In this episode, I revisit a couple ideas Ginny Yurich and I talked about in episode two and dive deeper into each one. First, I spend some time exploring the idea of helping your child grow their faith by simply spending time outdoors. Next, I talk about giving our kids the gift of discomfort and why that’s an essential element for their physical, relational, emotional and spiritual growth. I know you’re going to find this episode full of really practical things you can put into practice in your family life. 

Here's some more of what I talked about: 

I share the idea that our kids can get to know their Creator by spending time in His creation because: we see and experience different parts of God’s character in the world He created. 

Spending time out in nature is an investment in our kid’s spiritual health. 

This concept was so important to me that I have made a point of spending a full day outside every single week. Read more about it my book Adventuring Together. 

Stop and marvel at God’s creation because when our kids see us respond to the wonder of creation, they our faith is not fake or forced. 

And don’t discount even the little bits of God’s handiwork: even the small things in creation point us to a big God. 

We can read books that show us more about God in His creation: like the book I’m reading with Davy right now A View From the Zoo. 

This blog post has a whole bunch more books about nature and all of them point us to God. Read it here. 

Remember, spending time in nature is a gentle and powerful way to introduce our kids to God. 

Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 

We need to embrace discomfort and consider it a gift. 

When we experience comfort all the time it makes us a less grateful person. 

Discomfort helps us become more grateful because it gives us the opportunity to be grateful. 

Discomfort also gives our kids the opportunity to grow their grit, resilience and perseverance. 

None of those things grow in the midst of a lot of comfort. 

When we walk through difficult situations alongside our kids we aren’t taking the growth opportunity away. But we are showing them we’ll be there for them. 

When we show up and help carry the little burdens, they know we’ll be there to carry the bigger burdens later on. 

Discomfort is also very connecting relationally. 

I wrote a blog post about this and you can read it here. 

Some key points to take away:  

Moments of discomfort are connection points that push us together 

We can ask ourself: how can I see God’s good plan at work when things are hard? 

We can also ask: how will this become a story of redemption? 

Often God changes our attitude even when he doesn’t change our circumstance 

And remember, even when things go wrong: it will make a great story later!| 

I share that one of the ways I am chasing joy right now is by listeing to audio books. 

We are huge fans of audio books in our family.  

Here is a great blog post I wrote about the value of audio books and a list of some of our favorite audio books. 

Don’t forget to like and subscribe to this podcast, and I’d be so very grateful if you leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta