Context for Kids

Episode 67: You Are Needed—Learning about Community

If you guys are anything like me, I bet that sometimes you feel like the world would be no different without you. We all feel like that sometimes. But today I want to teach you guys about community and why we all need each other and how God created us so that we could be with Him and so that He could be with us. You aren’t a mistake or an accident, you are someone that the rest of us need. We’ll also talk about how the people we are friends with change us and how we change them, and the difference between people who are true friends and people who are just buddies.

(Parents, this is the fourth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls and still valuable. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)

Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/25/episode-67-you-are-needed-learning-about-community/

Episode 66: Your History Is Not Your Whole Story

The things that have happened to us and the things we have done, and the things our family and ancestors have done can be really hard to live with. We have all done terrible things that we wish we could undo, and especially when people know about them and make us miserable about it. It can seem like our life is over and so that’s why this week we are going to talk about our histories and why they aren’t the whole story about us and why we can be honest about it. We are going to look at Jesus’s family history and the things people did to embarrass Him! And the best thing of all? We’ll be talking about YOUR identity as part of God’s family.

(Parents, this is the third in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)

Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/18/episode-66-your-history-is-not-your-whole-story/

Episode 65: Your Body Matters!

You are a wonderful work of art! You are your body and your body is you—you can’t do anything without your body! And a lot of people will have a lot of opinions about you and your body but what’s the truth? Probably not what you think.

(Parents, this is the second in a series designed to help kids deal with gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)

Transcript at https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/11/episode-65-your-body-matters/

Episode 64: Becoming the You God Wants You to Be

(Parents, this is the first in a series designed to help kids deal with gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever. I will be following this up with a program this week on Character in Context where I talk to adults about how we have caused this problem, and especially within the Church.)

Being a kid is confusing and sometimes there is a whole lot of pressure to be feminine or masculine, and a lot of people have a lot of different ideas what that looks like. But what happens when we become the people that God wants us to be? What happens when we allow God to decide what each and every person should be and what what kinds of lives and jobs He wants them to have?

Episode 63: Dazed and Confused and Scattered

What would it be like to be working on a project and, all of a sudden, you can’t understand anyone else? And what’s the joke about Babylon in Hebrew? We’re going to talk about the Bible and its tendency to make Dad jokes in the original languages. And we’re also going to tackle the question of whether or not it is okay to settle down, or are we always supposed to be on the move?

Transcript at https://contextforkids.com/2022/06/27/episode-63-dazed-and-confused-and-scattered/

Episode 62: What Was the Big Deal about Babel?

Why was God so concerned about the Tower of Babel? So what if they can accomplish whatever they want to do? Why is God standing in their way? And why does God stand in our way sometimes when we want to get things done?

Episode 61: What Kind of Tower Did They Build in Babel?

What was the Tower of Babel and why was it built? Although everyone thinks that they know, we aren’t entirely sure because it doesn’t tell us—and you know when that happens we get a lot of “what if” stories and if you listened to the teaching on all the Nimrod myths, you know quite a few of them. This week we aren’t talking about legends but instead about archaeology—and the very cool thing about how the Bible says the Tower was built! As a bonus, we will talk about the Temple that God wanted built as well as the Temple that Jesus is building!

Transcript at www.contextforkids.com

Episode 60: One Language and the Miracle of Pentecost

Part two of the Tower of Babel Series! What did it mean that the people had one language and one vocabulary? Didn’t the last chapter tell us that there were like seventy languages? This week we are going to talk about the different possibilities and we are going to discuss what an “international language is”—plus, we are going to talk about the festival of Shavuot/Pentecost where all those confused languages went into reverse so that all people could hear the Greatest Story Ever Told!

Transcript at contextforkids.com

Episode 59: The Lord’s Prayer and the Importance of a Name

The people who built the Tower of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves, God gave a name to Abraham and Jacob, and God warns us about the importance of His own Name. But what does “Name” mean and how did Jesus talk about the Name of the Lord in the prayer He taught us?

Episode 58: Life in Mesopotamia

Before we get into Chapter 11, the Tower of Babel and the journey of Abraham, we need to talk about ancient Mesopotamia—what it was like, what people’s lives were like, and the things that Abraham would have grown up with. A lot of people think of that area of the world and assume it is all desert, but it was more like a garden paradise! How were their lives the same as ours? How were they different? What did they look like and how did they dress? What did they eat and how did they live? Knowing this is important to understanding the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Lot.