I learned what dependence looks like a few years ago when I decided to bring my two kids under age 2 to story time at the library. It all went fine until the last few minutes when the baby got hungry, I started to feed him, the librarian pulled out the familiar duck puppet to sing the goodbye song, and in a flash my toddler was running out the open doors in a mob of kids. In a panic, I ran to catch him before he ran out into the parking lot. I caught him by the doors, but he collapsed into a huge toddler tantrum. It was all I could do to just hang on to him and hold my fragile newborn under my nursing cover. I was stuck there.

It doesn’t take much to look out at the world and see that evil exists. From small lies to war-torn countries, there is a plethora of evidence to showcase how broken our world is. As Christians, we know that these manifestations of evil do not only exist in what we can see but are prevalent in our spiritual reality, where the devil works against us.

There’s a lot of talk by social media influencers about dealing with emotions—for both adults and kids. There is a plethora of children’s books about dealing with big feelings (several of which I own and read when we’re having a bad day). You can sign up for all kinds of different online programs or classes on helping kids deal with anger, sadness, or fear, as well as helping parents stay calm and patient. And some of this can be very helpful.

“Is this a real story or a pretend one?”

It’s a question I have to ask after my four-year-old tells me that her sister hit her and then sang “Let It Go.” Oftentimes, I’m in the same room as them and know the answer to the question. Being truthful has been a struggle for our smart girl. While we know it’s actually a developmental milestone for toddlers to understand that they can verbally construct what they wish were true, lying is a sin forbidden in the Eighth Commandment.

My college roommate decided she could be more productive if she slept every other night. That’s an extra eight hours every other day to get things done, right? Sounds great in theory. But as you might expect, it didn’t take long before she realized she needed a lot more rest than that.

Talking with children about death is never easy. As parents and caregivers, we may feel unsure of what to say or how much to share—especially when our own hearts are heavy. Yet as Christians, we do not face these conversations without hope: In Jesus, we can speak truthfully about death while pointing our children to the promise of life everlasting.

Like most parents, when I pick up my son from preschool, I ask, “What did you learn today?” His answers vary from a shrug to telling me something weird one of his classmates did that day (a child put a bean in his nose again, in case you were wondering). 

My mother-in-law loves to tell this story of her youngest child on the bus. It goes something like this. My sister-in-law rode the bus to get to school every day. Because of how rowdy kids can be on a bus (whether they’re riding for 5 minutes or 50), the bus driver had decided that it was necessary to assign seats. She would bring her Bible with her on the bus and one day she started reading parts of it to the younger girl who was her assigned bus buddy.

I was playing with my boys when one of their toys broke. My oldest said, “That’s okay—just order another one on Amazon,” and he handed me my phone! That’s when I realized I needed to explain things like needs versus wants, stewardship, and … well, money in general. 

In the book of Joshua, the Lord supernaturally intercedes and allows His people to cross an overflowing Jordan River by using the ark of the covenant to stop the river from flowing. Following this incredible miracle, He instructs His people to grab twelve stones from the dry riverbed as a testament to future generations of the miracle He had done. Today, we’ll unpack what this means and how we can adopt the same idea with our own children.