Motherhood, where sleep is a rumor and laundry
is eternal. And somehow, we're supposed to be
raising tiny humans through it all. We're here
to laugh at the chaos, cry when necessary, and
remind you that none of us actually know what
we're doing. This is No Manual, a momcast. Your
mom friend group chat, but with microphones.
Welcome back to No Manual MomCast. Hi, everyone.
Welcome back to No Manual MomCast. Today, we
are talking all about faith and incorporating
faith into our kids' lives. But before we hop
into that, Erica, do you want to share your mom
moment of the week? Sure. So we've been starting
to do like, I guess you would just call it affirmations
with Lloyd. So usually we'll start and we'll
say something like, Lloyd is smart. And then
he continues with other characteristics. So Lloyd
is smart and he's strong and he's brave and he's
kind. And no matter what, no matter like how
many he covers, how many or how few, what order
he goes in, he always ends. with funny and he
always cracks himself up when he says lloyd is
funny so i'll have to get a recording of him
saying this because it's so cute where i'm like
lloyd is kind lloyd is brave lloyd is funny and
he says it like that every single time and it's
super cute Yeah, just he's funny and he is funny.
And clearly like that's important to him that
he's funny. That's amazing. I love that. That's
so cute. Okay, my mom moment. This might be TMI.
I was telling Erica about this before we recorded
because I was like, should I share this? I don't
know. So when Colt was born, he is a C -section
baby. So I have a C -section scar. And every
time Colt sees, can see my C -section scar, he
goes, mommy. I touch your scar. I touch your
scar. And I'm like, okay, buddy, that's fine.
Because he knows, he's realized, oh, that's where
he was born from. And he thinks it's cool. And
so I'm like, okay, yeah, that's fine. And the
last time he did that, he goes, mom, I touch
your scar, but I no touch your pee -pee. I no
touch your pee -pee. Like, yeah, buddy, please
don't touch my poopy. Don't touch that. Yeah.
At least he knows. I mean, that's good. Yeah.
I'm like, I don't know where that like association
or like where that came from. But I'm like, I'm
glad you're using like your discernment there
and know what's right and wrong. And so I just
thought that was funny. Hopefully that's not
TMI for this, but it's just reality of motherhood.
It is. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure every mom
who has a kid. has experienced something along
those lines. Yes, yes. Okay, so let's hop in.
So we kind of had this episode idea. I think
that us both being Christians, our faith is a
huge priority in our lives and in our family's
lives. And with our kids now being two and one,
something that we are starting to incorporate
into their lives. And the hope is obviously for
it to like bleed down into their life and that
they would start to pick up on some of those
qualities and start to build their own faith.
So what have you done or what are you wanting
to incorporate, I guess, into your kids' lives
at this point to start building their own faith?
There's obviously we go to church every Sunday
and we're like, I'm not volunteering a lot with
church right now just because of time and capacity.
Stuart plays drums. So we're like fairly involved.
Dad is always there for at least two services,
if not more. He goes to church on Thursdays for
rehearsal. You know, we're very involved in that
capacity. And, you know, for us, it is something
that we like going to church is something that.
is just like kind of a non -negotiable in our
schedule. Obviously, like there are times, right,
you know, when we were potty training and Lloyd
was still wetting his pants every single day,
we stayed home when, you know, if someone's sick,
especially like contagious sick, they stay home,
you know, to take care of others, especially.
But even on those days, I'll stream church. Obviously,
we can't stream kids' church, but, you know,
we stream the main sermon and worship. Lloyd
loves watching the music. And actually that's
always kind of fun because since we're involved
in the worship team, there's always at least
one person he knows in the video and he'll point
them out, which is fun. So like, obviously that's
the main thing on like a day to day. So we've
just started doing memory verses with Lloyd.
One of the things for both Stuart and I were
like, we both feel like we know the Bible fairly
well, but in a sense of like, I could tell you
a verse, but not necessarily where it is. And
I want to be better about that, which is part
of why we're doing this. I'm memorizing these
verses with Lloyd, so it's not just like, hey,
here's your homework, kiddo. It's, hey, Mom and
Lloyd are doing this together, and my parents
who watch him once a week, they are helping us
with that as well. So we've started memory verses
for both of us, so that way he hopefully sees
it like, hey, Mom's doing this. And then, you
know, we pray before meals. We pray before bed.
Yeah. I feel like that's, like, the main things
we're doing right now. Of course, it's hard when
they're this little. They're so little still,
yep. Like, I think a lot of it is just how we
live our lives to a certain extent, but that's
mostly what we're doing right now. Yeah. Yeah.
That's great. We're doing a lot of that as well.
Like, both Michael and I work in ministry, and
so the reality is, like, our kids are just at
church a lot. Yeah. And a lot of the times, like,
I mean, one of my biggest fears, they say pastor's
kids a lot of the times can be the ones that
like stray away from the church or have the hardest
time with their faith or with religion. And so
that's one thing that like I think we're trying
to protect. And I don't know if we've like quite
figured out like how to protect that or anything
yet. But yeah, when I feel like when like one
of the things I'm trying to be conscious of is
looking back like, OK, so I grew up Christian.
I've gone to church. I think my parents started
going to church when I was maybe six months old.
So for all intents and purposes, I've gone to
church my whole life. And I was like a church
kid. The church I grew up in, my dad was on the
leadership team. My mom was on the events team.
it was a load in load out church and my parents
were on those teams. So we were there early and
we stayed late and, you know, like I was, I was
a church kid. And then the church rat now that,
you know, you and Michael work at, we started
going to when I was in high school and we obviously
didn't get super involved right away, but then
eventually my mom ended up being on staff and
I interned in off this. So like very, very involved
for a long time. That also means I've known a
lot of church kids and. Yep. their lives and
their stories. And I think one of the things
I've seen most consistently is, I guess it's
kind of like twofold is one just like kind of
the Bible not being explained well. And then
like, why would you follow something that hasn't
been explained to you? Well, that doesn't make
any sense. Like that's a fair logical point.
But then I think the other and possibly bigger
and more important thing for like pastor's kids
is. Not seeing, like, seeing one person on stage
at the pulpit and another person at home in,
like, a very hypocritical way, right? Where,
like, as Christians, we're all hypocrites to
a certain extent in that we're all sinners. But
how you approach that, right? If it's like, hey,
listen, like... Yeah, we all mess up. And if
you're saying that from the pulpit and owning
it, it's very different than when you're putting
on this facade of my life is perfect and then
you act completely different at home. And I think
in my experience, seeing pastor's kids and seeing,
again, lots of people who I grew up with, again,
who are church kids, whether their parents were
actually on staff or not, and seeing who stayed
with their faith and who hasn't, I think that's
a big part of it. It's like, okay, how is...
Are mom and dad the same people everywhere they
go? And obviously there are going to be things
like, you know, I'm not going to have my breakdown
in public. I will have it at home. Yeah. So,
you know, there are some things that's like,
yes, this is private versus public. But overall,
like, are you trying to be the same person everywhere?
And are you trying to emulate Jesus everywhere?
Or is it just when people are watching? Yeah.
Yeah. I think that's something like that our
church actually does really well for the most
part. And I think like one thing that we have
to remember. So my husband is a youth pastor
for middle schoolers and middle school is such
a like identity shaping like time of these kids
lives. And so I think like a lot of parents are
somewhat fearful in those like in that age. And
so Michael gets to kind of like. talk parents
off the ledge or is just like talking about this
topic a lot and how to incorporate faith into
their kids' lives. And like ultimately, so youth
group is one day a week. Sundays are, you know,
church. So we see like at church, we see these
kids for. a total of maybe like three hours a
week. So I think like one thing as parents we
have to remember is like, yes, church is there
as a tool, but like we as parents are the primary
disciplers. And so that can feel like a lot of
pressure. Absolutely. To a certain extent, it
should be. Yeah, it is a lot of pressure. Yeah,
it should be. It's a big deal. Like if your faith
is a big deal to you, it should be a big deal
as you incorporate it into your kids' lives.
As our kids continue to get bigger and get older,
I think I am starting to feel a little bit of
pressure of, like, okay, how do I incorporate,
like, Jesus into this conversation? How do I
make sure I'm doing this whole thing right? And
I don't know if there's fully a right way to
do it other than just, like, exposure for our
kids. I feel like it's one of those things where
there are wrong ways, but there are not necessarily
right ways, if that makes sense. Yes. Yeah. I
think like there are lots of options that like
work really well. And then there are a few options
that's like, oh, no. But like if you do this,
it won't necessarily mean it's going to ruin
it for your kid, but it's more likely to. Yeah,
exactly. And so I was looking up some like just
statistics about this topic in general or rather
than statistics. It kind of gave me like these
phases that kids like fall into. So like when
you think about faith, each kind of age group.
looks at faith a little bit differently so like
zero to five is all about trust and love so learning
like that god is safe and god loves me so those
should be like as parents those should be like
our main themes going into it and how to teach
our kids like not the time to teach about like
condemnation and hell yeah right right if you
are you know no uh no pressure but maybe like
Swing it back around to just like Jesus loves
me. Pause on that one. Yeah, right. And then
so six to 10 is all about like wonder and stories.
So like God made everything. The Bible is real.
So kind of incorporating that into your conversations.
And then middle school, like I said, is all about
identity and belonging. They're trying to answer
the question of who am I? Where do I fit? Where
do I belong? And then high school is like. ownership
so like is this my faith like actually trying
to nail down like what do I believe and is this
my faith and so I think like that is like a base
framework for us as parents you know no matter
what age your kid or kids are to like look at
this as a big picture of like okay this is these
are the core ideas that I can kind of tackle
and try to help them answer or remind them of.
And so I think like, as I think about our kids,
they're in like that zero to five range. One
thing like that I've been really trying to do
is just, we talk a lot about like that Jesus
loves us. Jesus loves us no matter what we do,
no matter what we say, Jesus is our best friend,
like all those. Yeah, we've been trying to do
the like, Jesus loves you even more than mom
and dad. Which is weird as a mom because I'm
like, no, no one's allowed to love my kids more.
But that's not true. It's hard to fathom because
I'm like, no, nothing could love my kids more
than I do. Yeah. So it's like, it's definitely
a weird thing. Like, yeah, it's something that
I have to wrap my head around as I'm teaching
this to my child, which is something I don't,
I guess I just didn't expect. It's like logically
as a Christian, I know this, but feeling that
and like actually believing it is different.
Yeah, absolutely. Those phases I think are super
cool to like know as a parent to again kind of
know like, okay, how do we address this based
on like how my kid's brain literally works at
this stage in their life? Because I think a lot
of times we forget. where their brain is at and
what they can actually handle and comprehend
yeah so being able to yeah because it's not just
like it's not just what we should be teaching
them it's literally like a brain chemistry thing
like what can they comprehend and understand
like they're not going to understand from zero
to five like like this is what what do i believe
who yeah yeah exactly like what we talked about
but it's really just kind of starting from the
beginning almost and then adding in these extra
pieces and the depth to it and helping them figure
it out and I think for me like one thing that's
hard for me to wrap my head around is like no
matter how much time and like not pressure but
just like how much we we push for this in our
kids lives like ultimately yeah the intention
ultimately like it's going to be their decision
yeah Whether they believe in God, whether their
faith is something they want to hold on to and
grow, no matter what we do, we can put all these
tools and pieces into place. Ultimately, it's
going to be our kids' choice in the long run.
And I think there's things we can do to help
them navigate that. To me, that's like a really
scary reality. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's
so many things with that in parenthood, right?
Where you're like, I want to hold on to the control
of X, Y, or Z forever because I want to keep
you safe. And this is just that on the grandest
scale. You're like, I can't control everything
even though I want to. to keep you safe. But
I can't like, this is a decision I literally
can't make for you, which is really hard. Yeah.
And that's one thing that like scares me the
most about like having pastor's kids is like,
I mean, my kids are at church usually at least
two to three days a week. I said like almost
the overexposure, is that going to turn them
away from it? Right. And I'm sure there will
be like phases of that where they're like, no,
mom, I don't want to go to church. Not again.
But I think like it's such a scary reality for
me to think about, like as they're getting older,
that it will become more and more their choice
of like what they actually believe as they're
trying to figure out who they are and who they
want to become. And I just hope and pray like
that my biggest things are like, I hope that
you're kind. I hope that you're caring and loving.
And I hope that you're following Jesus. And that
is like my biggest hope for their lives. And
I think like the tools that we put in place now
are affecting that more than we think. For sure.
Yeah, I think we kind of just in general, not
even faith specific, but obviously, especially
with faith, we kind of. dismiss how important
the things they learn in these early years are
just because they maybe don't have specific memories
like you know i think a lot of people are like
well they don't remember like well yes but like
that doesn't necessarily mean anything like it's
still things are still instilled in them even
if they don't have a specific memory yeah so
I think it's easy then to be like, well, they're
not going to remember. So we'll just like wait
till later. But then by then, I don't want to
say it's too late because that's not the case,
but it is harder, right? You know, it's stuff
like, again, with other things like tantrums,
it's much easier to like try to handle tantrums
in a way at two where you're like, hey, you don't
get what you want or you don't get everything
you want when you throw a tantrum. That's much
easier than being like, oh, well, he's two, so
whatever. And then at seven or 10 or 15 or we've
all met the person who's like 35 or 55 or whatever.
And you're like, oh, no one told you no when
you were two. That's where this all stems from.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And just to be able to
teach those things and like teach faith from
this age and go, hey, like here are the basics.
You don't need all the details yet. and here's
what you do need to know you need to know you're
loved and you need to know who loves you the
most and and that's it and that's what we'll
start with yeah it just made me think of like
when colt is having a tantrum and i'm having
like an anxious reaction to his tantrum he then
like plays off of that for sure and has some
type of anxious reaction or like the tantrum
can last way longer than it needs to because
of my reaction. And I think that like can be
incorporated into our faith a lot is like the
way our kids learn is like through experience.
So like what we're reflecting and what we are
showing is going to teach them more. More than
we know, even at the age they are at now. And
so, I don't know. I just kind of connected those
two. Yeah, no, you're right. If we treat God
like this scary entity who wants to punish us
and treat us badly, then they're going to pick
up on that. If they see church as this obligation
versus something that we want to be at every
week, they're going to pick up on that. What
do you think on just like a day -to -day basis
is hardest for you? Like as far as like our faith
and just, oh gosh. I would say like, it's hard
for me working in full -time ministry. Like there's
a hard separation already of like, this is my
workplace and this is where, you know, I go to
church and this is where my kids go to church.
And so I think like. especially on the weekends,
like when we have family time, it's hard for
me to like still keep that mindset of like, oh,
I want to bring like spirituality and like faith
into our conversations. And so like in my head,
I'm like, no, I'm leaving work behind for the
weekend. For sure. And being with my family,
whereas like, yes, I can leave work behind, but
I'm not leaving my faith behind. with it, if
that makes sense. And so I think like even the
little things are hard, are hard for me, like
even just, you know, praying before bed, like
that was one thing we had a really great habit
with Colt for the longest time. And it's slowly
become not as much of a habit anymore, but he
like, we would pray with him every night and
he would repeat it after us. So we're trying
to like incorporate that back in. Cause I think
he's like starting to. Like he's picking up on
things at church all the time. He comes home
singing like the worship songs they do. And I
love that. And I'm like, okay, let's like, that's
such an easy win to like keep incorporating throughout
our week. And I just like, I think when I get
in work mode, I'm like, you know, I can leave
that stuff behind sometimes. So yeah, I would
say even just the little things like that of
like, you know, just reminding him Jesus loves
him and praying before meals, like those. easy
wins yeah can be hard for me because I just forget
yeah I feel like similarly like this the small
stuff I'm like oh how often could I just like
point this back to Jesus and I don't do that
well the other thing I don't know if you feel
this way but being a mom is so convicting of
like This sounds bad, like how terrible of a
person I actually am, I guess. Like that sounds
really. It's so easily pointed out. Yeah, that
sounds super self -deprecating and that's not
entirely how I mean it, but just in the capacity
of like, okay, I want my kids to know what the
fruit of the spirit is. And the fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self
-control. And like, I want my kids to know that.
Like, honestly, anyone, even if you're not a
Christian, you're like, those are all characteristics
of someone who I want to be around. Like, just
genuinely. And so it's like, yes, I want all
my kids to have all those characteristics. And
then, like, I look at these and I'm like, whew.
Like, how many of those do I not have? Like,
patience. That is not something I have, especially
in this phase of motherhood when there's lots
of no's and there's lots of. demanding what i
want right now and not a lot of listening not
a lot of listening yeah yeah gentleness depends
on the day some days i'm like i am super gentle
and other days i'm definitely not yeah joy just
like being joyful even when days are tough like
i'm not good at that so like you know i look
at stuff like that and it's just like it's super
convicting looking inwards like oh Like I want
this for my kids, but I'm not displaying this
either. And so like I have to work on myself
before anything is going to get through to them.
Because again, otherwise it turns into this hypocritical
thing of like, well, you're supposed to do this.
Like, well, why am I supposed to do that if you're
not following those same rules? And again, we're
never going to do this perfectly. And obviously
this is a really young age to teach that. eventually
that is part of what we teach right it's like
hey listen we're not going to do this perfectly
and that's not an excuse to do whatever you want
but that does give like but there is grace within
like hey you literally can't do it perfectly
even if you try or if you want to yeah I feel
that 100 % I feel like our kids and I'm sure
you're seeing this with Lloyd pick up on or mimic
a lot of what we do and things that I don't even
realize. You've never realized how many bad habits
you have until you have a kid copying you. Yeah,
and what was it the other day? I think I said,
Michael and I were joking around, and I was like,
shut up. And Cole goes, shut up, Dad. And I was
like, no. Now that's a thing. Yeah, I'm like,
we really got to be careful with what we say.
And bringing it back to faith is like, have to
be the reflection that we want our kids to show
in their lives. And it goes back to like as simple
as like reading our Bible or the gentleness that
we show on a daily basis or the patience, like
the fruit of the spirit. And I think that is
a lot of pressure. And I think it's supposed
to be, like you said, but it's... it's hard like
especially in this like super demanding season
of parenting at least for me like those are some
habits that I'm I'm still working on and haven't
like really nailed down like as far as my daily
devotional and so like in a super demanding season
of parenting it's hard to bring in those new
like yeah well then there's stuff like that's
one that's hard for me because I am actually
really good at reading my bible almost every
at least every work day awesome yeah partially
just because i'll take like five minutes i don't
do super long studies and but i do it before
work because that's the only like 10 minutes
i have to myself all day and then there's like
this weird tension for me of like is should i
be doing it when they're awake and they see me
reading my bible but also like this is the time
i have to myself to like really take it in so
like What am I supposed to do here? You know,
because I do want like that peace and quiet to
start my day with reading the Bible, even if
it's just like four verses or something like
that. But then that means my kids never see me
read my Bible because they're always asleep when
it happens. So that's like a weird thing. I'm
like, I don't think I'm like really doing anything
wrong. No. And of course, as a mom, you overthink
everything. Oh, yeah. Right. So like, is this
the... The wrong way to handle this. So that's
one. And then. For a while, we were pretty good.
Lloyd has, I guess they both do. I'm sure you
have the exact same Bibles because we got them
from the child education at church. For a while,
we were pretty good at trying to read stories
with Lloyd from that. And actually, I think you
do better now. But they are longer stories. So
depending on age, their attention span isn't
there. But that is one beef I have just in general
is most kids' Bibles and Bible storybooks. Just
suck. Yeah. They're terrible. Like some of them
are completely theologically inaccurate. Yeah.
Like there have been a couple we've read that
Stuart and I were like. Like, wait, did that
happen? No. That's not how that went down. I'll
have to see. I meant to grab it before we started
recording, but I don't know where it is, so I
can't grab it fast. But at one point we got these
like mini little Bible stories. I think grandparents
got them actually. And we knew that they were
going to be like short condensed versions. That's
fine. But they're like two to three words a page,
so they're very short. Okay. And the one that
sticks out to me the most is David and Goliath.
Oh, yeah. Because it makes no mention of God.
I'm like, okay, that's kind of weird. And then
when it skips to the end, it's like, David killed
Goliath, and many years later he became king.
Like, technically that is all true. There's a
lot missing there, though. Obviously, some of
those things. Like, there's some holes in the
story here. Let's, yeah. But that is just one
thing that, like, it honestly really bothers
me, partially because now as an adult, there
are lots of historical context and facts and
information that I'm learning that I'm like,
oh, wow. If I had known this as a kid and I had
to learn this story accurately as a kid, and
not that I think anyone, like, I know my parents
weren't trying to, like, teach me the wrong story
they were just going with what they had yep but
yeah like there's certain just like facts and
you know context that's like if we were teaching
this from the beginning that would make it easier
to believe or more interesting or you know just
it changes your perspective on the story but
yeah that's one of my big things i'm like there
there are very few kids bibles and kids like
bible books that are accurate and that are well
written for some reason it's really they're all
like kind of poorly written if anyone listening
knows of good ones please let me know i know
right because lloyd loves books so that's part
of his i'm like if we had some good ones we could
read those all the time specifically if they
featured cars characters that would help if jesus
was a car and i mean there is the fact that In
the Cars movies that we see a car pope, which
means there's a car Catholic church, which means
there had to have been a car Jesus. Amazing.
Amazing. That's so funny. I feel like we often
will read that kid's Bible, and we always read
the David and Goliath story. Different version
of your three. This one's very wordy. That one's
actually pretty good. It's pretty good. It's
very wordy, though, and it takes us a long time
to read. He always wants that story. But I feel
like starting with like little Bible stories
like that, like is really important. And I did
a lot of chat GPT before this. So I loved this,
like the three L's of faith. It's called the
three L's of faith at home. So and how to kind
of incorporate this. So the first one is to live
it. So like our example we talked about and how
we reflect Jesus. in our own lives. The second
one is language it. So really just talking about
God naturally. So I feel like this is one I can
sometimes have a hard time with is just like
talking about Jesus daily and like saying like,
oh, like let's thank God for that. Or, you know,
doesn't Jesus love you? Blah, blah, blah. And
then the third L is to lead it. So creating rhythms.
So like prayer, Bible. church and just incorporating
that into our weekly life which is like for us
obviously church is something that we are going
to every single week and I think like for us
going to church is a part of our work our work
week right and so I I can imagine that it would
be hard with young kids if it wasn't like for
you guys you and Stuart like other than Stuart
volunteering on the weekends and stuff but it's
kind of a part of our work week yeah but whenever
he has a week off or whatever like it's your
guys's choice to go right and you see the importance
and the value in it um and so it would be a different
like experience for us i think if it was like
oh we're choosing you know which we would choose
it but it would just be like a harder thing yeah
Stuart had last weekend off, so he wasn't playing.
And I mean, with our church. We do have the option.
We have Saturday night services. So typically
for us, if he has the weekend off, we go Saturday
night. And that way we can have like kind of
a Sunday where we have like no commitments or
I can just have like a day. But it is really
hard, especially if we didn't have Saturday nights.
Because then you're like, okay, we still have
to get up early. It's still, you know, getting
kids out the door at a certain time and getting
everyone dressed and blah, blah, blah. It's a
lot. And it is. And, you know, again, it's a
choice that we, of course, would make even if
Stuart wasn't there every week. But I kind of
get why people don't, you know, not even if you're
like, hey, my faith is important, but like, I
don't want to go to church because. Or like we
could watch online. It's so easy to watch online.
I mean, there are times that you don't want to
do things just. in general in life even things
that you know are good for you and you that you
do want to do what you don't want to do you know
it's kind of the thing of like we've all had
the experience where like I know I need to shower
and the thought of getting in the shower is like
the impossible task and then you finally get
in the shower and you're like I don't want to
get out of the shower yeah yeah like oh I'm so
glad or like working out it's like kind of the
same thing like the motivation of yeah every
time you do it you're like wow I'm glad I did
it but yes I didn't want to do it you know i
didn't want to put in the effort up front yeah
yeah it goes back to creating those habits and
rhythms for our kids. Like for us and our family,
like going to church is a part of our weekly
rhythm and there's, it's a non -negotiable at
this stage of life. And so I hope like as our
kids grow, like they see it not as a negative
non -negotiable, but it's like maybe something
they look forward to, or it's just part of our
weekly rhythm. Like on Sundays we go to church
and it just, it is what it is. I hope that's
like creating some brainwaves there. Yeah, it's
like connecting. Something's connecting in their
brain. Ultimately, like, yeah, church is such
a small part of our week. And the rest of the
week is like, as parents, we're the main disciples.
And so I need to incorporate different aspects
of Jesus's life and just the knowledge of Jesus
into our weekly. our weekly rhythm yeah a little
bit better that too yeah but it's so it's so
interesting like as our kids are getting a little
bit older where I'm like I'm starting to feel
the pressure of that a little bit more yeah like
you can really see what they're understanding
now is part of it right or like when they're
really little even though they are understanding
a lot you can kind of like fool yourself into
being like oh like they're too young to understand
yeah um but then all of a sudden they start like
picking up on things like even lloyd knows present
tense versus past tense and we're like we never
taught him that like not specifically we just
like use words properly that's the only way we've
taught him that is by using proper grammar and
he has picked that up without like us intentionally
explaining that so like clearly he's picking
up on everything and yeah so now it's like oh
no he is picking up he is picking up when we
talk a certain way about you know about someone
or to each other or to him about him yeah i feel
like for every mom that's listening like whether
your kids are young like ours or they're in high
school or maybe even out of the house, like I
hope that you know that it's not too late to
incorporate your faith into your relationship
with your kids. And the ultimate way to do that
is through reflection of your own life. And so
what are you showing in your daily life? What
are you? doing to reflect Jesus in your own life.
Because no matter what stage or phase of picking
up on faith or religion they're at, I think that
they can pick up on the way that you live your
daily life. So I hope that's encouragement to
you listening that it's not too late to incorporate
your faith into your own life to then be a good
example for your kids. I don't know. We don't
really have a bow for this episode or anything.
No, no. I think it's just like something that's
been on my heart as our kids are getting. a little
bit older and our faith is such an important
part of our lives like we want to make sure that
our kids know that and and that our kids know
that Jesus loves them and that's the most important
thing and that no matter what you do or no matter
what you say Jesus will always love you and so
you as a listener same to you Jesus will always
love you no matter what okay well anything else
you want to add now that I can think of Oh, I
did think this was cool, actually, just to kind
of tie a bow on it, that faith in kids isn't
built through pressure. It's built through proximity,
consistency and authenticity. And I think that's
like, you know, ties it all together of what
we said is like. And I think that's super encouraging,
too, because again, like I think it is a lot
of pressure and it's supposed to be being a good
parent is supposed to be a lot of pressure. But
I think we can kind of overthink that. if that
makes sense. And a lot of times it is just really
simple. And when it comes to faith, I think the
challenging thing is if you don't have a good
faith, then you're not going to set your kids
up well. And that is maybe, at least for me,
where the most pressure is. It's like, okay,
I need to make sure this is real in my life versus
just something we talk about. Yeah, like no matter
how much I tell you that Jesus loves you, if
I don't believe it myself, like how do I expect
my kids to actually truly believe it too? So
that authenticity is so important and so true.
Okay, well, hopefully this is encouragement to
you as you're... navigating this in your motherhood
journey, no matter what phase of parenting you're
in. But before we wrap up, do you want to share
your win of the week? Sure. So we went to the
playground last night, which actually it's been
a beautiful week. Today's super cool. I mean,
it's like 50 and cloudy. Yeah. It's been in the
80s, almost 90. couple days this week um and
so last night we went to the playground expecting
like we knew it was cooling down but it was like
50 by the time we got there and very cold um
and none of us were dressed for that so and zeta
like at one point she just like slipped and got
hurt like you do at the playground like she was
fine but she started crying and she was on the
other side of the playground with stewart while
i was with lloyd and lloyd immediately like zeta's
crying i was like yeah i think she just you know
she fell but you know dad's Dad's got her. It's
okay. And then he was so worried. So finally
I was like, do you want to go check on Zeta?
Check on Zeta. I was like, okay. So we walked
over to Stuart and Zeta and I was like, Lloyd
just needed to check on his sister. And then
he just like gave her a little kiss on the cheek
and said, it's okay, Zeta. That's so cute. He
was so worried about her. And he just had to
take care of his little sister, which. That's
so cute. He's going to be such a good bit. Like
he already is such a good big brother. But just
like as she grows up, he's going to be like that
protective big brother. We do. Nobody hurt my
sister. Well, we do tell him like that is like
if he hits her or if he's like hitting us or
like we don't hit unless someone's hurting Zeta.
You can if someone is hurting Zeta. We don't
care what you do. You can do whatever you want
to them. You protect your sister. Yeah, that's
so sweet. Oh, my gosh. I feel like he was meant
to be, like, a big brother. I mean, obviously,
a big brother to a little sister because he's
just, like, so sweet. So empathetic. Empathetic
and wants to take care of her all the time. That's
cute. What do you have? okay my win so i don't
think i've talked about this before but so we
live uh we have like a split level so we have
stairs going up and stairs going down and we've
never bought baby gates just because we would
need like four of them and that's just expensive
and so we just haven't and our stairs are like
like it's like seven stairs each set if one of
your kids falls down yeah they're gonna be okay
yeah it will be terrible we had to buy four baby
gates because we yeah i mean we don't have a
split level but we also have like you'd fall
down 16 stairs so yeah like yeah we gotta do
that pretty pretty drastic but for us it's like
if you go through the baby gate it's like you're
almost immediately opening up another one so
we just never did but my win is that cruise i
feel like is finally confidently going up and
down the stairs is that just such a relief yes
because i'm like now i feel like i can turn my
back for a second to grab something or do something
and not just fear for the fact that Cruz is gonna
just like fall down the stairs knock on wood
hopefully that doesn't happen that's happening
right now yeah right so I yeah my win is just
like I can let him kind of do his thing if he
wants to go up or down and just kind of watch
him rather than like running to try to like brace
him as he's going up or down and that is like
just such a relief like you said yeah that's
so nice yeah that's great oh yeah well thanks
for tuning in today guys hopefully yeah hopefully
this was encouragement to you hopefully you learned
a little something and we would love any advice
that you guys have on incorporating faith into
your child's life and If you know of any Bible
stories that are great for toddlers to read,
let us know. And yeah, follow us on Instagram
at nomanualpodcast. And we'll see you next week.
See you next week. Well, that's enough oversharing
for today. If you enjoyed hanging out with us,
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MomCast, where motherhood is messy. At least
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