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Why Use Object Lessons to Disciple Your Kids? · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have a special guest, Terry Hallard Brown.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: She she writes and speaks and uh has two podcasts to help parents disciple their children.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Her two podcasts are books that spark and everyday discipleship everyday.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And she has several books, but her very newest one that just came out is called Up, Down, and All Around, a handbook for discipling our children based on Deuteronomy 6.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's divided into sections with 52 devotions for parents, 52 parenting tips, and 52 object lessons.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's from this book that Terry's going to share with us today.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And she's going to share why use object lessons to disciple your children.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome, Terry.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we're excited to hear some of these tips that you have in your book.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you having me on.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are ready to hear those tips.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the main reason I think of using object lessons is because Jesus used object lessons.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And as parents, we can follow his example in helping our children understand all about him.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we're following his example when we use them.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: He used the example of a coin in Matthew 22, vines and branches in in John 15, birds and flowers in Matthew 6.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And those helped his disciples to understand the point he was trying to make.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we can do the same.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can use analogies and metaphors as well, like when he talked about the word of God being a light unto our path.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that just helps the children to understand more easily, and anyone we're discipling to understand more easily.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Another reason is an object lesson can help make difficult concepts more concrete.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the concept of love is much more real when a child can express love through giving, encouraging, or helping someone else.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So a hands-on example that they can live out, or forgiveness becomes more real when equated with seeing dirt being washed away.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that object lesson is very simple, but it makes it very concrete.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, it allows them to play out scenarios and ideas in a real-time example.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: When we teach about prayer, for instance, then we give children the opportunity to pray for others and keep track of answered prayers.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: In the book, one of the examples I give is to make a chain out of construction paper strips where you write the prayer request on the strip and then keep it in a jar.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then when the prayer is answered, you have that prayer request and put the date that it was answered, and you begin making a chain out of all these answered prayers and hanging it somewhere in your home.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the child can see as you go through how these prayers are being answered.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And prayer becomes a very real and authentic activity to the children because they're seeing the results of it.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, fourth, it appears to children, it appeals to children.
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  SPEAKER_00: It appeals to children's curiosity.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I can talk, I really can.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little early.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's a little early this morning.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I feel the same way.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: But it appeals to our children's curiosity because they're getting to use their hands.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And many of these uh simple object lessons, and the ones you'll find online, are based on science and activities that involve um hands-on experiences, discovering, and the children discover these things on their own and can even draw their own conclusions from what they're seeing happen in the object lesson.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not just us teaching them and telling them things, they're actually using their own curiosity, their own interest, and discovering things themselves.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that just makes it much more real to them.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Fifthly, an object lesson often touches on humor or surprise.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's always fun when we're teaching.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the object lessons is to have a bag of water and you hold it over the child's head and you say, Do you trust me to keep you dry?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna giggle most likely.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you start to poke a pencil through that bag over their head, they're really gonna start to be surprised and laugh as you finish the example and get to discuss it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if things go awry and you don't keep them as dry as you plan, then you get to laugh about that too.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um, number six, it is memorable.
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  SPEAKER_00: They will never forget these examples, especially if it failed.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But these concrete examples and experiences stick with a child.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: They will remember them for years.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We often remember examples from our own childhood that stuck in our minds.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: These simple object lessons we learned maybe in a children's sermon or um an activity that you did with your teachers or your family.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I remember a simple one.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: This pastor had a paper bag and he put his hand in that paper bag and it was moving around like something was alive in there.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was just so, it just captivated us all.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And all he was doing was moving his hand in there, but it made us think about a child's lunch with fish and loaves of bread, and he made it like the fish were alive, but it stuck with us and we still remember it today.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then it involves parents and children actively engaging together, and that's one of the most important things and the most fun thing is that we get to do these lessons together.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Bible study and discipleship is vital and needs to be done when teachable moments arise in the nooks and crannies of life, but we also need to be deliberate and have our plans to teach our children as well.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when those lessons are meaningful and fun, involving the whole family, we help children love learning about God and what it means to follow Jesus.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Children should always be encouraged to learn.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to help them love learning, whether we're teaching English history or math, but we especially want our children engaged and enjoying learning when we are learning about God.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Using object lessons can help us make God's word come to life for our children and keep them engaged in the lesson and internalize the concepts we are teaching.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's such good advice, you know.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was a former educator, and we all know that kids need concrete, you know, to understand concepts, they need concrete examples.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And object lessons are so perfect.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then even as adults, I mean, Jesus used these for adults because we need them too.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and I loved your idea of making a chain for answered prayer.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think adults could use that because you know, sometimes we pray, and if we don't write down answers, or you know, we just tend to forget, and just having something visual to look at is amazing for kids in the whole family.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I really love that idea.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I love that too.
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  SPEAKER_01: We did it before, and it's just really meaningful.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And for 50, you have 52 object lessons.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I've got to get that book to read those 50.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Although I don't have a young kid, but I'm gonna be a grandmother in February.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe eventually I'll get to use those.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so fun.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: That book sounds amazing, and thank you for coming on and sharing with us just some some of the object lessons that you have have put in that book.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: We greatly appreciate it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.