Latest / UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth / EP 38 - Raising Emotionally Secure Children Before Life Hits Hard

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EP 38 - Raising Emotionally Secure Children Before Life Hits Hard · UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth

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Today's episode is going to be just a little bit different.
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We're not talking about addiction, trauma, or battles
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that many of us face later in life.
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Instead, we're taking a look at something that could prevent
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some of those battles from potentially even happening in
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the 1st place. And that's raising children who
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are emotionally secure, grounded in faith, and aware that God
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watches over them even when life feels uncertain.
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And today's story behind that message is just as meaningful.
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Welcome to Unmasked, where we take off the filters and get
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real about faith, failure, and finding freedom.
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I'm your host, Wesley Farnsworth, a dad, veteran,
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author, and a man who's learned that God does his best work in
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the middle of our mess. Each episode we have honest
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conversations with people who've walked through addiction, pain,
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or doubt, and with pastors, leaders, and everyday believers
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who are learning to live and lead authentically.
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So take a breath, pull up a chair, and let's get real.
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This is unmasked. Today on Unmasked, I'm joined by
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somebody whose story offers refreshing shift from our
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unusual conversation. Scratch that.
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Starting again today on Unmasked, I'm joined by somebody
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who's off tongue tied. All good.
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Today on Unmasked, I'm joined by somebody who offers a refreshing
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shift from our usual conversations.
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Tessa is a writer, mother and grandmother whose passion is
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helping children develop emotional security and a deep
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sense of God's presence in their life.
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Her inspiration comes from a unique encounter in her youth
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with meeting Mother Alexandra, formerly Princess Ileana of
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Romania, a woman whose humility and faith left a lot lifelong
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impression. Here, after reading about the
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princess's childhood angelic encounter, Tessa felt compelled
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to share the a message that today's kids desperately need.
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And that is that God sends his angels to watch over us.
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And faith in the unseen can give children confidence, courage,
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and peace long before life storms calm their way.
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Today, we're diving into how to raise spiritually anchored,
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emotionally resilient kids and why these foundations matter not
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more now than ever. And why these foundations matter
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more now than ever. Tessa, welcome to the show.
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Thank you so much for being with us today on Unmasked.
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Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to
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be here. Glad to have you.
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Glad to have you. Well, let's just jump right into
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it and give us some of your story and and how this chance
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encounter I'm going to assume happened and I can't wait to
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hear it. Well, it started a long, long
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time ago. I was probably 12 at the time
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that I met Mother Alexandra. My family was on their way from
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visiting family in Michigan back to Maryland, where we lived, and
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just South of Pittsburgh we stopped at the Monastery of Holy
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Transfiguration, which had just been founded by Mother
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Alexandra. This particular monastery was
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the first women's Eastern Orthodox convent in North
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America. When my dad introduced me to
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Mother Alexandra, he said to me, Tessa, Mother Alexandra is a
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real Princess, which being about a 12 year old girl growing up
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with Disney princesses and Barbie dolls, that kind of took
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me. And at the time she was an older
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woman all dressed in black, full habit.
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And I really did not know at that point who she really was or
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what her story was. But as I grew older, I came to
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read her books, and I was very taken by her courage, her faith
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and her entire story. So her mother and father were
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the last reigning king and queen of Romania before the Bolsheviks
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came in after the Nazis were thrown out at the end of World
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War 2. When the Nazis were there, her
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family was basically neutered. They had no power, but when the
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Bolsheviks came in, they were much more harsh, much more
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cruel, and they exiled her entire family.
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She was then exiled and she went to South America and then
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through Congress was able to get to this country, which is how
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she ended up being here in this country.
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Just a little bit of background on her.
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She was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth.
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She was a cousin of Tsar Nicholas of Russia and she
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married Habsburg. So for anybody that knows
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anything about European royalty and history, those names matter.
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She has a very impressive family trait.
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When she was a child, she had four older brothers and one
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younger brother. Actually, I think she had She
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had four older siblings and one younger brother.
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She and her younger brother were asleep in the nursery in the
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castle, and in the middle of the night she awoke and they were
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angels in her room, several of them.
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She remembered the description of them with such incredible
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detail. I've often thought to myself,
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would I remember that much detail about an experience when
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I was seven years old? But I suppose if Angel showed up
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in my bedroom, I may have remembered that.
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But what she didn't know at the time was that her little brother
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was dying. He had was born with a birth
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defect and it did kill him. So at this time when this
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happened, she was 7 and he was 3 and he died later that year.
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Again, I didn't know any of this when I met her, but I learned
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all of this later. That castle is Brand Castle,
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which if you go to Bucharest, Romania, is a tourist attraction
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to this day. If you go to their website, it's
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actually quite impressive. And that castle also happened to
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be the inspiration for the entire story of Dracula.
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So there's a lot of historical reference to this woman and her
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story. During the war, she built
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hospitals. She took care of just the worst
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of the worst situations. And as tough as we think we have
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it today with the things that we face, we don't know what it's
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like to live in an area that's completely bombed out and people
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walking around with no shoes in the winter and things like that.
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We, we can't even wrap our head around that kind of horror.
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But when you read stories of people who overcame that and
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instead of it tearing them apart, it built their strength
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and their and their love for Christ and their faith, it's
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just really an overwhelming feeling.
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And so I carried all of this with me.
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Tessa, can I cause you to? Do you have music playing in the
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background? Yeah, there's some Christmas
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music on You Want Me? To can you turn it off or turn
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it down? Because it's it's overpowering
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you in a couple of spots. Really.
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OK, I'll do it right now. Hold on.
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Sorry about that. I had had it turned down and
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actually had the door shut, but I suppose it was louder than I
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thought. Sorry.
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It was, that's alright. It was just that song.
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It like it. When it came on I was like, oh,
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I hear music all of a sudden. Yeah, Josh Grogan's got that
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kind of voice. He does.
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I love Josh Groban, so go ahead and pick.
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No, I was kind of at the end of that particular part there.
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So anyway, go ahead. So go ahead and just pick up
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where you left off and. Well, again, it, it was just the
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power of her story that captivated me.
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And, and I suppose, you know, really, Wesley, that I had had
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this thing deep in my heart for many years.
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And so then what happened was about a year and a half ago, my
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husband and I were, we were at a wedding and before the wedding,
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we met with some friends. And these are very good friends
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of ours. And one of my friends had just
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written a children's book and she was presenting it to us and
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showing it to us. She actually wrote it during
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COVID so she wouldn't lose her mind.
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The first thing that came out of my husband's mouth was, well,
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that's really cool, Pam. But you know, Tessa's had a book
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in her head for as long as I've known her, and she's just never
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put pen to paper. And it was about guardian
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angels. I'm an Eastern Orthodox
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Christian, and when you enter an Eastern Orthodox Church, we
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don't have statues. The Roman Catholic Church has
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statues. We have icons.
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We call them basically windows to heaven.
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And they are depictions of people who lived before us.
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None of them are fictitious. We don't worship them.
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We venerate them. And on the altar there of any
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Orthodox Church, you will see an icon of the Angel Michael, who
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is the warrior Archangel, and the Angel Gabriel who is the
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Messenger Archangel. Those are the 2 angels that most
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people know about. But throughout the service, the
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Divine Liturgy, you hear words about angels in the prayers, you
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hear about the cherubim and the seraphim in the hymns.
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And angels have always kind of been around me.
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And I never really thought about it until all of this kind of
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came together for me, that they really are all around us and
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they do provide heavenly protection for us.
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We are taught that when you are born, you are assigned a
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guardian Angel, and that Angel stays with you for your entire
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life. You're not assigned another one.
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You're only assigned one. They are of the nine classes of
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angels, guardian angels are the lowest.
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Archangels are like #3 there are different levels of angels.
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And so all of this is biblical, By the way, angels are mentioned
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almost 200 times in the New Testament and depending on which
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Old Testament you ascribe to anywhere between 111 and 279
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times in the Old Testament. So everything that we know about
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angels is very solid. And getting back to the the icon
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thing, one other thing I wanted to mention is the first person,
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whoever painted an icon was Saint Luke.
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And the first icon that he painted was that of the Virgin
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Mary. So it's very much a part of the
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Eastern Orthodox religion. When you go into a church,
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you'll see angels everywhere. So they've always been around
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me. And it wasn't really until I
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gave some thought to this story. And I wish that every child knew
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and actually every adult knew that we have a guardian Angel
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that really does watch over us and that they have been assigned
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to us. When, you know, you mentioned
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that you were a veteran and thank you for your service.
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I have two sons. That better?
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Well, actually, one's technically not a veteran.
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He's still somewhat active duty. He's National Guard now.
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He just went from active duty to National Guard.
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But when my older son was deployed into Iraq during Bush's
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first surge in 2007, I read Psalm 91 every day.
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It's known as the Soldiers Psalm, and it specifically talks
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about heavenly protection and his wings over you to protect
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you. So again, they've just kind of
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weaved in my life, my whole life.
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And that's kind of how the story came to be.
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That's fascinating. You know, you're this episode is
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centered on, you know, prevention and helping children
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develop the faith and emotional security before life hits hard.
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Why do you believe that early early have?
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Why do you believe early spiritual formation is so
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crucial for kids today? Wow.
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Well, it's interesting. My husband is in a field where
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he helps people to understand who they are.
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In that we have an identity and we have roles and your identity
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is who God created you to be. You are made in the image of
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God. We are all made in the image of
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God. Whether we believe in Him or not
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or not, we are all made in His image.
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And so on our identity side, we are always an I-10 10 out of 10.
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On the role side, however, we have many roles.
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We are friends, we are husbands, we are wives, we are parents, we
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are children, we are sisters, we are friends.
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And sometimes our role performance, especially at work,
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maybe isn't A10. But many people associate their
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identity with their role performance.
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And we're not always a 10 on the role side.
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Sometimes we're about a three. Sometimes we don't even want to
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think about it. But the problem that many people
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have is that they they use that bad role performance and they
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take it on personally that I'm a bad person or I'm not a good
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believer, or I'm not a good Christian or I'm not a good
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whatever. I'm not a good mother.
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Well, maybe every day. I'm not a good mother.
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I probably haven't been a good mother every day.
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And I mean, yeah, I mean, God's the only one that's perfect.
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That's why we have a God. Children have to understand the
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importance that they are made in God's image and that they're
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loved so much that there is an Angel with them all the time.
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And I would venture to say that broken children become broken
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adults. And many people who might be
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listening to this may be feeling like they're broken.
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And all I can say to you is you're no more broken than the
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rest of us. And we just need to remember
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that we are children of God. We are made in his image.
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He loves us more than anybody else on this planet could love
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us, even our own parents. And that he wants the best for
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us and that he wants to all be saved and no one be lost.
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And that he does send messengers to carry our prayers to him, to
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the to his throne. We have intercessors and we're
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never alone. And that was really the story
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that I'm trying to convey in my my storybook.
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There are two different parts where both major characters of
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the character who plays Princess Ileana.
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Her name is Elizabeth and her little brother is Prince
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Brenner. And there are parts in the story
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where both of them literally are on their knees praying.
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And so I want children to know that prayer is a normal thing in
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a Christian home. If we're not praying before we
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eat or praying before we go to bed or praying before when we
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wake up or praying throughout the day.
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I remember when I used to carpool, I had Christian radio
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on all the time just to be a a constant reminder ought to be
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praying all day long. So whatever it takes for you to
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get to that point, make it intentional in your life.
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It's important. And again, broken children
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become broken adults. So when you become a parent, you
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realize I brought this child into the world the next 20
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years. They're not mine, they're
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theirs. And if I'm not willing to put in
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what I'm supposed to put in to raise them in the way that they
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should go, you know, I think that's something we're all going
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to have to answer to one day. But on the other side of the
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coin, again, we're not perfect parents.
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We all make mistakes. And we all need to learn how to
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say, I'm sorry and forgive me, but the sooner we do that, the
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better. And when our children see that
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we also are not perfect, then they will not feel that they
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need to be perfect either. Yeah, that's that.
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That's a great point because that's something I, I say quite
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frequently on this show. It's very easy for us to say,
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well, this happened to me. And so that automatically makes
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me a bad guy, a bad girl, a a bad dad, a bad mom, a bad
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whatever. And we let it define who we are
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moving forward. Whatever happened in that one
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moment now define the rest of our lives.
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And if I frequently say this, it's kind of become my calling
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card, if you will. And that is that you are not
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defined by the things that have happened to you.
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You're not defined by the things that you've done.
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And you're not defined by the way you were brought up.
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You're defined only by who you say you are.
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And more importantly, you're defined by who God says you are.
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And we are all broken people. None of us are perfect.
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We're all going to make mistakes.
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It's what we do with those mistakes.
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And, and today I think it's just having kids, my, my own, like
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it's, it's very easy to see you see the world through a
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different perspective. You know, you, you see the
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brokenness out there. And it's our natural instinct to
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want to protect them, to shield them, to do everything we can to
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keep them safe. But that's just not possible.
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The world's broken. It always has been.
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And I often hear people say, well, it's more broken today
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than it was when I was growing up.
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And I question, I'm like, is it really more broken today?
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Or is it just broken differently because technology has advanced
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all these different things? It's still the same world.
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It's still a broken fallen world.
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It's just the times have changed a little bit.
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We have different technology, you know, different things like
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that. And so when you think about
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protecting your kids, your grandkids, what tips would you
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give to a parent, a grandparent that has their kids at home and
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they're saying, and this world's just really broken.
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I don't even know how to protect them and raise them up to
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realize that it's OK to not be OK.
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What advice would you give to that person?
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Wow. Well, because like right now,
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all of my children are grown adults.
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I only have one right now that has children.
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My youngest just got married about a month ago.
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All I can tell you is that when when my children were younger.
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I mean, obviously all of us have things from our own childhood
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that we look back on without, without any fondness.
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And so I think in some ways we try and improve our children's
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lives because of what we didn't have.
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And I remember one time calling my dad out, Dad turned to me and
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he said, he said, you know, Tessa, your mom and I are not
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perfect. And we've made, we made, we have
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made some mistakes. But so are you going to make
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your mistakes? So be very careful when you
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judge what somebody else is doing or saying or thinking or
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did or whatever. And so we can only try and
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envelope them with the kind of love that Christ shows us, which
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is unconditional love. And that goes back to what I was
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saying before about identities and roles.
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Your child misbehaves. So rather than telling them
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they're bad, you attack their behavior and you share with them
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that they are not behaving the way that they're supposed to
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behave. Or you're acting like a brat
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instead of you're a brat. There's a huge difference.
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I know somebody whose father used to tell him he was lazy.
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He wasn't lazy, he was displaying lazy behavior.
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And so when he grew up, he became this workaholic because
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he had to overcome his father telling him he was lazy.
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So our words are powerful. The whole book of James has so
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much in it. But that one chapter about how,
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like, the tongue can be like a rudderless ship and like a
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knife, and it can be very biting.
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So when we say things that we regret that we've said,
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especially where our children are concerned, we need to own
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it. We need to apologize.
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We need to fall on the sword. We need to be humble enough to
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show them that it's OK to acknowledge I'm not perfect.
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We all all fall short of God's glory.
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That's part of who we are. We can't control what happens,
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but we can control how we handle what happens.
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And the sooner that they learn that and it's reinforced because
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that's not a one. That's not a one one stop that
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that's got to be repeated. And so I'd like to think that
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I'm not kind of a was that kind of a parent to my children, you
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know, grandchildren. That's a whole nother because
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you really do want to spoil them.
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But at the same time, when you see negative behavior there, I
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know with one of my granddaughters, she's just,
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she's so high spirited and I don't want to snuff out the high
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spiritedness, but when she becomes disrespectful, I have to
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kind of let her know. That was really not a very nice
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thing to say to your sister or to me or to your mom or to
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whoever. It's how you say it.
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And that takes practice and it takes a lot of personal
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humility. And that's probably one of my
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biggest goals because probably, you know, here I feel like I'm a
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confession or something. One of my biggest sins is, is is
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pride. And pride is at the center of
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everything. The Greek word for me is ego.
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And that's the way we get the word ego.
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Our ego needs to be really calmed down and so being being
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humble is probably my biggest goal now with the years that God
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gives me left on this planet, I really want to become a more
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humble servant and I would that everybody else would would
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possibly. I mean it.
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It's really hard to look in the mirror and see yourself as
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self-centered and as egotistical as we can be and how prideful we
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can be and wanting to be right. And you know, well, guess what?
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We don't live in that world. Yeah, I think pride is a is an
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issue for all of us. I mean, again, that goes back to
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just being human, right? No one wants to admit they're
22:53
wrong, especially an adult. Admitting they were wrong to a
22:57
kid like that is just the hardest thing to do.
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I know what I've had to do it to my own kids.
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But hey, you know, dad was wrong.
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I'm sorry. That's talking about eating a
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piece of humble pie. Like that's not easy to do.
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It's not. And but it's so important
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because it demonstrates to them that it's OK to fail and it's
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just have to admit it and own up to it and move on with life.
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And then that becomes their norm because they see even a big
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person can be wrong. But guess what?
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I'm not. I'm not only wrong, I'm big
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enough to say I was wrong. And that is a it's huge to a
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child. That is a monumental moment for
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them that they'll never forget really.
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So we can't under score that. Absolutely.
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As a mother and grandmother, what practices or rhythms have
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you found to be most helpful in nurturing kids emotionally so
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that they're healthy and spiritually grounded to help
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prepare them for adulthood? Well, we were fortunate enough
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to be able to send our children early on to Christian schools
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where prayer every day was a norm, just like it was at home.
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But yeah, you have to be. You have to be involved in the
24:13
church. You have to be involved in Bible
24:15
study. You have to be involved in
24:16
prayer. You have to be involved in
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choosing to say and do the right things in front of your children
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because they are imitators of you.
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I'm sure we all have a story where our child came out with
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something and we thought to ourself, Oh my gosh, I know
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right where that came from. And you know, it's just again,
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it's comes back to being humble because it's easy to not have
24:40
time to have your quiet time in the morning or to read them a
24:46
story at night that pleases their soul and gives them
24:51
peaceful rest. Night time is really when Satan
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loves to be involved in our lives, even with children.
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And so I would say I remember I used to rock my children to
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sleep when they were babies and I would sing to them and they
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even remember those songs that I've never even gotten rid of
25:11
that rocking chair because I don't have the heart to do it.
25:14
Not even an expensive chair. It's made out of wood, but I
25:18
just cannot part with that chair.
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But singing to them, reading stories to them when we would go
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to Christian schools, like they have memory verses every week
25:27
that we would have to memorize and having them test on the way
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into school with whoever else was in the car, in the carpool.
25:35
I remember my daughter had to memorize Psalm 100, make a
25:39
joyful noise unto the Lord, and it was a Thanksgiving song and
25:44
that was beautiful. And she recited that that
25:47
Thanksgiving. And I mean it brought tears to
25:49
my eyes to hear a child recite scripture.
25:51
There's nothing more precious. And then the story of Luke,
25:55
that's on the famous Charlie Brown cartoon where Linus talks
26:00
about this is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
26:03
And it's the whole entry from Luke, you know, Savior, who is
26:09
Christ the Lord. Everybody remembers little lines
26:12
like that. But when your children say, say
26:16
those and they, they're knit in their heart, they really never
26:20
leave them. And I've even heard stories.
26:23
I actually heard a story once at a women's conference.
26:27
The speaker was saying that she was in a dressing room of a
26:31
clothing store one time and a gentleman came in.
26:33
A gentleman, a man came in with a gun and he started robbing
26:37
everybody. And she was in the dressing
26:39
room. So she's like quickly got her
26:41
clothes on. And she said, I don't know what
26:44
happened to me, but I just walked out of the dressing room
26:46
and I walked right up to the man with a gun.
26:48
And I said, in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I
26:53
demand that you stop what you're doing right now.
26:57
And she said the man dropped the gun and he burst into tears as
27:06
the police were taking him away. He turned to the woman and he
27:08
said, your words bring back my grandmother talking to me as a
27:14
child. So we really don't know the
27:17
power of Scripture and the power of God's presence and calling it
27:23
out, calling out loud. If you can't sleep, go in the
27:28
other room and call him out loud.
27:29
Tell him to leave you. And my understanding is that
27:32
Satan can't read your mind, but he can't hear your words.
27:35
Christ can read your mind. God can read your mind, but
27:38
Satan cannot. So getting back to your
27:41
question, it's just the regularity of practices.
27:44
But if you're not doing them yourself regularly, your
27:48
children will see it as being a show.
27:50
You really need to kind of rein it in and recognize I brought
27:53
this child under the world. This child deserves the next 20
27:57
years of my life. Man, that's some good stuff
27:59
right there. I never heard that story before
28:01
about the lady in the dressing room, but that's powerful.
28:04
It's just, and you know, something I often say is, you
28:08
know, you have this random thought pop into your head and
28:12
you never know why it popped into your head.
28:15
You know, it could be as simple as something is.
28:18
I mean, for her, I was going that walking out of the dressing
28:21
room up to an armed man hold like that, that that's just
28:25
crazy. But you know, it is.
28:29
But there's face. That that woman had.
28:32
Absolutely. But it could be as simple as,
28:34
you know, I can just hear somebody now.
28:36
Well, I'm never going to. Well, OK, you might not have
28:39
that opportunity, but it could be just as simple as a name that
28:43
pops into your head. I often will have a name pop
28:46
into my head and I'll just, I'll just, I'll pull up my phone and
28:48
I'll send them a text back. Hey, you know, this just you,
28:51
you popped in my mind just thinking about you.
28:53
How can I pray for you? You know, let's connect
28:55
whatever. It's been a while and 9 out of
28:57
10 times the person's grateful to hear from you.
29:00
And most of the time I get a thank you so much.
29:03
Here's what you can pray for me. Here's what's going on.
29:06
I really need this, you know, and God puts people on your mind
29:09
for a reason. And you just have to have the
29:11
faith and the the awareness of it to act on it, because you
29:18
never know the reason that something has brought to mind.
29:21
And sometimes it's his Angel that he's using that Angel to
29:25
communicate to you. I remember when I was a child,
29:28
we watched these cartoons on Saturday morning and there was
29:31
one cartoon that had like the good Angel on one shoulder and
29:34
the bad Angel on the other shoulder.
29:36
And they were like fighting back and forth.
29:38
Do this. No, do this.
29:39
No one is telling you to do the good thing and the other one's
29:42
telling you. There's a really a lot of truth
29:44
to that. It's it's kind of amusing when
29:49
you really think about how it's depicted in a cartoon, but there
29:52
really is a lot of truth to that.
29:55
And so and, and even I had a friend tell me just the other
29:59
day, she said, Tessa, I opened my car door and there was a
30:02
feather, a white feather in my car.
30:06
And they say that if you see, if you find a feather, that it's
30:10
your Angel saying I'm here. Just because we can't see them
30:16
doesn't make them not here. It's part of the angelic host
30:20
that we think about at Christmas time that we don't think about
30:23
any other time. But they're very real and
30:26
they're very scriptural. Never heard that before.
30:29
You know, many children today and really children always, but
30:35
I'll just say today because we're in today, you know, many
30:37
children struggle with fear, anxiety, uncertainty, you know,
30:41
those types of things. What are some practical ways
30:44
that parents can help their kids feel safe and secure and loved
30:49
and guided, especially if they're in the middle of a
30:52
stressful season? Well, obviously praying over
30:55
them, praying with them. I mean, when they see their
30:58
parents praying, they that translate as this is normal
31:02
behavior. We, we create their normal.
31:05
So that's why our habits are so important.
31:08
And like I said, you know, not everybody can wake up every
31:10
morning and read scripture and let their children see them
31:13
praying and all of those things they intuitively pick up on
31:17
things like that. They know before you say, well,
31:20
we're going to do this. Why don't you say, well, God
31:22
willing, we're going to do this because God wills everything
31:26
again. It's then the words that you
31:28
use, the phrases that you use, they're very powerful and what
31:31
they see growing up becomes their normal.
31:33
Absolutely. That's something that's very
31:35
important is to to set those normal behaviors early and then
31:40
keep them going throughout the childhood.
31:42
And I know that's something my parents did growing up.
31:45
It was always prayer was always a part of our lives.
31:48
Going to church was always a part of our lives.
31:50
Now, granted, I do come from a ministry household.
31:52
My dad was a full time pastor, evangelist, and so church was
31:56
just a part of it as a kid, you know, it was very impactful for
32:01
me. And when things weren't going
32:03
well, instead of stressing out, my parents would often say we
32:06
just have to trust God with it. And then they did it and they
32:11
just at time and time again, we would see God provide.
32:14
And now in my adulthood, you know, in my adult life, I have
32:18
things going on where I'm like, well, I just have to trust God
32:21
with it and he'll provide and he always has.
32:24
But I thought that's not the first instinct for most people.
32:28
And I can only credit my parents with that because that's how I
32:32
was brought up, was just to trust God when things get tough.
32:35
But he'll. Provide.
32:37
Exactly that was that's just my normal and I have people today
32:41
that often will tell, say, Wes, how do you do that?
32:43
How do you have that level of trust?
32:46
And well, you know, it comes not only from the example, but it
32:51
also comes from seeing it played out time and time again and
32:55
seeing God actually come through and provide when we did trust
32:59
him. And he likes that he always has.
33:01
So that's that's that's good, good.
33:04
A good tip there. Well, tell us a little bit more
33:07
about your book. Your book is meant to pass on
33:10
faith and hope and resilience to future generations.
33:13
Tell us more about it. What's the name of it?
33:14
Where can people find it? OK, the book is called The Angel
33:18
Feather and it's about 900 words long.
33:23
It's basically for 4 to 8 year olds.
33:25
I do have a companion coloring book.
33:27
When my illustrator did the pictures, I had him strip out
33:31
the color to create a coloring book and at the end I have like
33:35
a crossword puzzle, some mazes, word search, just different fun
33:39
little things for children to play with so that they can
33:42
really experience the story. Obviously for an 8 year old is a
33:46
pretty big span, so some of the pictures are better for four
33:50
year olds than some of the things like the crossword puzzle
33:53
are is probably better for an 8 year old because in order to
33:56
answer the questions to the crossword puzzle, you have to
33:59
read the book. So the book is available on my
34:02
website and on Amazon.com. My website is
34:06
www.evangelospress.com and the webs.
34:11
And then of course you can just type in the Angel feather or the
34:14
Angel feather coloring book at Amazon.com.
34:18
And it's been out almost three months.
34:21
I'm pleased so far. I've had good sales.
34:23
I've got a lot of great reviews on both Goodreads and Amazon.
34:28
I've done several fundraisers where I've been fortunate enough
34:32
to provide books for a lot of homeless children who are the
34:35
least among us today, and there's more of them than I'd
34:39
like to think about. But I look forward to any
34:42
opportunity to share the story of hope that our guardian angels
34:47
give us, as well as just this fun little story.
34:51
It's a very sweet story. Again, I've got, you know, the
34:53
two main characters are praying in it.
34:56
And it's a very simple story, but it's a very loving story.
35:01
One of the reasons that I was really driven to write it was
35:06
because I think that I've noticed with parents,
35:09
grandparents, teachers, librarians, there's kind of a
35:13
vacuum right now in good children's literature.
35:16
We see books for kids today, like even some of the cartoons
35:19
for kids today that we would never have seen when we were
35:22
children. And it's kind of off the wall
35:25
stuff. Plus, AI is now creating books.
35:28
People can create books out of AI that have no story at all.
35:32
They have no plot at all, They have no good character
35:35
development at all. And at the same time, we're
35:37
removing some of the classics from library.
35:40
So it's important, I think, in keeping with everything we've
35:45
been discussing to surround our children with good literature.
35:49
It's out there and it is available.
35:53
Sometimes you have to search for it a little bit harder.
35:56
But you know, one thing, Wesley, that I will share is that when
36:01
my older son was deployed in Iraq, this isn't about, I'm
36:06
going to say it was around 2007. And he came home and he told me
36:10
about a lot of the guys he served with.
36:13
And it really struck him that not everybody who enlisted in
36:18
the Army before the Iraq War was raised the way he was.
36:23
Matter of fact, some of the guys actually thought he was nuts
36:25
that he left all that he grew up with, where in their situations
36:32
they enlisted because it was a better choice than staying where
36:35
they were, which is heartbreaking to me.
36:40
But for me it was a reality call of how many, again, broken
36:45
adults there are because they have broken childhoods.
36:49
And we can't fix everybody. God can fix everybody, but we
36:54
can't. But what we can do is start at
36:57
an early age again to bring them up the way that they're supposed
37:02
to go. And when they grow old, they
37:03
will not depart from it. And so the sooner we start to
37:08
break that cycle, the better, the better things are.
37:13
So that is a lot of the impetus behind why I am trying
37:19
desperately to get my book out there.
37:21
Because I know there are so many children in need and there are
37:24
so many parents who would be comforted to know that even as
37:27
an adult, they have an Angel watching over them.
37:31
And when they pray, that Angel carries their prayers to heaven.
37:35
And when they want to communicate, angels are God's
37:38
messengers. That's what the word aguilos
37:40
means. The Greek word for angels is
37:42
aguilos, and that that means messenger.
37:46
And they are real and they are with us.
37:48
And we may not be able to see them, but they are very much
37:51
here. That's good stuff.
37:52
The last question I have for you is the end of every episode.
37:56
I love to leave my listeners with an action step and so when
38:00
you think about raising up kids and making sure that they are
38:04
emotionally ready, they're spiritually ready, you know, all
38:08
that fun stuff, what is 1 action step that the listeners can take
38:13
today to start moving in that direction?
38:17
Pray without ceasing, not just praying for them, but praying
38:20
with them. Let them see you at the at the
38:25
footstool of God asking for His grace and mercy on a daily
38:29
basis. Again, what we do is what they
38:32
will do. Our norm becomes their norm.
38:35
Love it, love it. Well, thank you, Tessa, so much
38:37
for being with us today here on Unmasked and, and sharing your
38:41
story and about your book and providing the listeners with
38:44
some insights as some things that they can do in order to
38:47
ensure that their children are being brought up so that they
38:50
are emotionally healthy and spiritually healthy to prepare
38:54
them for adulthood. Yeah, one last recommendation.
38:59
When I started deep diving about angels because I wanted to do
39:03
some real research before I I started feeling like I had any
39:09
opinion. Billy Graham and Doctor David
39:12
Jeremiah have both written excellent books on angels, so I
39:18
would highly recommend if you have any doubts.
39:22
Both of those books are excellent.
39:23
OK, well listeners, if you want more information on Tessa or how
39:27
to find her book, check the show notes down below or on your
39:31
screen depending on where you're looking or watching us today,
39:35
and I'll have those links there so that you can find her easily
39:38
and find that book. Thank you, listeners, for
39:45
joining me today on Unmasked. Huge thanks again to Tessa for
39:49
sharing. If something on this episode
39:51
spoke to you, don't let it stop with you.
39:53
Share it with one person that God put on your heart while you
39:56
were listening. You never know where a
39:58
breakthrough might start simply because you shared a message.
40:02
If you want more encouragement or more information on me and
40:05
having me speak at your church or events, you can find
40:08
everything about me at wesleyfarnsworth.com.
40:11
And make sure you join the Unmasked community by connecting
40:13
with me on social media so we can walk this journey together.
40:17
Until next time, remember that grace is greater than your past,
40:22
and real freedom begins the moment that we choose to live
40:25
unmasked. God bless you.