‘Dad, are there 2 Jesuses?’ (how to teach your child about the Trinity)

May 17, 2016 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Bible, Children, God, Parents, Trinity

The look on my 4-year-old son Williams’s face was one of confusion and bewilderment – and I knew he was preparing to toss me a theological curve ball.

We had been reading a passage out of the New Testament and discussing a simple-yet-profound concept that is taught repeatedly throughout Scripture: God sending His Son to the Earth in the form of a tiny baby.

My blue-eyed, curly-haired son knows the story about Mary, Joseph and the Christ child by heart. He even can tell you all about Easter. But on this night He was getting hung up on the roles of God the Father and God the Son – and the differences.

Finally, William spit it out: “So, Dad, are there two Jesuses?”

For much of his short life, William has been the king of crazy questions. When learned that his yet-to-be-born baby brother would not immediately be able to crawl or walk, he asked: “So, he won’t have legs?” When I told him that Noah was 600 when he built the ark, William asked, innocently, “Is that older than grandpa?”

But as much as I wanted to toss his theological question into the “kids-say-the-darndest-things” category, I couldn’t. That’s because for weeks and weeks, I had been teaching him that Jesus is God, but on this night I was telling him that Jesus was being sent by God. Let’s be honest: Unless you’ve been in church culture your entire life, that concept certainly sounds confusing.

So is Jesus God, or was He sent by God? Or to put it into the 4-year-old vernacular, are there two Jesuses?

The Bible is full of hard-to-understand concepts – for preschoolers and adults. For example, it teaches that Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man. Here’s another one: Jesus, as a child, simultaneously knew nothing and everything. Huh?

You see, parents aren’t all that much different from my 4-year-old son. We, too, are struggling to grasp some of Scripture’s most incredible concepts. We want God to be explained to us, in detail, and preferably in the next five minutes by PowerPoint. But if God could be so easily explained, He wouldn’t be God, would He?

The good news, though, is that Christian parents don’t have to be theologians in order to teach their children about the Trinity – or any other hard-to-understand concepts. All we have to do is teach what the Bible teaches, and go no further.

In fact, as I have learned, children are far more accepting of difficult-to-understand truths than are adults. That night, I told my 4-year-old son the same thing I would tell a 44-year-old co-worker, or any other adult. Here’s what I said: Continue reading →

3 things Christian parents should teach their kids about ‘Star Wars’

April 16, 2016 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, christian, force awakens, Parents, star wars

In the past few months, my home has been transformed into, well, a Jedi training institute.

That’s what happens when a father (that’s me) momentarily loses his mind and buys his two young sons toy light sabers – the type that collapse into the handle and then “shoot out” with just a slight flick of the wrist. And so they have light saber battles at morning and at night, assuming they’ve gone their chores

All of this is not surprising, considering that I was a “Star Wars” fan growing up and that a new film in the series, “The Force Awakens,” was released in theaters last year and is now available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray. Yes, I was at the theater on opening night, and yes, soon thereafter I took my 7-year-old son to watch it.

Still, I’d rather my kids not grow up fantasizing about “Star Wars.” And I also don’t want them to become like those crazy people in Great Britain who pencil in “The Force” as their religion on census forms. And, finally, I don’t want them confusing anything in the “Star Wars” universe with anything in the Bible.

Some may scoff at my concern, but I also know that my kids – like many kids – are incredibly impressionable and lack discernment. And I also know that my kids – like many kids – can be clueless with weightier matters.

God commands parents to teach their children His commandments (Deuteronomy 6:7) throughout the day and to “train” them and prepare them for adulthood (Proverbs 22:6). Why would I hand that responsibility and privilege over to Hollywood and assume my kids can separate fact from fiction?

Besides, let’s be honest: “Star Wars” is a movie about a religion. Sure, it’s a fictitious religion, but it’s one that has elements borrowed from many real-world religions – as George Lucas himself acknowledged during a 1999 interview with Bill Moyers.

So, can we Christian parents use “Star Wars” to teach our children biblical truth? I think so. This is what I’ve told my kids about the series: Continue reading →

6 secrets to ‘eating out’ — peacefully — with children

March 25, 2016 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, eating out, kids, Parents, restaurants

The first time my wife and I took our newborn to a restaurant, time seemingly stood still. Sweet elderly ladies “oohed” and “aahed” over our little bundle of joy. Waitresses stopped by our table to take a peek, amazed by his long eyelashes and quiet manner. Heck, even a few rough-looking grown men—the type you don’t want to cross—cracked a smile.

It was, in one word, “wonderful.”

Fast forward two years, and restaurant visits were no longer the highlight of our week. Yes, our son, Graham, was still precious, but instead of sleeping, he was randomly putting pepper shakers in his mouth. Instead of calmly drinking a bottle, he was stubbornly tossing macaroni on the floor, wondering why Mommy and Daddy were stressed and the people at the next table were laughing. Then there was the time when we ordered our food and he immediately began pitching a fit. Unable to calm him, we boxed up all of our food, hopped in the car and drove home.

Not every instance with our then-2-year-old son was taxing, but there were enough tough moments that we began evaluating what we could do better to make visits to restaurants more enjoyable.

My family views “eating out” much the way people viewed meals during Jesus’ life—as a time of leisurely fun and fellowship. We’re not there simply to eat. We’re there to talk and enjoy one another.

So, can a family of small children eat out regularly without chaos ensuing? Yes.

Here are a few tips that helped us … and may help you, too:
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3 ways to teach your kids about Easter, death and the cross

March 12, 2016 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, Christ, Cross, Easter, God, Jesus, kids, Parents

My 4-year-old daughter Maggie has always been a bit studious for her age. She knew colors when she was 2, was reading the entire alphabet when she was 3, and by the time she turned 4, could read a digital clock.

So I was a bit surprised when my wife told me toward the end of last year that Maggie had failed a holiday pop quiz. The question from my wife was the same one that Charlie Brown shouted to all of his friends: What’s Christmas all about?

Maggie’s answer: “presents.”

I’m sure she said it in an oh-so-sweet voice, and I bet she even had an oh-so-precious smile on her face, but she also was oh-so-wrong. Christmas, my wife told her, is about Jesus—even if presents can be part of innocent holiday fun. By the end of the day Maggie had watched a cartoon about baby Jesus and had been read a book about baby Jesus, and it’s safe to say she went to bed that night knowing that Christmas wasn’t all about dolls, dollhouses and pretty pink necklaces.

Of course, it’s easy to teach children about Christmas, with its spotlight on a sweet tiny baby surrounded by animals and shepherds on a clear, starry night. It’s such a “sterile” and “clean” story that even non-Christians are attracted to its power.

But what do we do about Easter? Instead of a baby, we have a bruised and bloodied man. Instead of shepherds in worshipful awe, we have mocking, hate-filled onlookers. Instead of a stable, we have nails, a crown of thorns and a cross. And instead of a story about life, we apparently have a story about, well, death. How do we teach our children that?
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10 life-changing words to tell your kids every day

January 29, 2016 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, God, Parents

My 7-year-old son is like a lot of boys his age—energetic, jovial and somewhat loud.

He also has this peculiarity that is prominent among his peers: He pretends he doesn’t like to be praised.

“Great job, son!” I’ll tell him—to which he responds with a shrug of embarrassment or a stare of indifference.

But I know my words impact him—greatly.

One time he and I were having a candid father-son talk when I—unwisely—told him that the Bible says I should love his mom more than I love him. Oh, sure, it was a super-dumb thing to say, even though it had a biblical basis (Ephesians 5) and was factually true. But his 7-year-old heart wasn’t ready to process that, and he went to his room and sobbed. I nearly cried, too.

Sociologists have conducted dozens of studies demonstrating the power of words, but Scripture—more than 2,000 years ago—beat social science to the punch.

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body,” Proverbs 16:24 tells us.

If we were to analyze the thousands of words we say each day to our children, would they be mostly negative (“I can’t believe you did that!”) or positive (“let’s clean that up together”)? Our words, both good and bad, shape our children in the same manner the talented potter molds the unformed clay.

My wife and I have become intentional in recent months about using more positive words around our children, and we’ve seen our home become an even happier one. The results, though, aren’t always seen overnight. Just as honeycomb and other healthy foods don’t lead to instant good health, sometimes our words have to be sprinkled on our children each day and every week, until months later we see fruit—whether that is obeying better, treating their siblings and friends better, or even making better grades.
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