Forgive and Forget
Does God forgive and forget? When we say, "God, please forgive me," we can magically erase His memory? Explore and ponder these questions with us!
Psalm 103:12 says, “He has removed our sins from us. He has removed them as far as the east is from the west.”
Backseat Bible Nuggets is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. To find practical and spiritual guidance to help you grow into the perfectly imperfect parent you want to be visit www.ChristianParenting.org
Love
Did you know there are lots and lots of different meanings for the word “love”? The Bible has A LOT to say about love. So much so that we don’t have time to talk about every Bible verse that mentions the word. In fact, the type of Bible translation that I’m using mentions love 551 times! Woah!
Here are a few major things I want us to know about God’s love though.
1 John 4:19 says that “we love because He first loved us.” God loved us first. He didn’t wait on us to love Him before He returned that love. He loved us before we were even born! And this verse reminds us that He Himself is the definition of love. We love because He first loved us.
And also, His love for us and our love for Him makes us do things. Sorta like how your love for a certain food makes you crave it or how your love for a friend makes you want to play with them. Another way to say it is that love is action. Love isn’t JUST a feeling, it makes us do certain actions.
Mark 21:31 tells us to love our neighbor as ourself. And 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 talks about what actions go along with love. Listen to this: “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. It does not dishonor other people. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up. Love never fails.”
Okay, here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question to discuss. And, like always…don’t overthink it! The point is to get conversation flowing:
- How is God’s love different from other types of love?
- How do you know that God loves you?
- How can you show love to someone today?
Let’s try and learn our verse together. You can repeat after me. “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
Backseat Bible Nuggets is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. To find practical and spiritual guidance to help you grow into the perfectly imperfect parent you want to be visit www.ChristianParenting.org
How do I become a Christian?
How do I become a Christian? This episode walks through the basic understanding required to pray and ask Jesus to be Lord of your life. We must first start with our sin nature and our need to be forgiven. Then we look to the cross where Jesus died for our sins. Finally, we must ask Him to be in charge of our life and live out each day for Him with the help of His Holy Spirit.
This is a complicated subject for some kids and will likely require listening to other episodes to put all the puzzle pieces of understanding together for the big picture.
We are praying for you as you listen to this episode with your Backseaters!
Bathroom Humor in the Bible
One of the goals of this podcast is to get you interested and excited about God’s word. The Bible is important to our everyday life…when we submit or REALLY listen to God’s word it puts our heart and attitude in the right place to go throughout our day no matter what happens. God’s word is living and active, it’s powerful, as we’ve talked about before!
But today, I want to remind us that God’s has a sense of humor and we can find that when we look at details of the Bible. In fact, Hudson, my 8-year-old, found something he thought was super funny in the Bible the other day that made him laugh. Do you think it’s okay to laugh at something in the Bible? It is! I think God loves when we laugh and I think He especially loves when we are reading His word with enough attention to realize when something is funny!
Okay, so Hudson was reading in 1 Samuel 24 and this is where David is being chased by Saul because Saul wants to kill him. Listen to what it says and see if you can find the funny parts… “Saul returned from chasing the Philistines. Then he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” So, Saul took 3,000 of the best soldiers from the whole nation of Israel. He started out to look for David and his men. He planned to look near the Rocky Cliffs of the Wild Goats. He came to some sheep pens along the way. A cave was there. Saul went in to go to the toilet. David and his men were far back in the cave. David’s men said, “This is the day the Lord told you about. He said to you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you. Then you can deal with him as you want to.’” So David came up close to Saul without being seen and he cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” That’s 1 Samuel 24:1-4.
Did you find anything sort of funny about that? First of all, I should say, there was nothing funny about this situation because Saul was trying to kill David and David was hiding for his life! Yikes!
But here’s what’s funny….if you are in to bathroom humor, which most kids are, right?! Saul has to use the toilet, he has to go to the bathroom. And it just so happens that he chooses to use a cave where David and his men are hiding. PU!!
And Hudson pointed out that Saul must’ve gone #2 if he was in there long enough for David and his men to discuss what was happening AND for David to sneak up and cut a corner of his robe off.
What in the world!? HAHA! Can you imagine? Have you ever snuck up on someone going to the bathroom? I wouldn’t recommend it. Stinky!!!
Anyway, this goes to show that when we pay attention to the details of God’s word - when we listen and really think about the details of what we are reading then it comes alive to us! These aren’t just made up stories! They are real life! And sometimes real life can be a little bit funny and make us laugh.
Okay, here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question to discuss. And, like always…don’t overthink it! The point is to get conversation flowing:
- What did you find funny about that story with David and Saul?
- Why do you think God would include funny details like that in the Bible?
- Can you think of other funny stories or situations in the Bible?
Let’s try and learn our verse together. You can repeat after me. “Saul went in to go to the toilet. David and his men were far back in the cave.” 2 Samuel 24:3b
Jesus was Lost
Have you ever been lost? If that’s ever happened to you then you know how scary and confusing it can be for everyone involved!
Well did you know that one time Mary and Joseph lost Jesus? I mean the most important child in the world was LOST! That’s right!
Luke 2:41-52 tells us about the time that Jesus was lost for 3 days. And this was way before they had cell phones to call people or text and ask if anyone had seen Jesus. They just had to go around asking and I’m sure Mary and Joseph were worried sick.
I love thinking about this story right after Christmas where we tend to imagine Jesus so peacefully sleeping in the manger almost like a fairytale. This story reminds us that Jesus lived a normal human life. Sure, He was the savior of the world and He wasn’t worried or scared when He was lost. But, it reminds us of that He was fully human. And that meant that things happened….like being lost. AND that God chose Mary and Joseph knowing full well that they would lose Jesus one day for a few days. Their parenting mess up didn’t disqualify them from being the perfect choice of parents to Jesus. And that’s reassuring to me as a parent, myself!
Okay, here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question to discuss. And, like always…don’t overthink it! The point is to get conversation flowing:
- How did Mary and Joseph lose Jesus?
- How did Jesus respond to being lost?
- What do we learn about Jesus as a 12 year old boy through this story?
Let’s try and learn our verse together. You can repeat after me. “Why were you looking for me? He asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:49
Christmas Story Repeat
Jesus being born is a special story for everyone. For me and for you! The story of Jesus being born, the life he lived, and then eventually the death that he died on the cross was all for you. He came to this world for you!
This was such great news for every single person that even a big group of angels shows up praising God saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” in Luke 2:14.
I pray that when you hear the Christmas story, even if you’ve heard it before, that your heart explodes with worship for what God has done for each of us through Jesus.
So here are some questions to get us talking about this famous story. You can pause to discuss and as always, there’s no wrong answer!
1. If you had to be one character in the Christmas story, like if you could be Mary or Joseph or Jesus or an angel or a shepherd or a sheep or a wise man or anyone else in the story, who would you want to be?
2. What’s your favorite part of the Christmas story? Do you have a favorite detail?
One last time before we sign off, let’s practice this awesome verse together. You can repeat after me. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14
Backseat Bible Nuggets was created by me, Laura, a mom of 2 that wanted an easy tool to help refocus our hectic days. Our hope is that this helps every adult easily start Christ centered conversations with the kids in their life. We are so honored you listen and would love for you to leave us a review or better yet, spread the word. Let your friends know about this podcast! And as always, I’m praying that your backseaters grow deep roots as you go along the way.
Emmanuel
Emmanuel.
It’s another name for Jesus. In fact, it was a name given to Jesus like 700 years before Jesus was born! Did your parents name you 700 years before you were born?!
Mine didn’t!
You see, this time of year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus we have to remember something very very important. This birth had been planned since the beginning of time! That’s pretty crazy. Most ladies are pregnant with a baby for 9 months, but Jesus being born had been in the works for thousands of YEARS!
We know this because 700 years before Jesus was born a guy in the Bible named Isaiah said that a virgin would have a baby boy and they would name him Emmanuel.
Here’s the super cool part. Guess what Emmanuel means? If you know what the name Emmanuel means go ahead and tell me…
Emmanuel means God with us. And that’s just what happened when Jesus was born. God was with us through this little bitty baby who needed his mommy and daddy to feed him and bathe him and change his diaper. But then he grew and grew and became a man who told everyone about God and His ways and eventually died on the cross for our sins so that we can have eternal life with Him. Whew. What a life this miracle baby had!
He changed the world! Emmanuel…God with us. What a cool name.
What a cool God that He would want to come and be WITH US. He left heaven to come to us.
And if you’re anything like me you might think….why? Why would God want to come and be with ME? I can think of a lot better things He could be doing or cooler people He could be hanging out with. I mean, I make bad choices sometimes and mess up and I don’t always have the best attitude. Why would He want to be with me and not someone else?
Well, it’s all because He loves us no matter what…even the worst part of us. He loves you and He loves me so much that He wanted to be WITH US. Emmanuel.
Matthew chapter 1 tells us of the details about the birth of Jesus and says in Matthew 1:22 and 23 “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: (who was Isaiah 700 years earlier) “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel.”
Here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question to discuss. And, like always…don’t overthink it! The point is to get conversation flowing:
- Emmanuel is another name for Jesus, but what does it mean?
- Why is it important that God wanted to be with us?
- How can you thank God for the gift of Jesus in coming to be with us?
Let’s try and learn our verse together. You can repeat after me. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel.” Matthew 1:23
For Parents: Jesus and Santa
Hey Parents! Have you ever wondered how to best approach and balance the topic of Jesus and the topic of Santa during the Christmas season? Well, after a BBN parent asked me about this, I have put together a special parents-only content bundle on this topic. It'll include some thoughts on the subject along with 4 suggested activties to get the conversation flowing and help you set the stage for you to have age-appropriate converstaions with your kids! It'll even include a beautiful and meaningful piece of digital artwork from Lauren Johnston Duncan (@laurenjohnstonduncan)! If you're interested in this content, please send your email address to @backseatbiblenuggets on Instagram or Facebook or backseatbiblenuggets@gmail.com. Merry Christmas, y'all!
Thankful
We get to hear from some Backseat Bible Nuggets listeners today! They are going to share some of the things that they are most thankful for.
We have so much to be thankful for. And even if I don’t know you, I know that the Lord has surely blessed you with some special gifts in your own life. Can you think of some things right now that you’re thankful for?
The Bible tells us in the first part of James 1:17 that “every good and perfect gift is from God.” Every good and perfect gift is from God!
Those things that you can think of that you’re thankful for…they are all from God Himself. He loves you so much and He’s given you so much. Let’s thank Him together for those gifts that He’s given us.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, you are the giver of the good gifts in our life. It’s so cool that you love us like you do and that you give us things in our life that are awesome. Thank you for giving us the gift of salvation and eternal life through what you did on the cross. That’s the best gift! But I also thank you for things like family and friends, good food and sports and even beautiful things in your creation. It’s a gift to be able to talk to you like this in prayer. Help me understand just how much you’ve given to me and help me to continue to thank you for those good things every day. In your name I pray, amen.
Hey, now it’s your turn. I want you to talk with your people about the things you’re thankful for and THEN I want you to pray and thank God for those things! I’m sure He can’t wait to hear what you have to say!