Navigating the Difficult Parts of the Bible
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Well, thanks for joining us today. Last time we talked about why it matters that you and your kids read Scripture together and the importance of truth and keeping it central in your home. And today we're going to talk about how to handle those difficult parts that might scare you. I'm John Fuller, along with our Vice President of Parenting, Dr. Danny Huerta. And Danny, what are some of the trouble spots for you as you open the Scripture? Are there any, I guess, is the first question. Yeah, you know, we've talked about in our family about Job.

Job is a tough one. We've had some great conversations about the book of Job. The first one that's gotten me the most is the fact that Satan could actually negotiate with God. There was a moment where he said, hey, so what about Job? And was given the opportunity to do that. I don't quite understand in that book what that means or why that can happen. So with my kids, when we've talked about that,

And we've talked about the need to trust in God, that He has a strategy like no other. He has a love like no other, and we can trust Him wholeheartedly. And in that, a reverence towards Him, that when we pray, we truly pray that we know He has love.

the big picture in mind, and he has the best intent with us. And yeah, that's the main one, John, that I would say. I appreciate that. I don't know which one have you struggled with. You know, I used to struggle with revelation, but I've just come down to saying God is mysterious, kind of like what you're saying. God is mysterious. He knows the end.

And none of it takes him by surprise. And it's all going to happen the way he wants it to or allows it to. So I've got a pretty high view of God's sovereignty. It helps me with those hard passages. But let's go ahead and listen to Danica Cooley. She was on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And Danica and Jim talked about what to do when you and your kids are reading the Word of God and you hit a tough spot.

I remember with my boys when they were a little younger, I wanted to get them going on the book of Proverbs. You know, I think especially both boys and girls need that, obviously. But Proverbs really is a great introduction to so many good things for boys, particularly about how to behave and what's important and who God is, etc. The tenets, the principles. You get into Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, you know, don't lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Mm-hmm.

They could, I mean, they'll go right there because I hit that one a lot. But then you get into some of the other proverbs. And you're going, you know, the kids are like seven and nine and I'm going, we're going to skip this part right here because it was edgy. You know, it's talking about human sexuality and things that I didn't feel like they were ready to go toward or be exposed to.

Speak to that dilemma in scripture because the Bible has a lot of hard stuff about battles and about human sexuality. I mean, it hits all those issues. How do you manage that with younger children?

Right. So the Bible can be really edgy. And in the historic books, a lot of the narrative is very descriptive. So God just lays out there what happened. And then we see the consequences of it. It's not necessarily prescriptive. We're not supposed to live the sin that is there. So for a five-year-old, they really don't need to hear Judges 19, which is the story of the Levite and his concubine and the tribe of Benjamin. It is an incredibly violent story.

awful story. Like as an adult, I have a hard time reading it. So I would suggest reading the entire Bible with your teens.

But for a five-year-old, just skip that chapter. You can just take out the stuff that they don't need to know about. And then when our kids got to be preteens, and it was obviously time for them to understand things in Proverbs that are important for them to know. For their lives. Yeah, before they get to 10 or 11. We just were really matter of fact. And we said God has a plan for marriage, and he has a plan for actions within marriage and anything outside of marriage pertaining to those actions.

isn't appropriate it's gonna have consequences so proverbs describes some of those consequences it's like a man going in to have dinner in a house and the woman has bones of her past victims in the basement so you know i think that's actually a good word picture for our boys to understand so when we got to that age we were just really matter of fact yeah no that's good let me ask um

With a wide range of children. So you're talking about at the dinner table, being able to read a bit of scripture together. When you have, in your case, where you had the two older children, probably in their teens and the younger kids in their single digits, is there any difficulty in how to do that for a wide range of age at the same time? Or do you break it down so that you're with the older kids and talking and reading different things than compared to the younger kids?

Yeah, so I suggest that if you have teens in the home, if there are those edgy chapters, that the teens can be asked to read them on their own and then you can discuss them. Oh, that's good. It gives a little intrigue. Yeah, yeah. Okay, mom. It's a special thing that they're entrusted with and you can have a conversation maybe after the other kids go to bed. And with real little kids, like we had my sister's children with us during the day for a couple years and

on the weekdays. And I didn't want to neglect teaching my kids. So I set up boxes of activities for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and they were quiet activities. And they only saw those boxes during the 20 minutes that I would read a chapter with my kids and talk to them about it. And this is another, I'd

I tell you, as a parent, I'm always surprised by everything. But I would ask my kids questions and I'd hear these sweet little girl voices just pop up with an answer to the question and they had been listening. So, you know, our kids understand more than we think. But if we allow our littles to do things like put stickers on a page, there is nothing wrong with that.

Well, God's love, I think, is something that even non-believers will maybe give mental assent to. Oh, yeah, if there is a God, he must be loving. Yes. But you referenced Job, and I've been reading through Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel. There's a lot of men's free will and evil choices and bad consequences. How do we handle that? How do we help our kids process what they see in terms of sin and suffering? Yeah.

Yeah, as we have conversations with our kids, as we grapple with God's goodness and faithfulness, we do have to realize that there are going to be lots of things we don't fully, fully understand or comprehend on what God is doing. I know in reading through Samuel and then the Judges,

There are some very dark things. There's some moments where God wipes out complete...

groups of people, right? With women and children. City-sized groups, yeah. And so you're going, Lord, why is that? And with a child that's asking these questions, you want to have a little bit of that question mark with them and say, hey, man, I wonder what that is. We do need to get to know God at a deeper level. And one of the key ways that he tells us to do that in Scripture is to remember.

Remember my faithfulness. Remember how things are completed in your life. We see Asaph doing that in Psalm 77 in that area where he's grappling in a very depressive way with things that are falling apart, things he doesn't understand. But he says, no, but now I rest upon, I remember when God did this and that. And he talked to the Israelites about that in Exodus. He says, hey, make sure you remember that.

My faithfulness. When times get good, you can also get confused. When you have everything, you start to go, do I really need God? Is that dependence there? That's another important conversation. Does it mean that God is good just because we have everything? Or does it mean that God is good that he has given us suffering or trial? Because Paul got to that.

And the more we can teach our kids to look at those moments of suffering in the way that Paul and others leaned into that relationship with their Heavenly Father and remembered that, that's where they found the most transformation, and maybe as a family.

That's where we can find that closeness to God to understand more fully who he is. So we pray before these podcasts. And Danny, what you just said was for me. It's for thousands of other people. But what you said was for me because I've got a child asking me some questions.

And you just helped me reframe it personally so that as I have the next conversation with this child, I'm going to have what you just said in mind. So thank you. Thanks, John. It's a pretty awesome thing to be in the studio and to hear this stuff. And I know the wisdom that you share and the heart for the Lord comes through, but it's not for somebody out there, somebody in another country listening to a podcast. We're learning together, aren't we, John? So thank you. Amen.

And what you heard from Danny is our heart to help you as a parent. We want to help you better appreciate God's word and walk with God more closely so you have a thriving relationship even when suffering and difficulty enters into your life.

So get a copy of this book from Danica Cooley, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible. It is a terrific resource, and it's available for a donation of any amount to the ministry today. Donate generously as you can, and we'll send the book to you, and the information is in the show notes. And then, Danny, tell us about the family reading of Scripture book.

resource that your team has created and is creating. And this is what we wanted to create, or what we've created for families, is an easy way to engage in God's Word day in, day out. So every day, being able to listen to God's Word read to you out loud, and then as a family, conversation starters to dig into what you just heard. It can be about eight to 15 minutes. It can be part of the rhythm of the day, and we've chosen specifically to

male, female characters. So Esther is one of them, just a courageous woman in that time around her life. And then Daniel is another courageous man where they've both had adversity. And so what we have created with family reading of scripture is a multimedia type of experience with God's word so that you

You can fall in love with God's Word together as a family and experience it with all the ages of the kids in the home. That's great. And we're going to link over to that in the episode notes. And then give it a try and let us know what you think. Give us some feedback because Danny and the team is pretty open to suggestions. And there's a whole bunch of creative opportunity ahead of us. It's just a matter of building it all out. Gideon is next. Yeah. We had Holy Week, Advent.

And we're going to keep going from there. So you're right. Give us feedback. We want to continue to shape this exactly as you want. Yeah. So contribute as you can, either with your dollars or your feedback and spreading the word about these podcasts. And then related, leave us a review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening, because that really helps spread the word about what Focus on the Family has to offer.

And thanks in advance for doing that. For now, on behalf of Dr. Danny Huerta and the entire team, I'm John Fuller, and thanks for joining us for the Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast.

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