Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast

Guest (Male): If you are a pastor wanting to save and strengthen marriages in your congregation, we've got a great tool for you. Marriage 911 by Focus on the Family trains laypeople to mentor couples who may be on the verge of divorce or who want to strengthen what they already have.

The kit includes two leader guides, four workbooks, and all the training necessary to meet with and mentor men and women who need help. Visit marriage911.com. That's marriage, the numbers 9-1-1, dot com.

John Fuller: We're highlighting mental health for your kids and for you frankly. Today we're going to be exploring the world of faith and how that impacts mental health.

We're going to begin with a conversation that Focus President Jim Daly had with Corey Pennypacker. Her organization is called Bible to School, and they advocate for helping elementary kids understand and know the gospel through the scripture. Let's listen in.

Jim Daly: How did that start for you? You started as a volunteer at Bible to School.

Corey Pennypacker: I did. I started as a volunteer. First of all, I was a children's ministry director. When I left there, a friend asked me to come see this. I went and I thought, I used to wait for kids to come to me. Now I get to go to the kids where they are in the middle of the week, in the middle of a school day.

It's no muss, no fuss, and the kids come. What's amazing is that with what we do, half the kids have no church home. I saw that with a little boy, Gabriel. He grabbed my heart. He was a little blond, blue-eyed boy with curly hair. He lived with his grandmother. He was in third grade and he was in my small group.

He came week after week. He did not know anything about God before he came. One day he accepted Christ as his savior in the large group part. He comes barreling back to my table with a big smile. I said, "Gabriel, tell me about that. You accepted Christ as your savior." He said, "Yes, I did."

I asked him to tell me about it. He said something I will never forget. I get choked up every time I talk about it. He said, "I've always wanted to know how to get to heaven, but no one's ever told me."

Jim Daly: And he's in third grade. There are some 70 and 80-year-olds that ask that question.

Corey Pennypacker: They definitely do not know. Probably every week in Bible to School, kids say, "Who's God? I've never heard of him," or they think Jesus is a swear word. It is definitely because 70% of the country doesn't go to church.

These kids aren't hearing it anywhere. We think of Little House on the Prairie and all those shows that used to have it all in there. They are definitely not seeing it anywhere.

Jim Daly: Corey, again, I'm going to say that's our fault as the church because the law allows us to do this, but not every school has this. That's a shame. We should be engaged as the Christian community.

There should be one or more, eight or ten people here in Colorado Springs who are willing to do this for every school. I don't know how many elementary schools there are. This is second to fifth grade, right?

Corey Pennypacker: Yes.

Jim Daly: What does that weekly meeting look like? Just talk us through what the typical week might look like.

Corey Pennypacker: The volunteers get together and set up the room near a church off-site, within a 10-minute walk or a 10-minute drive of the school. Then they go and get the kids. It's usually over lunch and recess. They bring their lunch with them.

We use the time right away. The small group leaders ask how their week was and mention they were praying for their grandmother last week. They walk or they bus there. At the church, they are in small group tables. They come in with all their papers and then they have a large group lesson.

It is 20 minutes of a large group lesson. There's a "think about it" question. If it is Jonah and the whale, your "think about it" question is, "How does God give second chances?" They teach Jonah. It's all hands-on. They get inside of the belly of a whale. We do hands-on things like VBS, science experiments, and acting out the Bible story.

Then they go into small groups. They ask how God gave Jonah second chances and how God gives them second chances. They do this and then they go into a worship time. You have large group, small group, and worship time. That "think about it" question in the small group is very unique to Bible to School.

In the country, there are not a lot of programs that do it this way. I really believe that the gospel is transmitted through relationships. You build those relationships every week. These kids have a safe place to ask spiritual questions.

That's what the church is about. We know the kids want to know three things. They want to know where I came from, what's my purpose, and what happens after I die.

Jim Daly: I think every human being asks those three questions and probably more.

John Fuller: Danny, the linkage between a vibrant faith and mental health is pretty clear. We've got to model that as parents. We can't just say, "You hang out with Jesus and it's all going to be better." Talk about the connection there and how you've seen it play out.

Dr. Danny Huerta: It's an important topic to consider. Does having faith actually impact my soul? Mental health is closely tied to our soul and our body. When we're thinking about our body and the health of our body, there's a workout that you do. There are certain healthy things you can do to help the body thrive.

Our mental health is the same way. Our brain and our body need certain things, and one is prayer. We've been wired to connect not only with each other through prayer but also with our Heavenly Father.

Research has found that the secure attachment pathway understands that if I'm in conflict with you, we're going to be okay. You still love me. If a person leaves the room, you know you're still loved and still have worth with that person. Understanding that gives you the security to try new things and to explore new relationships.

Prayer gives you reinforcement in that pathway. When you read scripture, people have gone in to try to disprove it and have failed miserably. When you look at the words that God continually tells us, he says to set our mind a certain direction. That is our discipline.

He says to "let." The word "let" is all throughout scripture. It's us deciding something. When we let certain things happen, certain things will take place in our life. A couple of verses that have meant a tremendous amount to me are Isaiah 26:3 and 4. It says, "He keeps him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusts in him. The Lord God is an everlasting rock."

This is the only place we see Shalom Shalom, the perfect peace. That is our mind in a trusting relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we want to find peacefulness in the midst of chaos, and this world is chaotic, then it's trusting in God and knowing he is my rock.

Another one is in 1st Peter right at the beginning. He says, "Prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded." The sober-mindedness is understanding God's salvation through his son Jesus Christ. That's when we're sober-minded. That means we don't have to go to addiction or other places to find our sense of worth. We are masterpieces of his creation.

Throughout my years growing out, when I felt things were wobbly and I went to prayer truly and rested in that, there was a sense of reset to that. When I went to God's word in scripture and understood those are words that are still alive and well, there was a cleansing of the soul.

In my practice with clients that are Christian and want to have a reset, the greatest progress is when they reset in their relationship with God. They renew that prayer life and time in scripture, and you see exponential progress in counseling. It's not the only thing. You still have to make sense of what's happened in life and stop addictive patterns, but when they lean into that, things begin to reset where they need to reset. You begin to see the flourishing come back.

John Fuller: Everything you've said applies first to me, the parent. Out of the outflowing of my relationship with God, I can help train my child to go to God first, not last, and to trust in him. They'll see the peace, but we have to model it.

This isn't where we say, "Now you have the answer for your child's mental health well-being." You've got to get right yourself. On our parenting shows and our marriage shows, we emphasize this. In relationship, it's on you to do you.

Mom and Dad, this is an invitation for you to do what Danny was talking about. Seek out the Lord, get peace from him, trust in him, and help your child see that. Then you can pass that on to them in moments where they're struggling and they will experience some of that peace that passes understanding.

Dr. Danny Huerta: There's healing that takes place in this and new decision making. That's all part of the package as you're going towards mental health.

John Fuller: It begins with scripture, knowing God's word, and seeking him out as we know him to be through the word. Corey has a terrific book about helping children understand the world of faith and who the sovereign God is and his characteristics.

Get a copy of Backpack Faith: Helping Your Child Live Confidently for Jesus in Public School. It's a terrific resource and we'll send it to you for a donation of any amount to the ministry today. We're listener-supported and viewer-supported, so we welcome your one-time gift or your monthly pledge of any amount. Sign up through the website, make that donation, and we'll send the book to you.

We have a free resource that Danny's team has worked tirelessly on. It's the Age and Stage e-newsletter. Sign up with your child's birth date and we'll send you information on a regular, timely basis to help you understand where your child is at in all areas of development. Now you can have faith-filled conversations that are meaningful to them.

Sign up for Age and Stage, make a donation, and get the book. All the links are right there in the show notes. One other link I'd like to highlight is the new Focus Live Christian music station. We'll link over to it. You can find great music from Phil Wickham, For King and Country, and so many others, and little bits and pieces of wisdom from our various podcasts and shows.

It's a terrific resource. Give it a listen. It's called Focus Live and the link is in the notes. Next time we'll hear from Deborah Fileta about the importance of affirmation in your parenting journey. For now, on behalf of Dr. Danny Huerta and the entire team, I'm John Fuller. Thanks for joining us for the Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast.

Guest (Male): If you are a pastor wanting to save and strengthen marriages in your congregation, we've got a great tool for you. Marriage 911 by Focus on the Family trains laypeople to mentor couples who may be on the verge of divorce or who want to strengthen what they already have.

The kit includes two leader guides, four workbooks, and all the training necessary to meet with and mentor men and women who need help. Visit marriage911.com. That's marriage, the numbers 9-1-1, dot com.