Talking With Your Kids About God: 30 Conversations Every Christian Parent Must Have
By Natasha Crain
“Do you care about raising your kids in the Christian faith? Are you afraid that the culture might capture their hearts and minds? If these are concerns you have, as I do, then this book is for you.”
Taken from the Foreword written by Sean McDowell.
After reading Fearless Parenting in 2017, I committed myself to studying apologetics in addition to my daily Bible study and other spiritual growth reading. Since then, I have read a few books on apologetics and was initially interested in Talking With Your Kids About God because it is both a parenting and apologetics book. As a mother of five children, I believe it is of vital importance that every Christian parent should study apologetics as a means to equip both themselves and their children to defend their personal faith and beliefs in an increasingly secular and faithless society.
Parents are a child’s most powerful influence but in order for parents to be effective they must be prepared with a strong biblical knowledge that supports the Truth they wish to instill in their offspring. Failing to do so cannot be an option. Future generations depend on our due diligence.
I wasn’t familiar with the author, Natasha Crain, prior to reading this book but I did learn she has a lot of street-cred in regards to apologetics. As a mother of three, Natasha has a widely successful blog called Christian Mom Thoughts, a certificate in apologetics from Biola University, and is the author of another parenting apologetics book – Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side.
The Introduction to this book immediately got me hooked. I felt like Natasha was speaking directly to me about something that has occurred in my life when in reality she and I struggle with the same issue – gardening!
She begins the Introduction by saying her backyard is where plants go to die and oh yes, have I been there! Without giving too much of the book away, I will briefly explain what she was referring to.
While the concept of gardening appears to be simple (dirt, seeds, and water), Natasha describes the true complexity of it in three different ways: 1.) Each plant has unique needs, 2.) Plants need more than one ingredient and in the right amounts, and 3.) The environment plays a major role.
Natasha goes on to illustrate the similarity between what plants need for physical growth and what children need for spiritual growth. I thought this analogy was genius and it totally struck a cord with me!
The Introduction had me hooked and I began to read with vigor and engagement. However, I quickly became glazed over by the intellectual detail portrayed in several chapters that followed. This led me to slow down my reading pace because I was either overwhelmed or felt like the information was way over my head. It took me almost two months to read this book and it was full of peaks and valleys for me. Meaning, there were chapters in this book that were too dry or too scholarly for me while other chapters took a unique angle from other apologetics books I had read and therefore seemed to keep my interest.
Throughout Talking With Your Kids About God, there was one thing that did stand out to me and that was Natasha’s perspective from questions she received from her blog following. She includes these questions, doubts, and defenses from the viewpoints of both theistic and atheistic people. I found this to be incredibly beneficial because some of the questions and debates offered by atheists and agnostics I wouldn’t have even thought of nor would I have been able to defend if they had come up in one of my personal conversations. Additionally, these questions challenged the reader to test what he or she had learned in that specific chapter by applying the content to a hypothetical situation.
Talking With Your Kids About God is complied of 5 different topic sections that include the existence of God, the science of God, the nature of God, believing in God, and the difference God makes. There are a total of 30 chapters that address a specific question your child may have pertaining to an aspect of God, His sovereignty and/or His character. At the end of each chapter is a recap of takeaway points as well as a conversational guide that includes applicable discussion questions to help you interact with your child(ren) while conducting productive dialogue.
This book is perfect for families with children of all ages and Natasha makes it very easy to navigate and tailor topics to your child’s unique age and maturity level while tackling individual needs or questions.
If you want to help shape the next generation and develop strong followers of Christ, I highly recommend you add Talking With Your Kids About God to your reading list!
*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest revi
