White: Oh, well. Well, what's funny, actually,
In unit one we talk about the manuscript evidence for the Bible
in unit one, we talk about the manuscript evidence for the Bible. And, I didn't include this fact, but, some of the, like the Odyssey and some of those, when you take how many manuscripts they had of those classic pieces of literature, and if you stack them up on a table, you maybe have, you know, less than a foot, you know, high. Of every known manuscript that we've found, some of the most pervasive ones, I think maybe have 12 sources. It's like, ooh, wow, we found an 11th one. If you take all of the manuscript evidence that we have for God's Word, I believe it's about a mile high. Oh, my goodness, all of them up. And we knew it was big. We did not talk about that in, in, ah, in. In the series of just how much we have. And, you know, I think, understanding the process that the Bible went through is so important because kids, you know, when you see that there's a lot of manuscripts, that. That actually helps us to even more so be able to find the original text and trust that it's trustworthy. And now, of course, we have AI resources that can go back and are dating some of the things that we've found and are finding that they're even older than we thought. and, you know, we used to say we don't have any of the original manuscripts from the Bible. And that's helpful for kids to know because I think sometimes they think that somewhere there's a Bible that we have the actual writings of Moses and, you know, David. but they are finding some things that actually maybe could date back to the original sources. So it's. We don't have any, you know, evidence to know that it actually is. But, it could be on some of the stuff that they found. So the, the history and the science behind that, the archaeology, we, try to, give the kids a little bit of a glimpse into that. We have lots of footage of archaeologists uncovering things, and we talk about how the more and more that they uncover, it all points back to, to how true and trustworthy God's word is.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, now you're reminding me of My interview with MD Perkins, who said, of course he does all, the filmmaking for, and helps direct all the filmmaking
Dr. Jessica Peck: for American Family Association. And I don't know if he's told you this, Kendra, but his inspiration for
Dr. Jessica Peck: getting into movie making was Indiana Jones.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Love it.
Kendra White: No, I worked with him for years. I didn't realize that was.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, he said that. Exactly. And that is kind of some of the things that we're talking about.
Dr. Jessica Peck: About.
But such exciting things going on in Biblical Archeology and things that are being found
Dr. Jessica Peck: But such exciting things going on in biblical archeology and things that are being found. And when you look at the physical and scientific evidence, it's really important that kids know. This is one of the reasons why we're so compelled in our faith. There is evidence the Bible is true and trustworthy. And when we come back, Kendra, I want to talk more about how we tend to underestimate the ability of kids to understand. You know, my father in law came to know Christianity, Christ relatively late in life. And my daughter was in elementary school, and she was telling him one day, you know, I think you've learned all of the kid Bible stories now. You've got all the milk of scripture you can tell.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Like, she, she is my oldest, so,
Dr. Jessica Peck: you know, she's right on it.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She knows.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she said, you need some meat now?
Dr. Jessica Peck: And he said, okay, what do you suggest? And she, she suggested a passage in Genesis. And she said, kendra, I kid you not.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She said, well, let's just look at when Noah gets drunk. I'll leave it.
Kendra White: No, she didn't.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, she did. I promise she did.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And it was great because, you know, here's an elementary school kid that we're able to talk about these concepts in a, developmentally appropriate way. Tell her just what she needs to know to be able to navigate culture, to recognize risk, and to respond with faith. And that's what you're doing. When we come back, Kendra will talk more about AFA Activate Kids. And if you want to call that listener storyline and leave your testimony. 877-876-8893. We'll see you right after this break. And my father, your great grandfather, fought in World War II. Really? He was a gunner on the big ship out in the Pacific Ocean. Wow. Your great grandmother did her part, too. Was she on a ship? Oh, no, she stayed back home. She and a lot of her friends worked really hard in a factory because the men had gone off to war and they held scrap metal drives to help in the war effort. The folks back home were heroes, too.
: Here at the American Family association, we consider you the heroes back home. As you fulfill your responsibility of caring for your family day to day, your partnership with us is crucial as we fight the enemies of freedom in America. Thank you for your commitment to the American Family Association. Grandpa, what's a scrap metal drive? Let's get some cookies and I'll take tell you all about it.
That's My King by CeCe Winans: Wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy. He is merciful and powerful. Who we talking about? That's my team. We declare the glory Give him all the honor. Altogether worthy. Who we talking about? That's my king. There's no one before you. Yes, we will adore you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is that's My King by Cece Winans. That's a good song for a praise party. I hope you're having a great day. We're having a great day Here in studio talking with Kendra White about the AFA Activate curriculum for kids. Now we know in this world world we have so many competing messages competing for the hearts, the minds, the affection, the attention of our kids. And I know, I hear from parents all the time that we're just so busy. We're so busy. We're so busy. We're so busy. Here's something that convicts me every Sunday morning when I walk into church, I have an iPhone. Okay. And for whatever reason on Sunday morning as I'm walking into church, that's usually when I'm going to get my screen time alert. And I will see that each week. Oh wow. You could have had a part time
Dr. Jessica Peck: job with as much time you spent on your phone.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is a conviction and a reminder to me that we need to be more intentional about giving our kids a biblical worldview about investing in real world relationships. I'm talking today to Kendra White who has been instrumental in bringing this curriculum to life. And Kendra, you know, I saw some statistics just recently that two of them that really, really, really, ah, struck me. One of them is that the average American scrolls with their phone, with their thumb on their phone. The average amount of content that equals the height of the Statue of Liberty. My word, every day, every day we are moving our thumb from the toes
Dr. Jessica Peck: to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And yet we're saying, yeah, but I don't have time for a five minute family devotional. Yeah, but I don't have time to pray for my kids. That is really convicting. And the average kid, kid born in 2025, Kendra, they will spend 21,000 hours of their life looking at a screen. Wow, that is about a third of their life. Which means that this generation of kids is going to die with more memories of other people's lives and watching other people's content and lives than engaging in real life on their own. And if that doesn't wake up every parent listening, I don't know what will. And you've. You've created this wonderful interactive tool. We've got crafts, we've got snacks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I mean, what more do you need for fun with your family?
Dr. Jessica Peck: So, Kendra, I would love for you to share more about how parents can find this curriculum and just continue to call them to be intentional, to be engaged.
Kendra White: Well, you know,
George Barna said that by age 13, a person's worldview is pretty well established
George Barna, speaking of stats, he said that by age 13, a person's worldview is pretty well established. Now, of course, the Lord can intervene and, through miraculous intervention, change a heart and a mind. But I think a lot of us think of tackling some of these topics a little bit. Like, oh, that's more of a teen thing to talk about the reliability of scripture. Well, if you want them to have already made their mind up by the time you get started. But this curriculum is specifically designed for kids age 6 to 12. and, let me just go over again kind of what it comes through. So it comes with a dvd, or online videos, if you'd prefer to stream them, they watch a lesson. Then parents will go to the parent leader guide. You do that share section where you have that interactive discussion time. Kids go over to their workbook and they, do a little share where they talk about what they're learning. Then you go to the. Do you do a group activity that ties into that? And it's also kind of designed to be a fun reminder so that kids can look back later. You take a picture of them doing the activity and you paste it in their workbook so it kind of looks like, a photo album memory of all the things that your family got to do together while you went on this journey. And if you. If you're like me and you're like, whoops, forgot to take that picture, they can draw a picture in the space provided of what they did, and they're describing what they've learned in their own words. M. And then the last section, and I haven't talked about this, is the memorize. and each unit is going to have a passage of scripture, because I think kids are. Are capable of memorizing more than just God is love. Right? So it's. It's a short passage, and it comes with a video that has motions. And every single lesson, there's A different way for them to engage with that passage of Scripture. So, this one is, you know, talking about all scriptures God breathed and is useful for teaching and you know, all the, all of the things. And so they're not just memorizing, but they're also talking about how it's useful and why that verse is so important to them, that passage. so that's, that's the what? you can go to activate kids.aca.net right now. It's $40 and it's, it will arrive in time for Christmas if you want to do it as a gift for your grandkids or family. and if you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: $40, $40. Now this is reasonable.
Kendra White: This is unit one. we will have a total of five units. So this whole unit focuses on the authority and sufficiency of scripture, how we got the Bible. unit two is going to be coming out next year and it's going to deal with marriage and family and those issues. but it's designed, to kind of go at your own pace. but we have approximately 11 lessons that I would say take about an hour to do, the whole thing. So you can do one a week if it's your Sunday school class and make it an 11 or 12 week course. or if you're a homeschool family that's really ambitious and you want to do one, one a day, you can knock it out a lot faster, Pastor. But, that's kind of the, the structure of how it is. And it's again, it's activate kids.aca.net you
Dr. Jessica Peck: can't even take your kids to your family to a movie for 40 bucks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: This is a much better investment. And you know, often, Kendra, you know,
Dr. Jessica Peck: when I talk with Christian families and when I even reflect on my own life, I think, oh, yes, my intention is to build a biblical worldview, but
Dr. Jessica Peck: my credit card and my calendar are my pesky little, you know, accountability partners
Dr. Jessica Peck: that will say, I think where you're spending your time, where you're spending your money, your resources, they might betray you here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: They may make doubt.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Now, Kendra, one thing I think is important for me to say is you brought up George Barna and every time we bring up George Barna, you know, I've had the, the privilege of, of, interviewing him on the show and I even had to speak after him once at a conference. Like, imagine that kind of intimidation. But there is one point that George Barna and I really, really disagree about and I always feel the need to disclose that he is a die hard Yankees fan.
Kendra White: I was nervous where you're going on this one. I was, I don't know.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm a Georgia Barna fan here and you know, I'm trying really hard to not see that as a character flaw. Just like he's trying not to see
Dr. Jessica Peck: me being an Astros fan, as a character flaw. So when we spoke at our last conference, he wore, he wore Yankees, you know, fan attire and I wore my Astros hat. And Kendra, he looked at me and right in front of the whole crowd he goes, that's disgusting.
Kendra White: No, he did. I guess he did.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It was hysterical. Anyway, it's just, believe me, no, nothing with World View. I just, I like to have a little fun with that. I always have to give Dr. Barna a little elbow there because of our baseball rivalry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: But really, truly this is a way to build memories with your kids. One of the things that we've been talking about and you've mentioned already, and I've mentioned too, is not underestimating kids ability. You know, kids have a remarkable ability to memorize scripture. And I know, you know, my kids did that when they were young and they would memorize a whole chapter of scripture.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And I'm sitting here, my older brain is struggling to keep up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think we under what kids are capable of.
We underestimate what our kids are exposed to, and the ways that we can strengthen them
We underestimate what our kids are exposed to and the ways that we can strengthen them. Is there anything else that you want to say about that, Kendra? About how we're, you know, we're tack. You're tackling some controversial topics with kids. But I think that exposing them intentionally in a developmentally appropriate way, that makes us the first people to, to frame this issue for them, positions us as the exposure expert and opens the door for conversations in the future is so important. I'll say this last thing and I'll give it to you, Kendra, because I've talked about this example many times before. But for example, talking with my young children about pornography starting about third, fourth grade, because the average exposure for a kid today is 8 years of age 8. Now, I did not sit down and give them a fear based lecture and tell them, oh my gosh, if you ever see this, you know, it's awful.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And I did not tell them on
Dr. Jessica Peck: the nitty gritty gritty things, I said, hey, you live in a world that is saturated by screens. There are screens everywhere and I wish so much that I could control everything that you would ever see on a screen, but I can't. And one day you're gonna see something on a screen, either by accident, or someone will send something to you. Someone will put a screen in your face and show you something that you feel like you shouldn't have seen. Maybe it'll be confusing. Maybe it'll make you feel like you've done something wrong. Might make your body even feel a little weird, like, what's going on on. When that happens, I want you to come to me and tell me about it, and I will take it from there. We will get through it together. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened with one of my kids. So I'm not telling them, you know, oh, you're gonna see this specific thing, this graphic thing. And it. And it's awful, and it's horrible. I'm just helping them navigate. But signaling, hey, come to me, come to me, come to me. Because sometimes kids don't have the will words to explain what they saw. They're trying, but their vocabulary is limited. And sometimes just the feelings they have, that shame that's immediately present with sin, they don't understand it. They feel like they did something wrong. Not just guilt, but shame, like they were wrong. And it's so important for us to just continue to have these kinds of conversations like you're setting up with afa. Activate kids so that they do know they can come to us in those times. Yes.
Kendra White: And help them to not only identify the darkness, but to know the source of it. That that comes from the devil and that he is a lion who wants to steal, kill, and destroy, but that the people that they see engaged in wrong things in our world are lost and hurting. And it's our job as believers to be like you said, that lighthouse. And I love that you mentioned that because that is actually an image that we use. in one of our lessons, we open up one of our lessons with talking about what a lighthouse does. And we have beautiful footage of this lighthouse and these crashing waves. and we're talking about how, Christ is the light. And it's our job to point to the lighthouse and to point people to that and how to help them even do that in their friend circles when they see something that's off. And I think parents need to be prepared. You talked about kids are able to understand and accomplish much more than we think. they are little disciples. So be prepared to be out in public. And your kid is going to want to witness to somebody. They're going to want to start an awkward conversation.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And.
Kendra White: And, you might have to be ready to follow up I had my daughter's four and she went. Walked over to another table the other day. So embarrassing. Excuse me, are you all Christians? Because I wanna tell you about Jesus. And you know, on the one hand you're like, honey, come here, come sit down over here. You know, and they're like, yeah, we are. But she was ready. I mean, she was like, mom, let's not waste this moment. So you are raising little disciples.
And do not underestimate what God can do through your children
And do not underestimate what God can do through your children. You are built, and you are building their worldview. but also they are going to be practicing these things every single day with the kids that they bump into, with the conversations that they have with their friends. and you know, another thing in this series, I just, I really hope kids understand that if there's something in the Bible that they don't understand about God, or maybe they even kind of steps on their toes and they go, you know, I've had those moments. There have been things where I've got, you know, know what this verse says? I'm supposed to submit to my husband. I don't know if I like that word, Lord, or. I remember having a conversation several years back about, women. And, I had just been wrestling in my own walk with the Lord, and God had revealed to me those passages his incredible love for women. and how I had misunderstood all of these passages. And I was sitting on, a plane next to a lady and. And we get talking and she says, you know, okay, you're a Christian. She said the one thing I just. I think I could accept it all.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I just don't understand.
Kendra White: I don't like the way the Bible talks about women. And I just almost laughed because it was like God had just done that in my heart. And I've realized now, anytime there's some. Something I don't understand about Scripture, where I go, I wouldn't have done it that way. God, there's usually his character and his kindness and his love hiding right under the surface. If I'll just get my shovel out and dig just under a little bit deeper. And I have so much confidence that that is who God is, that I want kids to feel that same. If there's something that you read in the Bible. Cause there is stuff you're like, oh, wow, God told them to go kill a whole. You know, is this genocide? You know, he can feel like a moral monster at times, but the more you dig, the more you realize how true his character is. And also that he's not a Tame lion. And yes, that's ah, A quote from C.S. lewis who the lion was male. Let me, let me just go ahead and say that, but God is not a tame lion. and there will be aspects of him that we go, I would have done it differently. but he is God and, and we can trust him.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I remember two of my past guests separately told me, reminded me
There is no junior Holy Spirit for kids
there is no junior Holy Spirit for kids. Like they don't get a junior version of the Holy Spirit. They don't get a watered down, you know, kid friendly version. When they accept Christ, they have the full power of the Holy Spirit. And I remember one time, Kendra, you know where I, I was ministering to to a girl who was going through a really hard time. And I say a girl, she was an adult woman and she was going through a really hard time in her marriage. And, and she had asked me, you know, is she just didn't want to be alone at that time. And I said, well I'm driving my
Dr. Jessica Peck: daughter like across town for the school event.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You're welcome to come with us. She's like, app, I want to come with you. And so the whole time I'm just like praying, okay, God, give me an opportunity, give me an opportunity. Like let me, let me share the gospel. Well, before I can even say anything,
Dr. Jessica Peck: my elementary school age daughter is, is back in the back saying, can I
Dr. Jessica Peck: draw you three circles and show you a picture?
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she starts to launch in to this. You know, just shared the gospel with her beautifully and just, oh yeah, and
Dr. Jessica Peck: just told her, you know, my, my mom told me that, you know, she didn't tell me what's going on, but I know that you know, you're facing some, some hard things.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Can I pray for you? And I just sat there feeling like,
Dr. Jessica Peck: how can I even drive? I can't see over the steering wheel.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I feel like I'm 2 inches tall.
Kendra White: Thank you Lord.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And yes, and there is no junior Holy Spirit.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Kendra, tell us one more time,
Dr. Jessica Peck: how can people get a hold of this curriculum?
Kendra White: activatekids.afa.net you can order it today.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Kendra, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for the work that you're doing. I appreciate you so much too. And thank you. Check out Hannah's heart. And they're doing a butterfly release. So go online and look at that and if. Can you tell them in 20 seconds where it is? Yes.
Kendra White: Go to hannah's [email protected] and we'd love to get you connected and get you connected.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You may know someone who needs to have that kind of encouragement. And I pray that wherever you are, whatever you're doing, the Lord will bless
Dr. Jessica Peck: you and keep you and make his
Dr. Jessica Peck: face to shine upon you. And we'll see you right here next time.
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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor,
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: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for healthy Families here on American Family Radio. And here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy families. Can you believe we are already almost at the end of September? I don't mean to make any of y' all angry or say something controversial, but I do want to give you a little psa. That Friday is exactly three months until Christmas and we're going to be helping
Dr. Jessica Peck: you get ready for that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Don't worry. And that's all to say about it now. But one of the things that we are getting ready for that is happening before that is Share a Thon. Now this is twice a year where American Family Radio comes to you and reminds you that we are listener supported and we are so grateful for those of you who faithfully give. And one of the things that I'm asking you to give today is your listener story. We are gathering stories right now to play during our fall Share a Thon and we would love to hear from you. Has AFR American Family Radio been there at just the right time with just the right word of encouragement? We would love to hear your AFR story. It could be a blessing, such an encouragement to others. It's one of my favorite things of Sharathon being able to co host. I'll be co hosting with Wesley per usual and I'm looking forward to that. And we love to play listener stories. So we would love to hear how Christ has used AFR has used this specific program in your life. Call and share your story just for a minute or two and you might hear yourself during Shareathon. Our listener storyline is 877-876-8893. That's 877-87-68893. It's kind of like an old fashioned answering machine. You just call and leave your story and we will, we may play that on the air. We'd love to hear from you. And today we're talking about something else that you have the opportunity to do before Christmas. We're talking about something called Activate Kids. Now what is Activate Kids? Well, building a strong biblical worldview is something that doesn't have to wait till the end of the year. It shouldn't wait till the end of the year. It needs to start today. That is something we talk about all the time on this program. And actually in the last year we had a series Worldview Wednesdays where we talked with Josh Mulvihill a pastor and some others in there and you can look at for some of those Wednesday shows about how to create a biblical worldview for your kids. And we're bringing you another resource called Activate Kids. Now. This is an in depth worldview training course to help kids stand on the truth of God's word. And I am telling you like at no point in human history is there are there people and sources and products who are waiting to fill the void if we do not as parents, as grandparents, as ah other committed caring adults in a child's life step into in to direct their biblical worldview. AI and online social media and all kinds of voices when we're looking at how much content is out there, really trying to market to kids. We need to step in and take the lead. Now. Activate Kids tackles crucial topics like the sanctity of human life. How do we talk about that in a developmentally appropriate way? The true definition of marriage and family and other Christian values that we see a competing worldview coming at kids with all kinds of confusing messages. And each of the units of Activate Kids contains a powerful video lesson and a workbook. There's stickers there, interactive activities. There's a parent leader guide, which is the most important part of all of this. And it's designed for kids ages 6 to 12. And we're joined today by Kendra White. You may know her as one of the co hosts of Hannah's Heart. I know a lot of you listen to that show on American Family Radio. Such a great encouragement. A half hour to encourage couples. Families walking through infertility, miscarriage, child loss, clinging to Christ, the ultimate hope. But today she is here to talk about her role in Activate Kids. Kendra, so glad that you are here with us. So glad to see you here. Thanks for joining us and for telling us about Activate Kids.
Kendra White: Thank you so much. We have
Kendra White discusses her role in Activate Kids
been eagerly awaiting the release of this product. If, your listeners don't know, afa, actually has an ACTIVATE worldview training curriculum for adults that we released about two years ago that's already. The whole course is available. We've had people, going through it bit by bit. And basically the way that works, is we've had so many listeners that have reached out to AFA over the years and have said, I've heard like on your show, you talking about the need to be able to articulate these things. But how do I bring this into my community, into my church? How do I actually do it? Like, what are the action steps? So we named it Activate because we really wanted to kind of wake up sleeper cells of Christians who do believe God's word, but they don't know how to engage in our culture and all of these controversial issues and how to stand for righteousness. so we started creating that curriculum and it created, there were five kind of categories that we felt like were the primary issues that, truth was under attack in our country. so that is released. But as I was working on that project, I immediately knew we gotta do this for kids. Like, we have to be able to somehow bring this down to the level so that families can do these things together. And I loved in your intro how you, you Were talking about how, we cannot wait with worldview training for our kids, because I think it's when you hear some of the topics that we talk about in this series, and we do it in a very age appropriate way that doesn't focus on all the negatives of culture, but focuses on what the Bible actually says about marriage and family and, life and all of those things. But the enemy is not going to look at your kids and say, you know what, they're so young. I'm going to wait until they're a little less innocent to try to destroy their life. He is going to strike as early as possible to have confusion. And I think as parents, sometimes we think, you know, what if I just keep the TV off and try to, you know, avoid some of the cartoons that are having two mommies and all of that awful stuff, Then my kid's safe and we don't have to talk about everything, you know, right away. But the sad thing is, the minute you go out of your door, you are entering a war zone. And they will see it at the coffee shop. They will have questions that naturally come, come up. And if you're not ready to point back to the roots of God's word and why they can trust God's word, they will be targeted by the enemy.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, Kendra, you're talking about something that we've been talking about on this show. You're talking about a parenting style that's called gatekeeping. And it's been very popular, especially among Christian communities. And I hear a lot of enthusiasm about it, and I applaud enthusiasm and engaging and being intentional about parenting. I absolutely do. But really, the premise of gatekeeping is, hey, we, we are going to build this really strong gate, and we are going to close the gate as parents, and we're going to keep our kids on the inside of a fortress, and we are going to protect them from all of the outside influences, influences of the world. And we are going to decide when to open the gate and when to close the gate, and we will just control what our child is exposed to. And, Kendra, I can't tell you how much it breaks my heart to say this to our listeners here, but that ship has sailed. It really is not possible anymore. The enemy has overtaken us. They build tunnels underground. They are dropping drones overhead. They are luring our kids to open the gate themselves. And I mean, it is a battle that is really changed a lot in the last few years. So one of the, one of the parenting style that I resonate with most that I think is most aligned with a biblical worldview is something that's really coming out more onto the academic scene. And it's called lighthouse parenting. And if you can imagine a lighthouse, you know, you are on the shore, you are built on a firm foundation. That lighthouse is not going anywhere. The lighthouse keeper is dedicated, extraordinarily dedicated, to making sure that he is or she is watching out for those stormy seas. And that's where our kids are. They are on the stormy seas of culture. And we cannot, as much as we want to, and not that we shouldn't stop trying.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We still need to continue to try
Dr. Jessica Peck: to protect them, from every negative influence that's coming in from culture, but also recognizing that that's impossible. I'll give you a quick example here, Kendra. I remember so vividly when my daughter was about five years old, I took her to the grocery store.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And when we think about the music that's playing in the grocery store.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And then what happened was she saw a headline on the tabloids. She was just sitting there holding onto the cart because, you know, I told her, hold on to the cart.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hold on to the cart so you don't wander off while I'm putting all these groceries up here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she saw a headline there that I was completely unprepared for her to see. So it's a both and, yes, protect your kids, but also equip them for culture. And that is one of the things that you are doing in this ACTIVATE curriculum. Let's talk about the first unit, Kendra. It's the Bible 101. And really, there are a lot of conflicting messages about the Bible, what it is and what it is not. What is unit one of Activate Kids? The Bible 101. Teach them about God's word.
Kendra White: Well, I'm so excited about this specific unit as a foundation for the whole series. just a quick background.
I got to work for American Family Studios on a project called The God Who Speaks
I got to work for American, Family Studios on a project called the God who Speaks. And it was all about the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. And I was raised in a church that, you know, we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and is his revelation to man of his plan of salvation. And I could quote that from a young age. but sometimes there would be these little questions that would come up in my heart. And, unfortunately, the Bible itself doesn't tell us how it was put together. So you have to look to Christian history, and you have to do a little bit of an academic study to be able to answer some of those Questions that come up of, okay, so it was written by humans, but humans were sinners. We make mistakes. And then, you know, I think kids are going to hear these messages about, well, it's. The Bible was filled with this many thousands of manuscript, you know, errors, or these were just stories created by humans to get attention. Or they're going to hear the gospels actually contradict each. Each. And, they're going to hear these even at a young age. And I think as parents, sometimes we take the easy route out when we hear that because we don't know the answers. And I think, an academic approach to really studying the body has, the Bible has been lost in our culture. So when our kids come m to us and say, well, mama, you know, I heard that the Bible has errors, we just say, no, it doesn't. Just trust me. It's God's word. and sometimes kids think that the Bible, literally, the way that it was created, was that like an eagle dropped a book from heaven, and that's how we got it. And so it can be very, scary to them when they realize the way that humans were involved because it opens the door for the enemy to lie to them about it not being trustworthy. But through working on the project, the God who Speaks, I have the privilege of traveling. I got to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls and film them. I got to go, interview some of the, people who were on the committees that did some of the most popular translations that we use today. And, got to interview scholars. And what I found was that the more that I dug, the more evidence and the more confident and the more my heart just glowed with love and appreciation for God's Word. And so one of the things that I really wanted to bring to this unit was for kids to say, don't be afraid to ask your questions, because God is a big God and there is an answer for everything. And so we actually do some fun things in this unit where I dress up as some different skeptics. I dress up as an, intellectual person who's gonna, come at them with all these different intellectual arguments. And then I dress up as, like a kind of a hippie character who is just like, oh, peace and love. The Bible means whatever you want it to be, and use these kind of characters to, present some of the common arguments that I feel these kids are going to hear. And then we really want to teach them how to give a response so they literally get to practice that with their parents. and in. In the workbook. And in the discussion, you know, we'll ask, how would you answer somebody who says the Bible is just a bunch of stories made up by somebody who wants attention? and we, we teach them about all of the Bible authors and how the fierce persecution that they faced. And we have them, I'm just looking in our parent leader guide that I have open right here. We have them look at a painting of Christian martyrs in, the stadium. It's a famous painting called Christian, martyrs Last Prayer. And we say, you know, what do you think's happening in this, in this painting? And we talk about what was at stake for the people who wrote this. Did they really just want attention? And, yeah, we systematically kind of attack each one of those arguments and try to equip them to give their own answers.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you know, Kendra, I have some more questions and I think we have some more to talk about because this is so exciting to me, engaging in conversation like this, because I'm reminded of a show I did not too long ago. I was blessed to have a conversation with Lee Strobel about one of his books. He, he wrote a book for adults, much like AFA Activate. He, he wrote a book for adults called Is God Real? And then he made Is God Real? For teens. And he talked about how God is
Dr. Jessica Peck: not afraid of our questions. And when we ask God questions, like
Dr. Jessica Peck: Job did under great persecution, God comes back with even better questions like, where
Dr. Jessica Peck: were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Oh, I wasn't there.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And that can be something that parents are afraid of because
A lot of parents are afraid that kids are going to walk away from the faith
a lot of parents are afraid that kids are going to walk away from the faith. And that is a, well, foundation fear, because we do have kids doing that. But we'll talk about how inviting their questions, inviting conversations, has the opposite effect on strengthening their faith. I'll be right back with more from Kendra White on AFA Activate for Kids.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We'll see you on the other side of this break.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Did you know that this content is listener supported?
Without people like you, this podcast would not exist
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I See Grace by Micah Tyler: I've seen shame the kind that comes from mistakes the kind that won't go away. When I turned around they were right there to remind me. I've seen regret the Kind that messes with your hair. The failures and the can't forget. But standing here now I'm, thinking, God, it's behind me. Cause I've seen nails, scarred hands reach out, and wipe it off away. Yeah, now I see grace. Hallelujah, I stand. Amen. I'm staring at an empty grave? And the stone that you rolled away When I was a prodigal, you saw son, when I left in 99, you saw the 1. And just like that, oh, my past is be.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is I See Grace by Micah Tyler. And I do see grace every day. And I see families talking about the grace of God with their kids every single day. And I am so grateful for that. And what I would love to see is some of our listeners sharing their listener story and sharing the way that God has poured out grace in your life through the ministry of afr, through the ministry of this, this show right here. If you want to share just a one or two minute testimony about how God has used AFR in your life, we would love for you to call and leave a message on our listener storyline. That number is 877-876-8893. That's 877-876-88 93. Now, my kids give me such a hard time because they say that my gift is making people cry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Everywhere I go, I have a conversation, but it's just because I love to
Dr. Jessica Peck: talk about things of is your turn. You can make me cry because the
Dr. Jessica Peck: listener stories always make me cry when I hear them for the first time.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'll be co hosting with Wesley. We would love to hear those. And I'm right in the middle of a conversation and talking to Kendra White, who is host of Hannah's Heart. Now, I've talked to Kendra several times before on the show and have been on Hannah's Heart. Kendra is a real woman with a real story, a real life, a real testimony. She has been through some things and shares those things. Her story on Hannah's Heart, and that may be a program that you need to share with someone. It's a half hour program that encourages couples and families walking through infertility, miscarriage, child loss. And Kendra, you know, there was a time not too long ago where I was at a listener meet and greet event that was here in Houston and I was sitting next to, a couple who said they didn't have any kids and they were supporters of afr and after a while, she shared, I listen to Hannah's Heart. That is, that is how I found afr. I didn't even know about AFR until a friend sent me this program. And now I'm. Oh, it gives me goosebumps still to think about her. And I'm still praying for. For her and for her husband. But you today, what you're talking about is AFA Activate kids. And we were just in the middle of really imploring parents to say, wake up, wake up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, sleeper here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Wake up and see the forces that are after your children. And really, a lot of those forces, Kendra, are about marketing. They want to sell our kids a. That it's. Convince our kids they had a problem they didn't even know they had, so then they can market to them a solution and then even sell our kids in some way, because kids are marketable in so many ways. And we have got to wake up.
We've got to be a lighthouse for our kids who are navigating the seas of culture
We've got to be a lighthouse for our kids who are navigating the seas of culture. And before the break, I was just talking about, my conversation with Lee Strobel. Such an encouraging conversation. And you were just talking about preparing kids for. And to give an answer. This is basic apologetics. Don't be afraid. When kids have questions about faith, if they ask questions like the title of Lee's book, is God Real? This is a normal developmental process for them as they start to move from something called concrete thinking, where they think about things very much in black and white, very concrete terms, to thinking about abstract things. That's a sign that they're working to make their faith their own. They're not saying, you know, because my mom and dad said so, but because I have investigated this, I have looked at this, my conviction is that. And I'd love for you to pick up where you were leaving off, Kendra, and how the AFA Activate curriculum equips families and kids to prepare them to have an answer for the hope that they have.
Kendra White: You know, not only to let them be willing to express their doubts and fears, but I think it also engages them on a new level. When you, as the teach, can say, you know what? I've had doubts. All of a sudden they're like, oh, but you're my mom. You're my teacher. You've had doubts. And then when you break down for them what God has done personally in your life and how he brought you through seasons of doubt and how he showed up in your life to make himself known, to make his word shine, how sometimes, you know, I've had times when, I've been wrestling with a passage of scripture, and I'll turn On afr and I heard a sermon that immediately addressed a very specific thing that I was struggling with. And I knew that that was God giving me an answer. I think it helps kids realize that we have the Holy Spirit, you know, Jesus when, and we talk about this a little bit in unit one, you know, when he ascended and went into heaven, he didn't leave us alone. He said that he was going to give us a helper who would remind us of everything that Jesus said. Right. And that same helper is the one who inspired the authors of the Bible. One of the critique that. Well, how did they remember all of those, specific facts? Well, they had the Holy Spirit to guide them and to help that. But we focus a lot in this unit about the power of listening to the Holy Spirit to guide us through His Word. and I just want to say one thing to parents who might be a little bit intimidated of what we talked about in the first segment of the show. when we're talking about manuscript evidence and what skeptics say you might be thinking, I can't leave this for my kids because I don't know it myself. And I'm going to be honest, I always learn through teaching. I learned through creating this curriculum. But I wanted to, equip our teachers to know the course is designed where you do not have to have a master's degree to be able to, address this. really the only thing that you need is a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and real world experience of what he's done in your life to be able to lead them through the parent Leader guide. So the way the course kind of works is they start off with a video, and these are pretty short, short. They'll watch about, maybe three to ten minute lesson. and it's packed with a lot of information. I would actually encourage people to maybe have their kids watch the video like two or three times. because the theological foundations that we're building in this unit might seem very ambitious. But I really believe that kids can grasp this. and so they start off by watching this video. And it's engaging. It's not on a, you know, we're speaking to kids age 6 to 12. So we have lots of videos and pictures and objects, lessons and things to help bring it home to them. So they watch this video, and then you go over to the parent leader guide and there's a discussion question that you lead with your family or your small group, if you're leading a small group. And here's the thing, you guys, we put some possible answers for you. So if you just absolutely are like, I don't know the answer to this one, you can look ahead. And I think that parents are going to learn a lot from doing this curriculum as well. The more that you have to articulate it to your kids, the more it's going to even sink down into your heart and become a foundational part of who you are. so we have those answers there. and then the kids flip over. And I'm, I'm so excited about our workbook, you guys. We have a student workbook that is really fun and interactive, and it comes with stickers, so they have to do these fun little activities. Like, for instance, we talk about how the Bible is just one book. It's 66 books that all come together to tell one story. So we have, like, an image of a little, bookshelf, and they have stickers that, each shelf has a different category. Law, history, gospels. And they have to put the books of the Bible on the shelf that they belong on in the category that they belong. it's also designed to be a very interactive, using all of your senses curriculum, because not every kid, can just sit and listen and absorb. So, the parent leader guide and the student workbook have three different categories. It's share, do and memorize. And share is that interactive discussion with your family. And then they're going into their workbook and they're sharing about what they've learned, and they're doing a fun little activity there. And then the do actually you get up and you do an activity that is going to help bring this lesson home. For instance, we're talking about how a lot of the manuscripts were preserved on papyrus paper. So we have a craft where you get strips of paper and you soak them in a glue water mixture and you make a papyrus paper. And then the students have to let it dry, and they have to try to write their memory verse on it. And they learn about how the scribes had to be so very careful and how they would burn if they made mistakes, and, how carefully God's word was written and translated, over the years. So they're doing stuff like that. We actually, even in unit one, we have some snacks that tie into the lesson. You talked about how there was, you know, we're supposed to be a lighthouse. Well, we talk about God's word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path, and how we are called to be salt and Light in our world. And what as Christians does it mean to be salt to help preserve our world. And we're supposed to add flavor to our culture and not let culture change us. And so they, they get to taste mashed potatoes with and without salt. And pro tip for the parents, if you really want to make the object lesson good, put a lot of butter in the good. In the good batch. But, yeah, so they taste them and they're like, wow, the one without salt is awful. So it's, it is very interactive. I don't want parents to think that just because we're talking about these ambitious things that I really think kids can grasp that it won't be fun.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You had me at crafts and snacks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: The VBS girl in me is like all about, yes, there's crafts and snacks. I am in.
Kendra White: We got you, we got you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so glad about that.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Kendra, there's so many important things to, to pull apart and what you're saying here, I really want to lean in to what you're doing and encouraging parents to say, yes, this is you. One of the things I'm thinking about as you're talking is if you'll remember last summer, the movie the Odyssey was everywhere. You know, the remake of Homer's classic and we saw all of these big movie stars and even if you didn't go see it, you probably heard about it, saw an advertisement for it. And when I listened some of the interviews, Kendra, it was really striking to me how the, how the, the producers, everybody who was working on this film would talk about the credibility of this book of the Odyssey and the Iliad and the Odyssey and they would say like, you know, oh, and just.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And really sounds so academic, you know,
Dr. Jessica Peck: and you think, wow, that's impressive. That's, you know, that's a 2000 year
Dr. Jessica Peck: old book or, or whatever it is. I, I don't even, I, I can't speak about the specific details, but the
Dr. Jessica Peck: impression that I got was that this is a credible piece of work. And one of the interesting things, Kendra, is that when you compare manuscript reliability, the Iliad, the Odyssey are often used. When you look at the comparison of the Bible and the, the scriptures that were written and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These are really exciting things that you can co learn with your kids. One of the things that we know about screen time is co view is so powerful. Watching what your kids are watching and then being able to speak into that in real time. It's the same thing with this AFA Activate curriculum If you don't know it, learning alongside your kids, that's such a great model for being a lifelong learner. And I know that, you know, we talked a little bit about unit one in the Bible, so I would love to hear your thoughts on that. Kendra, did you see any of that media hype? Did you have any of the same thoughts I did?
Kendra White: Oh, well. Well, what's funny, actually,
In unit one we talk about the manuscript evidence for the Bible
in unit one, we talk about the manuscript evidence for the Bible. And, I didn't include this fact, but, some of the, like the Odyssey and some of those, when you take how many manuscripts they had of those classic pieces of literature, and if you stack them up on a table, you maybe have, you know, less than a foot, you know, high. Of every known manuscript that we've found, some of the most pervasive ones, I think maybe have 12 sources. It's like, ooh, wow, we found an 11th one. If you take all of the manuscript evidence that we have for God's Word, I believe it's about a mile high. Oh, my goodness, all of them up. And we knew it was big. We did not talk about that in, in, ah, in. In the series of just how much we have. And, you know, I think, understanding the process that the Bible went through is so important because kids, you know, when you see that there's a lot of manuscripts, that. That actually helps us to even more so be able to find the original text and trust that it's trustworthy. And now, of course, we have AI resources that can go back and are dating some of the things that we've found and are finding that they're even older than we thought. and, you know, we used to say we don't have any of the original manuscripts from the Bible. And that's helpful for kids to know because I think sometimes they think that somewhere there's a Bible that we have the actual writings of Moses and, you know, David. but they are finding some things that actually maybe could date back to the original sources. So it's. We don't have any, you know, evidence to know that it actually is. But, it could be on some of the stuff that they found. So the, the history and the science behind that, the archaeology, we, try to, give the kids a little bit of a glimpse into that. We have lots of footage of archaeologists uncovering things, and we talk about how the more and more that they uncover, it all points back to, to how true and trustworthy God's word is.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, now you're reminding me of My interview with MD Perkins, who said, of course he does all, the filmmaking for, and helps direct all the filmmaking
Dr. Jessica Peck: for American Family Association. And I don't know if he's told you this, Kendra, but his inspiration for
Dr. Jessica Peck: getting into movie making was Indiana Jones.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Love it.
Kendra White: No, I worked with him for years. I didn't realize that was.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, he said that. Exactly. And that is kind of some of the things that we're talking about.
Dr. Jessica Peck: About.
But such exciting things going on in Biblical Archeology and things that are being found
Dr. Jessica Peck: But such exciting things going on in biblical archeology and things that are being found. And when you look at the physical and scientific evidence, it's really important that kids know. This is one of the reasons why we're so compelled in our faith. There is evidence the Bible is true and trustworthy. And when we come back, Kendra, I want to talk more about how we tend to underestimate the ability of kids to understand. You know, my father in law came to know Christianity, Christ relatively late in life. And my daughter was in elementary school, and she was telling him one day, you know, I think you've learned all of the kid Bible stories now. You've got all the milk of scripture you can tell.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Like, she, she is my oldest, so,
Dr. Jessica Peck: you know, she's right on it.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She knows.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she said, you need some meat now?
Dr. Jessica Peck: And he said, okay, what do you suggest? And she, she suggested a passage in Genesis. And she said, kendra, I kid you not.
Dr. Jessica Peck: She said, well, let's just look at when Noah gets drunk. I'll leave it.
Kendra White: No, she didn't.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes, she did. I promise she did.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And it was great because, you know, here's an elementary school kid that we're able to talk about these concepts in a, developmentally appropriate way. Tell her just what she needs to know to be able to navigate culture, to recognize risk, and to respond with faith. And that's what you're doing. When we come back, Kendra will talk more about AFA Activate Kids. And if you want to call that listener storyline and leave your testimony. 877-876-8893. We'll see you right after this break. And my father, your great grandfather, fought in World War II. Really? He was a gunner on the big ship out in the Pacific Ocean. Wow. Your great grandmother did her part, too. Was she on a ship? Oh, no, she stayed back home. She and a lot of her friends worked really hard in a factory because the men had gone off to war and they held scrap metal drives to help in the war effort. The folks back home were heroes, too.
: Here at the American Family association, we consider you the heroes back home. As you fulfill your responsibility of caring for your family day to day, your partnership with us is crucial as we fight the enemies of freedom in America. Thank you for your commitment to the American Family Association. Grandpa, what's a scrap metal drive? Let's get some cookies and I'll take tell you all about it.
That's My King by CeCe Winans: Wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy. He is merciful and powerful. Who we talking about? That's my team. We declare the glory Give him all the honor. Altogether worthy. Who we talking about? That's my king. There's no one before you. Yes, we will adore you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is that's My King by Cece Winans. That's a good song for a praise party. I hope you're having a great day. We're having a great day Here in studio talking with Kendra White about the AFA Activate curriculum for kids. Now we know in this world world we have so many competing messages competing for the hearts, the minds, the affection, the attention of our kids. And I know, I hear from parents all the time that we're just so busy. We're so busy. We're so busy. We're so busy. Here's something that convicts me every Sunday morning when I walk into church, I have an iPhone. Okay. And for whatever reason on Sunday morning as I'm walking into church, that's usually when I'm going to get my screen time alert. And I will see that each week. Oh wow. You could have had a part time
Dr. Jessica Peck: job with as much time you spent on your phone.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It is a conviction and a reminder to me that we need to be more intentional about giving our kids a biblical worldview about investing in real world relationships. I'm talking today to Kendra White who has been instrumental in bringing this curriculum to life. And Kendra, you know, I saw some statistics just recently that two of them that really, really, really, ah, struck me. One of them is that the average American scrolls with their phone, with their thumb on their phone. The average amount of content that equals the height of the Statue of Liberty. My word, every day, every day we are moving our thumb from the toes
Dr. Jessica Peck: to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And yet we're saying, yeah, but I don't have time for a five minute family devotional. Yeah, but I don't have time to pray for my kids. That is really convicting. And the average kid, kid born in 2025, Kendra, they will spend 21,000 hours of their life looking at a screen. Wow, that is about a third of their life. Which means that this generation of kids is going to die with more memories of other people's lives and watching other people's content and lives than engaging in real life on their own. And if that doesn't wake up every parent listening, I don't know what will. And you've. You've created this wonderful interactive tool. We've got crafts, we've got snacks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I mean, what more do you need for fun with your family?
Dr. Jessica Peck: So, Kendra, I would love for you to share more about how parents can find this curriculum and just continue to call them to be intentional, to be engaged.
Kendra White: Well, you know,
George Barna said that by age 13, a person's worldview is pretty well established
George Barna, speaking of stats, he said that by age 13, a person's worldview is pretty well established. Now, of course, the Lord can intervene and, through miraculous intervention, change a heart and a mind. But I think a lot of us think of tackling some of these topics a little bit. Like, oh, that's more of a teen thing to talk about the reliability of scripture. Well, if you want them to have already made their mind up by the time you get started. But this curriculum is specifically designed for kids age 6 to 12. and, let me just go over again kind of what it comes through. So it comes with a dvd, or online videos, if you'd prefer to stream them, they watch a lesson. Then parents will go to the parent leader guide. You do that share section where you have that interactive discussion time. Kids go over to their workbook and they, do a little share where they talk about what they're learning. Then you go to the. Do you do a group activity that ties into that? And it's also kind of designed to be a fun reminder so that kids can look back later. You take a picture of them doing the activity and you paste it in their workbook so it kind of looks like, a photo album memory of all the things that your family got to do together while you went on this journey. And if you. If you're like me and you're like, whoops, forgot to take that picture, they can draw a picture in the space provided of what they did, and they're describing what they've learned in their own words. M. And then the last section, and I haven't talked about this, is the memorize. and each unit is going to have a passage of scripture, because I think kids are. Are capable of memorizing more than just God is love. Right? So it's. It's a short passage, and it comes with a video that has motions. And every single lesson, there's A different way for them to engage with that passage of Scripture. So, this one is, you know, talking about all scriptures God breathed and is useful for teaching and you know, all the, all of the things. And so they're not just memorizing, but they're also talking about how it's useful and why that verse is so important to them, that passage. so that's, that's the what? you can go to activate kids.aca.net right now. It's $40 and it's, it will arrive in time for Christmas if you want to do it as a gift for your grandkids or family. and if you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: $40, $40. Now this is reasonable.
Kendra White: This is unit one. we will have a total of five units. So this whole unit focuses on the authority and sufficiency of scripture, how we got the Bible. unit two is going to be coming out next year and it's going to deal with marriage and family and those issues. but it's designed, to kind of go at your own pace. but we have approximately 11 lessons that I would say take about an hour to do, the whole thing. So you can do one a week if it's your Sunday school class and make it an 11 or 12 week course. or if you're a homeschool family that's really ambitious and you want to do one, one a day, you can knock it out a lot faster, Pastor. But, that's kind of the, the structure of how it is. And it's again, it's activate kids.aca.net you
Dr. Jessica Peck: can't even take your kids to your family to a movie for 40 bucks.
Dr. Jessica Peck: This is a much better investment. And you know, often, Kendra, you know,
Dr. Jessica Peck: when I talk with Christian families and when I even reflect on my own life, I think, oh, yes, my intention is to build a biblical worldview, but
Dr. Jessica Peck: my credit card and my calendar are my pesky little, you know, accountability partners
Dr. Jessica Peck: that will say, I think where you're spending your time, where you're spending your money, your resources, they might betray you here.
Dr. Jessica Peck: They may make doubt.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Now, Kendra, one thing I think is important for me to say is you brought up George Barna and every time we bring up George Barna, you know, I've had the, the privilege of, of, interviewing him on the show and I even had to speak after him once at a conference. Like, imagine that kind of intimidation. But there is one point that George Barna and I really, really disagree about and I always feel the need to disclose that he is a die hard Yankees fan.
Kendra White: I was nervous where you're going on this one. I was, I don't know.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm a Georgia Barna fan here and you know, I'm trying really hard to not see that as a character flaw. Just like he's trying not to see
Dr. Jessica Peck: me being an Astros fan, as a character flaw. So when we spoke at our last conference, he wore, he wore Yankees, you know, fan attire and I wore my Astros hat. And Kendra, he looked at me and right in front of the whole crowd he goes, that's disgusting.
Kendra White: No, he did. I guess he did.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It was hysterical. Anyway, it's just, believe me, no, nothing with World View. I just, I like to have a little fun with that. I always have to give Dr. Barna a little elbow there because of our baseball rivalry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: But really, truly this is a way to build memories with your kids. One of the things that we've been talking about and you've mentioned already, and I've mentioned too, is not underestimating kids ability. You know, kids have a remarkable ability to memorize scripture. And I know, you know, my kids did that when they were young and they would memorize a whole chapter of scripture.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And I'm sitting here, my older brain is struggling to keep up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think we under what kids are capable of.
We underestimate what our kids are exposed to, and the ways that we can strengthen them
We underestimate what our kids are exposed to and the ways that we can strengthen them. Is there anything else that you want to say about that, Kendra? About how we're, you know, we're tack. You're tackling some controversial topics with kids. But I think that exposing them intentionally in a developmentally appropriate way, that makes us the first people to, to frame this issue for them, positions us as the exposure expert and opens the door for conversations in the future is so important. I'll say this last thing and I'll give it to you, Kendra, because I've talked about this example many times before. But for example, talking with my young children about pornography starting about third, fourth grade, because the average exposure for a kid today is 8 years of age 8. Now, I did not sit down and give them a fear based lecture and tell them, oh my gosh, if you ever see this, you know, it's awful.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And I did not tell them on
Dr. Jessica Peck: the nitty gritty gritty things, I said, hey, you live in a world that is saturated by screens. There are screens everywhere and I wish so much that I could control everything that you would ever see on a screen, but I can't. And one day you're gonna see something on a screen, either by accident, or someone will send something to you. Someone will put a screen in your face and show you something that you feel like you shouldn't have seen. Maybe it'll be confusing. Maybe it'll make you feel like you've done something wrong. Might make your body even feel a little weird, like, what's going on on. When that happens, I want you to come to me and tell me about it, and I will take it from there. We will get through it together. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened with one of my kids. So I'm not telling them, you know, oh, you're gonna see this specific thing, this graphic thing. And it. And it's awful, and it's horrible. I'm just helping them navigate. But signaling, hey, come to me, come to me, come to me. Because sometimes kids don't have the will words to explain what they saw. They're trying, but their vocabulary is limited. And sometimes just the feelings they have, that shame that's immediately present with sin, they don't understand it. They feel like they did something wrong. Not just guilt, but shame, like they were wrong. And it's so important for us to just continue to have these kinds of conversations like you're setting up with afa. Activate kids so that they do know they can come to us in those times. Yes.
Kendra White: And help them to not only identify the darkness, but to know the source of it. That that comes from the devil and that he is a lion who wants to steal, kill, and destroy, but that the people that they see engaged in wrong things in our world are lost and hurting. And it's our job as believers to be like you said, that lighthouse. And I love that you mentioned that because that is actually an image that we use. in one of our lessons, we open up one of our lessons with talking about what a lighthouse does. And we have beautiful footage of this lighthouse and these crashing waves. and we're talking about how, Christ is the light. And it's our job to point to the lighthouse and to point people to that and how to help them even do that in their friend circles when they see something that's off. And I think parents need to be prepared. You talked about kids are able to understand and accomplish much more than we think. they are little disciples. So be prepared to be out in public. And your kid is going to want to witness to somebody. They're going to want to start an awkward conversation.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And.
Kendra White: And, you might have to be ready to follow up I had my daughter's four and she went. Walked over to another table the other day. So embarrassing. Excuse me, are you all Christians? Because I wanna tell you about Jesus. And you know, on the one hand you're like, honey, come here, come sit down over here. You know, and they're like, yeah, we are. But she was ready. I mean, she was like, mom, let's not waste this moment. So you are raising little disciples.
And do not underestimate what God can do through your children
And do not underestimate what God can do through your children. You are built, and you are building their worldview. but also they are going to be practicing these things every single day with the kids that they bump into, with the conversations that they have with their friends. and you know, another thing in this series, I just, I really hope kids understand that if there's something in the Bible that they don't understand about God, or maybe they even kind of steps on their toes and they go, you know, I've had those moments. There have been things where I've got, you know, know what this verse says? I'm supposed to submit to my husband. I don't know if I like that word, Lord, or. I remember having a conversation several years back about, women. And, I had just been wrestling in my own walk with the Lord, and God had revealed to me those passages his incredible love for women. and how I had misunderstood all of these passages. And I was sitting on, a plane next to a lady and. And we get talking and she says, you know, okay, you're a Christian. She said the one thing I just. I think I could accept it all.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I just don't understand.
Kendra White: I don't like the way the Bible talks about women. And I just almost laughed because it was like God had just done that in my heart. And I've realized now, anytime there's some. Something I don't understand about Scripture, where I go, I wouldn't have done it that way. God, there's usually his character and his kindness and his love hiding right under the surface. If I'll just get my shovel out and dig just under a little bit deeper. And I have so much confidence that that is who God is, that I want kids to feel that same. If there's something that you read in the Bible. Cause there is stuff you're like, oh, wow, God told them to go kill a whole. You know, is this genocide? You know, he can feel like a moral monster at times, but the more you dig, the more you realize how true his character is. And also that he's not a Tame lion. And yes, that's ah, A quote from C.S. lewis who the lion was male. Let me, let me just go ahead and say that, but God is not a tame lion. and there will be aspects of him that we go, I would have done it differently. but he is God and, and we can trust him.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I remember two of my past guests separately told me, reminded me
There is no junior Holy Spirit for kids
there is no junior Holy Spirit for kids. Like they don't get a junior version of the Holy Spirit. They don't get a watered down, you know, kid friendly version. When they accept Christ, they have the full power of the Holy Spirit. And I remember one time, Kendra, you know where I, I was ministering to to a girl who was going through a really hard time. And I say a girl, she was an adult woman and she was going through a really hard time in her marriage. And, and she had asked me, you know, is she just didn't want to be alone at that time. And I said, well I'm driving my
Dr. Jessica Peck: daughter like across town for the school event.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You're welcome to come with us. She's like, app, I want to come with you. And so the whole time I'm just like praying, okay, God, give me an opportunity, give me an opportunity. Like let me, let me share the gospel. Well, before I can even say anything,
Dr. Jessica Peck: my elementary school age daughter is, is back in the back saying, can I
Dr. Jessica Peck: draw you three circles and show you a picture?
Dr. Jessica Peck: And she starts to launch in to this. You know, just shared the gospel with her beautifully and just, oh yeah, and
Dr. Jessica Peck: just told her, you know, my, my mom told me that, you know, she didn't tell me what's going on, but I know that you know, you're facing some, some hard things.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Can I pray for you? And I just sat there feeling like,
Dr. Jessica Peck: how can I even drive? I can't see over the steering wheel.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I feel like I'm 2 inches tall.
Kendra White: Thank you Lord.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And yes, and there is no junior Holy Spirit.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Kendra, tell us one more time,
Dr. Jessica Peck: how can people get a hold of this curriculum?
Kendra White: activatekids.afa.net you can order it today.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Kendra, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for the work that you're doing. I appreciate you so much too. And thank you. Check out Hannah's heart. And they're doing a butterfly release. So go online and look at that and if. Can you tell them in 20 seconds where it is? Yes.
Kendra White: Go to hannah's [email protected] and we'd love to get you connected and get you connected.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You may know someone who needs to have that kind of encouragement. And I pray that wherever you are, whatever you're doing, the Lord will bless
Dr. Jessica Peck: you and keep you and make his
Dr. Jessica Peck: face to shine upon you. And we'll see you right here next time.
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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
How do we help our kids navigate a confusing culture while building a strong biblical worldview? Jessica Peck talks with Kendra White about AFA Activate Kids Curriculum and why our children need more than protection- they need to be equipped.
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