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Exciting News about the 5-Minute Parenting Podcast · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of 5 Minute Parenting.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want to share some very exciting news and introduce a very special person to my 5-Minute Parenting audience.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Karen Ferguson is my guest today, and she is going to become a co-host for the 5-Minute Parenting Podcast, and she will eventually take over the podcast as I'm cutting back on my writing and podcast responsibility for the coming year.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Karen is a wife, mom, and grandma of two, and soon to be three.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: She's a writer and children's book author with a background in K to 8 education.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Her first book, Guess How Much God Loves You, was published through Ambassador International, and that's also my publisher.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And she has also published a second book, Guess Who's in God's Family?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And these are these books are part of a seven book series called Questions for Kids.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share that Karen and I share similar Christian values about raising godly kids and helping them all become all that God has created them to be.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we also share the importance of prayer as we seek to parent our children and influence our grandchildren for God.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know you will enjoy the wisdom that she has to share and the guests that she will be interviewing in the future.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Karen.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Sandra.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to be here with you.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited and so honored to um to start this new journey with you.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, well, I know it's in good hands.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know and I'm excited about it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So well, thank you.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So tell a little bit more about you and your family, your background.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a wife of 32 years, um, mom to two beautiful uh grown daughters.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And as you mentioned, I have two amazing grandkids, a grandson and granddaughter, with one on the way that we just learned about before Christmas.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we're super excited.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I do have a background in K-8 education and have worked with kids most of my adult life and now writing children's books, which has been super fun.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my passion is to see this generation fall in love with God and with his word.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm all about biblical literacy and raising our kids with a biblical worldview.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always appreciated your podcast, um, Sandra, just the mission that you have, and it aligns with right where I'm at, um, you know, in in this journey and in this season of my life, um, which leads to my children's books.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I, yes, I've published two so far through Ambassador International, and I'm working on the third one, which will um hopefully be out right along the same time as our third grandchild is born, because I would love to dedicate uh this one to our grandchild as well.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've done that with the first two.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is called the Questions for Kids series, and there's gonna be at least seven books, and it takes young readers on a journey into unique periods of biblical history, um, right alongside the main characters, Lucy and her Papa Joe.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so kids are gonna discover important people, events, and places that help to shape a strong faith in God and an understanding of his never-ending love.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So each book covers an important um event that helps to build biblical literacy.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the first one was about the creation of God, um, the second one is about the garden of God and what I like to call the first family.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then this next one um is going to answer the question why did God make the rainbow?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's so important in this um in our culture these days.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the third one that's coming out with many more to come.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been quite a journey and uh it's so much fun.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this has been a dream of mine to publish for a long time.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um, just the fact that I can do it for kids uh means so much because that's you know, ministering to kids and teaching kids has always been a big part of my life.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you were a teacher for a while.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so I have a background in K-8 education.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a story maybe for another podcast as well, but there's a big story behind that.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, so I do have a background in K-8 education.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've done quite a few different things, um, but writing has always been a part of it in one form or another, um, whether that was for corporate communications or um nonprofits or other things, as well as working with kids.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So what what part of your books were the most fun to write?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Lucy and Papa.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's probably it, because you know, these books are biblically based.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I I want to make sure that they stay true to what the word of God says about each Bible account.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I really think it was the funnest part has been, you know, Lucy and Papa Joe themselves.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Those kind of hold a special place in my heart.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Papa Joe is actually modeled after my dad, who went home to be with the Lord in 2019, um, even in his little red scooter there.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so he's, you know, Lucy's wise grandpa and um the one who points her to the Bible when she has some serious questions about life, you know, whether it's bullying or, you know, am I valued?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Does God love me, or why do I look different, you know, from my family members, or, you know, just some important questions.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um he always points her to the Bible, and that's where they go into the Bible to um to learn about that and be and that's where it comes in with the biblical literacy that helps with that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think just um, yeah, just working with those characters.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Lucy is kind of a compilation of a few different people, but a lot of of me in her as well.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: When I was a kid, I always had a lot of questions um and uh talked a lot if I had the opportunity to do so.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, so I think just you know, looking at each Bible account and seeing, okay, how can I connect that, you know, what happened 2,000 plus years ago to what kids may be facing today and what questions they may have about life.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so to me, I really enjoy that part of it.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course, as you know, I'm sure you may feel the same way, just seeing it go to the illustration process is so amazing because that's what brings these books, these picture books to life.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think our publisher is really great with the illustrations.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they they work with some amazingly talented people.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they really do.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we actually one more question about the book series.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you did you come up with the book series all at once, or did you come up with one book and then just just kind of decide you were going to make a series?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it goes back to really, I guess it's not that long ago, but 2018, and I went to a writer's conference where we were living at the time in the Pacific Northwest with, I don't know, um, William Paul Young, the uh author of The Shack.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever read that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he was yeah, he was leading that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was actually a pretty small conference, just down the street, basically, from where we lived.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I was sitting there and they gave us time, it was really a special time, and it was bathed in prayer, which I loved.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they really gave us time just to sit quietly, um, to worship the Lord and also to, you know, kind of brainstorm what we want to write about.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I had had this idea, and it had been upon my heart, again, to just write something that would point kids to the word of God.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, there's so many amazing kids' books out there, illustrations, the quality of the writing is amazing.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and some of them are so fun, and we need that too.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, anything wholesome is a good thing, right, for our kids.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I just I just wanted to point kids to the Bible because I, you know, to me, that's the power of God, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the word of God, and it's just so important for kids to have a deep understanding of that.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, they're so open to deception, and that's what we're seeing right now in our culture, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, why did God make the rainbow?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he didn't make it for what our culture says.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, there's a whole other story behind that that's very powerful.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so, um, anyway, so long story short, as I was sitting there writing, it really did the whole series kind of came to me.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought about the the main Bible accounts that would be important for kids to learn, you know, and to have an understanding of, um, like Adam and Eve, you know, that's why we need Jesus, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: You go back to the garden, um, you know, even the Exodus, Moses coming uh across the Red Sea with the Israelites.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's important faith lessons we can learn in that.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so, anyway, as I was brainstorming, I then partnered up with a group of people and was able to kind of pitch it to them.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really uh an encouragement and a blessing, how many of them said, Yeah, you know, I really wish I had something like that when I was young.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I really that really would have pointed me to the word of God and that I would really have a better understanding.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because um, I mean, there's a lot of tools and out there which are great, but I think, you know, what I'm my hope is with this series is it will really stick with kids because there's this connection between the Bible account and what happened and something that they might be having questions about or struggling with or wondering about, if that makes sense.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: So yes.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that sounds so exciting, and um, a series is just great.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And kids love series, I think.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh well, before we wrap up today, just tell our listeners a little bit about your vision for continuing the five-minute parenting podcast.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you bet.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always appreciated your mission with the podcast, you know, praying for our kids, biblically based, uh, practical and biblical worldview.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I really don't intend on changing the mission of it at all or but but really only building on it.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so just continuing to provide the tips, the tools, the topics that will help parents raise competent and God confident kids.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I would add biblically literate kids.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it's all about being counter-cultural and raising our kids with that biblical worldview.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's going to be a mix of relevant topics that I would like to cover most likely by age group.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, each podcast is five minutes, which is great.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're all pressed for time, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really nice to be able to just turn something on and get something very practical and helpful, you know, right away in a short period of time.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um it'll stick within that time frame, but I'm thinking of doing more of like a three-part um series for each topic.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So focusing on one topic and how you can apply that with pre-K kids.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the second one would be elementary and then middle and high school.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm super excited um about having interviews with just like you've been doing with some amazing teachers, uh, homeschool leaders, parents, authors, influencers who who will share their stories and best practices with parents and grandparents.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's so I'm excited to get started.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am too.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm excited for you, Karen.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And just thank you so much.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just thank God that he chose you to continue the podcast.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I want to tell our listeners to check the notes for today's podcast, where your website will be listed, and you can go there and find out more about Karen and her books and some of her freebies.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So be sure to check the notes.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you again, Karen, for being with us today.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sandra, so much.