Meredith Cook

Resources to Help You Teach Your Kids About Missions (Updated November 2025)

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Updated June 2026

Our greatest desire for our kids is that they would believe the gospel. We pray for their salvation every day, specifically that the Lord would save them at a young age.

Beyond that, we desire to teach our kids about gospel-centered obedience to the Great Commission. The Lord may or may not call them to be full-time missionaries, but we are convicted that all Christians should seek to obey the Great Commission.

Our kids are 4 and 3 (now 6 and 4 as of the latest update), and I have spent a lot of time reading and researching books to help teach them about the nations in general and missions in specific. Below is a list of books that I’ve read to my kids or look forward to reading to them as they grow older, sorted by age group.

Most of these books fit in one of two categories: missionary biographies or general world knowledge. Missionary biographies help us tell stories to our kids that illustrate to them how others have obeyed the Great Commission. Books about the world give kids a frame of reference for a world outside of the small one in which they currently live. Who knows? God may call us or our child to take the gospel to one of the countries we have learned about in these books!

Age 0 - 4

Big Planet, Small World: People on the Go

Disclaimer: I got this book for free at our local library, and I cannot find it anywhere but the Scholastic Teacher website. However, if you can find a copy, it’s a great little book for exposing babies and toddlers to other countries. There are two others like it—one about celebrations and one about cuisine.

Go Tell Everyone: 9 Missionaries Who Shared the Good News

This is my book, so I know it’s a bit self-serving to list it here. However, as I’ve written before, one of the main reasons I wrote this book is because when my kids were babies, I had a hard time finding board books on missions or missionaries. I can’t give you a neutral opinion on it, of course, so check it out and let me know what you think!

Good Night Our World series

My husband and I discovered this series while looking for a souvenir to bring from Virginia for our very young kids. This series is great for introducing kids to different places within the US, and there are a few international options, too.

Our World series

I recently discovered this series while looking for additional resources for the board book category. The series includes over 20 books, and gives a very brief introduction to the respective countries included. These are not the most informative, but do offer an introduction that would help create awareness of other countries in little ones.

Age 4 - 8

Do Great Things for God series

The Good Book Company has produced several books on female missionaries (and other influential Christian women) that I’ve been excited to read to my kids. There are two that focus on women I included in my own book: Betsey Stockton and Betty Greene. I appreciate that there are free downloads available for further discussion and study with older children. They are just beginning to come out with books for boys, though I have not seen any specifically on missionaries, yet.

Lottie Moon: The Girl Who Reached the World

My friend, Amy, wrote this book on the golden child of Southern Baptist missions. This book takes a closer look at Lottie Moon, describing how she shared the gospel in China and encouraged the American church to support missionaries—prayerfully and financially. Lottie paved the way for many others to become missionaries, so her story is worth telling to little girls and boys alike.

Heroes for Young Readers series

The Heroes for Young Readers series includes 23 books (not all of them are specifically about missionaries) that are uniquely written in a rhyming format. If your child gets bored with your standard narratives, then these might be a good starter series for learning about missionaries.

Lightkeepers/Trailblazers series

I’m linking the author’s Amazon page because she has written a lot of biographies that seem to be written for a slightly younger audience than the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series. We have not looked at these yet, but I have these on a purchase list for my daughter for Christmas.

God Everywhere 3-book series

The first two books in this series are available now and the third will be released later this year. While the first two books are not necessarily about missions, specifically, they do offer a global perspective on God and the nations in ways that can spur good conversations about God’s work in the world. I also like that there are a wide variety of countries depicted in these books.

God’s Great Big Global Church

I am a big fan of Tim Challies’s writing, so this was a no-brainer purchase. This book gives a glimpse of church in various countries, and I appreciated that it did not gloss over the challenges of attending church in countries closed to Christianity. I believe it is important for kids to know that not everyone has the freedom to attend church in public.

Age 8 and up

Christian Heroes: Then & Now series

I’m looking forward to reading this series with my kids in a few years. It include almost 50 books, many on missionaries from Christian history—Adoniram Judson, Gladys Aylward, David Livingstone, and many others. This series builds on many of the same figures we read about in the books listed above. Through chapter books, older kids gain a broader picture of some of the complexities and hardships that come with the missionary life, while still understanding the joys of obedience to the Great Commission.

Brave Heroes and Bold Defenders: 50 True Stories of Daring Men of God

From my research, there seem to be a lot of missionary biographies geared toward little girls in the younger ages. That’s not a criticism—I’m thankful for it and will read those to both my daughter and son. However, I am glad to see a book that tells stories that my son would be able to identify with more as he gets older. This book doesn’t focus solely on missionaries, but I like this because it tells stories of ordinary men—past and present—who have been faithful to God through all walks of life. (There is a book like this geared toward girls, too.)

Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource

Whether it actually is or not, Operation World is, in my mind, the OG resource for praying for the nations. So I was excited when I came across this one geared toward kids. Along with similar prayer resources and information found in the original book, it includes maps and photographs from around the world, much like the This is My World book, listed above. Though it could be a bit like drinking from a firehose, and younger kids may get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information, this would be a great resource for families with older kids who are seeking to pray for unreached people groups.

Miscellaneous

General Books About the World

An earlier version of this post had books like these scattered throughout age groups, but as I’ve discovered more, I thought it would be good to separate them out into its own section. First, because once you leave the board book category, these particular books can span across a wide age-range. Second, this allowed me to keep books specifically about missions together in their age-appropriate groupings. While the books below are not specifically about missions, I believe it’s helpful to teach children about the world in general, to expand their knowledge of other peoples and cultures, and use that as a launching point to talk about gospel ministry around the world.

This is My World: Meet 84 Kids from Around the Globe

This book, from Lonely Planet Kids, surveys kids from 84 different countries. I checked this book out from the library on a whim, and my daughter really enjoyed looking through it. We were able to see pictures and learn about how kids in other countries eat, play, dress, and other fun facts about their diverse backgrounds. Though it’s not about missions specifically, it’s a great book to expand kids’ knowledge about other countries and cultures.

Children’s Illustrated Atlas

Again, creating awareness of the world outside of the small one in which our kids live is always helpful in sparking conversations about missions. I would likely show this book to my kids earlier than age 8, but an atlas is a great way to help kids learn geography. An atlas like this one can help us focus on and learn details about specific countries.

Books About Specific Countries

We discovered our library has a wealth of books in this category and on countries you might not expect, too. If you go on mission trips regularly (or just occasionally), you may look for one of these books that talks about the country you’re visiting to help you kids have a better understanding of where you’re going.

World Passport series
Let’s Explore Countries series
Exploring Countries series
Countries We Come From series: For these last three, there is not a link to the entire series on Amazon. You can search the series name to find more options.
Enchantment of the World series
All Around the World series

Activity Books

Pray the World Coloring & Activity Book

Prayer Cards

My husband directs the Center for Great Commission Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The CGCS keeps a repository of prayer cards for our students and alumni who serve on the field. If you do not know any missionaries personally, you can access these cards to pray for missionaries with your kids. Find them here. ___

I’ll update this as I come across new books. I’m always looking for recommendations, too. Feel free to send them to me via this contact form and I may add them to the list.

_{Photo by Taylor Heery on Unsplash}

Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Note: I received an advance digital copy of this book for review from Tyndale House Publishers and NavPress via NetGalley.

Book Review: Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling by Vicki Courtney

NavPress, 2025

Summary

It’s not uncommon, even in the church, for women to hear that motherhood is their highest calling. Yet for many, that “calling” seems to fall short. Confusing and contradicting standards of what makes a good mother are everywhere–social media, churches, parent groups, friends, and sometimes, directly from ourselves. Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling encourages readers to reconsider the notion that a woman’s identity is found in motherhood. Through personal experience, Biblical truth, and practical encouragement, Vicki Courtney encourages mothers to let go of the unrealistic expectations and embrace a “good enough” mentality that is rooted in who Christ says she is, not in how well she meets the world’s standards for motherhood.

Who Should Read This Book

I recommend this book first to expecting or new mothers, who are just on the cusp of this crazy, joy-filled, anxiety-inducing, rollercoaster ride called motherhood. However, any mom would benefit from reading this book. It’s never too late to be encouraged.

Short Review/Opinion

Pros:

This book is highly practical, which I appreciate out of a Christian book. This is not to knock highly theoretical/theological books, I’m often left wondering “so what?” when reading books about Christian living. Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling gives highly practical advice for mothers who are seeking to let go of unrealistic expectations for themselves.
The practical nature of this book does not push out Biblical truth. Courtney effectively weaves in Scripture to support her argument that a mother’s identity is rooted in Christ.
Vicki Courtney does not leave many, if any, stones unturned in her exploration of the ways mothers may struggle with their identity. She gives a comprehensive overview of her subject, addressing a wide variety of struggles for mothers, including social media, self-care, the comparison game, messaging from the church, and all the questions mothers tend to wrestle–all of them rooted in the fear that we are not good enough.
Courtney writes with the wisdom of an experienced mother and grandmother. As an author, she comes across as extremely empathetic and accessible to her reader, creating trust in what she says.

Cons:

My biggest disappointment with this book is that I felt the content did not meet my expectations that developed based on the title. While no author, editor, or publisher can meet every expectations of every reader, the title, Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling, lead me to ask the question, “If motherhood is not my highest calling, then what is my highest calling?” I expected to read more about what a mother’s true highest calling is, when in actuality, the book was more an elaboration of it’s subtitle, “The grace of being a good enough mom.”
What results is a practical book, and one that’s worth reading, but one that only skims the surface of what it means to be both a Christ follower and a mother. Ultimately, I think moms need less “you are good enough” messaging and more “Christ is enough” messaging.

Overall Impression

I often wonder if there has ever been a time that is more confusing for women when it comes to being a mother. For many–single women and those who struggle with fertility in particular–the idea that motherhood is their highest calling can lead to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, and some may even wonder if they are outside of God’s will simply because they do not have children. Even for those who do have children, to place motherhood on a pedestal (as we are inclined to do) does a disservice to mothers. We all need to be discipled toward resting our identity in Christ.

Vicky Courtney’s book is a step in the right direction. While I felt that the book is more of an elaboration of its subtitle than the main title, Courtney writes with wisdom, empathy, and encouragement to moms who may feel discouraged and weighed down by highly unrealistic and unattainable expectations on mothers today. Motherhood is Not Your Highest Calling is a practical resource that teaches mom-readers to set aside these expectations in favor of resting their identity in Christ.

_{Photo by Liana Mikah on Unsplash}

Best Books for Birthday Girls (Kindergarten to Second Grade)

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our daughter’s 6th birthday is coming up and we’re always looking for new books to give her. We’re happy to buy books for our kids anytime of the year, but birthdays are a good excuse to give a little extra. She loves, and has always loved, books, particularly since she learned how to read. If you’re looking for some book ideas for little girls age 4 to 7, or around Kindergarten to 2nd grade, here are some suggestions.

(Since there are not a ton of Christian books in this list, I want to note that these are books that I’m comfortable with my child reading. However, I do recommend vetting for yourself since every parent has different preferences, quirks, and boundaries for the type of media they allow their child to consume.)

Bibles

One of the first gifts I knew I would buy my daughter when she went to Kindergarten was a Bible. At our church, children typically begin staying for the entire worship service at this point. So I wanted her to have a Bible she could start learning to use during corporate worship. It’s also no secret that we read a Bible storybook with our children every night, and those make good gifts, too.

The Biggest Story Bible Storybook is a great option for kids this age. You can read my review here.

Last year, we bought our daughter a personalized, leather-cover version of the Easy for Me Bible. I think it’s a really good starter Bible. It’s pretty simple, with some inserts and front matter, but nothing too overwhelming for a young kid learning to read. She uses this in corporate worship during Scripture reading and doesn’t have too much trouble finding the references.

We also own the CSB Explorer Bible. Our daughter loves to look through it because it is bright, fun, and includes lots of extra information that she finds interesting.

Beloved Series

I loved the classic Amelia Bedelia when I was younger, but I have found that the new, younger version of Amelia Bedelia is more accessible to my daughter at this age. She’s not quite old enough to understand the humor of the classic version. I like that the newer version of Amelia Bedelia comes in both early readers as well as chapter books.

Fancy Nancy is right up my daughter’s alley (though she’s not near as dramatic as the titular character). She loves anything with a sparkle or a tutu, and even dressed up as Fancy Nancy for book character day in preschool. Like Amelia Bedelia, I like that these books come in both picture book and chapter book versions.

The Berenstain Bears have been a consistent favorite in our house (they were some of my favorite as a kid, too). While these might not be the most fun birthday-party books, both of my kids have enjoyed these for years and my daughter still reaches for them regularly.

Chapter Books

Along with the chapter book options noted above, there are several great series for more advanced readers in this age group. The Magic Treehouse series is my daughter’s current favorite. She’s read the first two books repeatedly, to the point where we are encouraging her to try something different!

I’ve only read one so far, but the A to Z Mysteries series are fun, shorter chapter books revolving around three friends who solve mysteries together. To be determined, but some might be on the scarier side for more sensitive kids, so while I do think these are a fun choice, you might want to vet them first to make sure they’re good for your child. (I was able to check one out from the library in the Libby app.)

The Boxcar Children are another classic favorite (and another mystery series). It was fun watching my daughter read the first one, because these were one of my all-time favorite book series.

Other Picture Books

The Do Great Things for God series are some of my daughter’s favorite books, which makes me happy since I want to teach her all I can about missions and missionaries.

We are also big fans of Madeline around here. We have read this one book more times than I can count, and it’s always a winner if you need a good book to give as a gift.

Finally, the Disney princess storybooks have also been a consistent hit. Each story is about 5 minutes long, and our daughter loves picking out a couple of them to read in the evenings.

_{Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash}

July Favorites

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

July saw my husband and my 9th anniversary, the beginning of school for our oldest, continued work on repairing our house, and lots of prayers for family health (so far, good news, praise the Lord). I also began The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and began questioning all of my parenting decisions.

Reads

Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze. I began this book in June and finished it early this month. It’s exactly what you would expect from Nate Bargatze, if you’ve ever heard his comedy. Hysterical, laughed out loud in some parts.

Articles

Due to beginning The Anxious Generation, I did not get a lot of articles read this month. But here are two for your consideration:

The Gift of Middle Age: Enjoy Your Lot.

Trevin Wax
TGC

A reflection on middle age, that resonates with me as I quickly approach my forties.

Coldplaygate is a reminder that there’s no escaping going viral

Kyle Chayka
The New Yorker

An interesting reflection on going viral and how social media has turned life into what this writer calls an “interactive reality show.”

Things I’m Loving

My husband and I celebrated our anniversary by going out to dinner the night before he had a quick trip out of town. He rented a car for that trip, and the rental place let him drive home a sports car for the evening. So we took our date in style!
Earlier this month, my husband and I got to participate in a retreat our church sponsored for all the members of our church who will be sent as international missionaries in the next year. It was a sweet time and such a privilege to be part of sending and supporting these friends. I am so thankful we get to be part of this.
Our son has recently discovered a love of baseball. We took the kids to a couple of games this month and he has had a blast.

_{Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash}

5 Reasons to Delete Social Media (Like, Permanently)

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After my son was born, I decided it was time to remove myself from social media, namely Facebook and Instagram. A couple of years into motherhood and some serious soul searching finally convinced me that nothing good was coming from my continued engagement with the two platforms. I maintained a Twitter account for several years after, but finally decided that it was not worth having either and logged off over a year ago. ¹

Having been off social media for a while now, I’m even more convinced that deleting all social media is worth it–at least for those who have a problem with it.² I’ve had several friends do the same, who say the same. If you’re not convinced, here are 5 reasons why you should consider deleting social media (and stop making up excuses for why you can’t!).

1. For Your Time

Let’s start with one of the most common reasons for deleting social media. At this point, it is common knowledge that social media companies deliberately design their products to be addicting to users with features like infinite scroll, the dopamine inducing “like” button, and personalized feeds.

I remember that habitual tap on my social media apps, particularly when I had nursing babies. I remember thinking I would have a lot of time to read e-books, since I’d be stuck under a baby for a stretch of time, several times a day. Instead, I scrolled social media for hours a day, often as if I had no control over the impulse to do so. Now, there is research to illustrate why.

While there may be ways to gain your time back without completely deleting social media, simply deleting the apps off your phone, setting a time limit, or even creating parental controls for yourself may not be enough. Just as abstinence is the only surefire way to prevent pregnancy, completely deleting your social media accounts is the only sure way to stop wasting time on them.³

2. For Your Health

To caveat this right off the bat, there are far more causes of mental health struggles than social media. However, if you struggle with non-clinical anxiety, fear, or anger, there’s a good chance that getting completely off social media will help relieve some of that, at least a little. On social media, we are inundated with endless bad news–both from actual news outlets and that random shared post from a stranger with the day’s horror story. Not only that, but we receive those stories through the contagious emotional lens of the person (or people) sharing and commenting on it.

To this point, Jonathan Haidt, in his book, The Anxious Generation, writes:

If world events played a role in the current mental health crisis, it’s not because world events suddenly got worse around 2012; it’s because world events were suddenly being pumped into adolescents’ brains through their phones, not as news stories, but as social media posts in which other young people expressed their emotions about a collapsing world, emotions that are contagious on social media.

If you are a believer who struggles with non-clinical anxiety and/or other emotional health issues, I would ask you to seriously consider the toll that social media may have on your mind and emotions. Then, consider whether social media helps you honor God with those thoughts and feelings.

We are exhorted in Scripture to fill our minds with things that are above (Colossians 3:2). Much of what we find on social media is not that which is from above. Even if you follow other Christians on social media, these platforms are not meant to be our primary source of spiritual wisdom and encouragement. While they may provide some of that, I’m not convinced that the benefit outweighs the consequences.

3. For Your (Actual) Community

Related, deleting social media helps us to be more present with our embodied community, while keeping up with the handful of important long distance relationships (such as with family members). Any Google search will reveal much discussion regarding the value of social media for maintaining relationships (for example, the varying views surrounding Dunbar’s number, “a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”).

However, simple logic and self-awareness prove to us that we cannot reasonably maintain relationships with every person we’ve ever met and connected with on social media. If we are brutally honest with ourselves, there’s a good chance that while we say we’re on social media to maintain connections, we’re likely there to passively keep tabs on people without actually maintaining an active role in their lives. I can tell you right now, that’s what I did. I snooped on people without even so much as a “like” on most of their posts. Perhaps our claims of care and connection are more a fight against FOMO than maintaining genuine relationships. Not only that, but Facebook and Instagram algorithms have made it increasingly hard to filter past their own “suggestions” and see the people we actually follow.

Even if we genuinely want to care for the people on our social media feeds–maybe a former roommate or elementary school friend–we simply do not have the capacity to both care for them well and care for our immediate community well. We are limited by distance, time, and even mind share as we seek to remember their needs plus all the other needs of those in our vicinity. It’s not that we don’t love them, it’s simple human limits. Deleting social media frees us to care for our families, immediate community, and those at a distance with whom we actually stay in touch, because we have their phone numbers and call, text, and visit them regularly.

4. For Your Family

I am convinced that the best thing a new mom (particularly a first-time mom) can do when her baby is born—or even when she finds out she’s pregnant—is to completely delete her social media accounts. Hot take? Yes, it likely is. I readily admit that my own experiences color my views on this issue and realize that not every mom is like me.

However, the comparison game is real and it’s highly exacerbated by social media. I could give countless examples of my own struggles with social media comparison, but the bottom line is this: the impulse to peacock, stage, and share perfect photos (or even imperfect photos), does not lead us to honor our families. Intentionally or not, it instead tempts us to use our families (particularly our children), for our own image and gain. And when we, or our families, don’t measure up to what we see on social media, it negatively impacts our relationships with them.

5. For Your Finances

Finally, social media is terrible for our finances. As Americans, we are already tempted toward consumerism. This was a thing long before social media. However, ad-driven social media combined with the influencer/content-creator culture has led us even further down that road. These influences combine to get us to spend money we don’t need to spend on products and services we simply don’t need.

For example, I remember being highly tempted to spend money on sleep training classes for my babies. Sheer frugality and the restraining influence of my husband kept me from spending hundreds of dollars trying to get those babies to sleep how I wanted them to–when, in reality, they were good sleepers from the beginning. (I did have friends who spent the money and (surprise) their babies still slept like babies and they felt they had wasted their money.)

Unfortunately, I have fallen for other social media and influencer driven products and clothing. It’s another reason why deleting social media has been beneficial (and also why I blocked influencer websites from my phone!). We simply must be wiser about how we use our money when we are inundated with pushes to buy things.

But…

Whenever I talk to people in person about the benefits of getting off social media, there is usually a “but…”. I get it. It was harder than it should be to delete my accounts. I was afraid to miss out, afraid to lose attention (how embarrassing to admit that!), afraid to miss opportunities that might be afforded by a social media presence.

However, I can tell you that the benefits really have outweighed the feared consequences (which, by the way, have turned out to be unfounded). I haven’t necessarily lost any relationships, but many friendships have moved into the natural progression that long-distance creates. We have lost touch, but that’s ok. That’s normal. I haven’t lost opportunities, because the opportunities weren’t coming from social media anyway. And as for the attention thing? Well, it’s good for us to let go of that–this life isn’t about us, anyway.

So, if social media is a problem for you, before you list a rebuttal to this post, try seriously considering giving up social media. Most platforms will let you deactivate before you completely delete your account. Give it a trial run, download your data, and if you find that it works for you, then go ahead and delete it permanently.

_{Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash}

I technically still have a Twitter (X) account, but can’t remember the last time I logged in. I also have a LinkedIn account, but does that really count as social media? It’s a weird animal. I maintain both of these accounts with the intent of using them to promote a newsletter at some point in the likely distant future. ↩
There are some reasons why deleting social media is not possible. My husband maintains some of his social media accounts for work purposes, for example. Additionally, many of my friends have social media and aren’t tempted to scroll for hours a day. If that’s you, then maybe this article isn’t for you! However, I still encourage you to consider whether you legitmately need it for work and/or whether you legitimately do not have a problem with it. ↩
Of course, you can, and likely will, find other ways to waste your time. However, these likely won’t be as addicting as social media. ↩

5 Prayers for Back to School

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tomorrow begins another school year for our oldest, who is starting first grade. While I maintain my love for the year-round school model, I have to admit that the summer felt a bit too short. Though it may move too fast for my liking, I am thankful for time, because it has a way of revealing that the things you were once a bit freaked out about are not so daunting after all.

Last year, kindergarten weighed heavily on me as I faced the reality of having a school-age child and all the uncertainties of sending our children outside of our home to be educated. Though many of those uncertainties are now assuaged by simply having experienced the first year of school, there’s still a bit of discomfort sitting in the back of my brain as I prepare to send my child off to another school year.

When it comes to worrying for my children, there is really no limit to what I worry about. However, I know that when Scripture tells us to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6), then that means that by God’s strength, it is within my capacity to not worry. That does not negate the need for prayer for my child, though, as she begins a new school year. Conversely, it is by these prayers that my fears are relieved. These are five prayers I am praying for back-to-school (for my child, and for her parents).

You love her more than I do and you love her perfectly.

The last year taught me that most of my fears about starting school were unfounded (shocker). This year, we face the school year a bit more confidently. Many of the unknowns about her school are now familiar. We know the teachers. We know who her friends are. We know some of their parents. Yet, we also recognize that any of that could change, anytime.

If I have struggled with anything in parenting, I’ve struggled with the ~~belief~~ lie that my children are safest with me. Having experienced one year of school, and seeing that it turned out fine, does not silence that lie. I have to remind myself repeatedly that though I cannot be with them at all times, God is. He is sovereign over my kids’ lives just as He is sovereign over everything else. And He is good. I can trust Him with my children.

Our confidence and rest don’t come from knowledge about her circumstances, her school, her grades, her friends, their families, or any host of objects in which we try to place our hope. Our confidence and rest come from trusting the God who loves us, and our children, perfectly. He knows exactly what is going on at all times. He is in control and He is working all things out for His glory and our good.

Help her to filter all things through the lens of what is true.

By God’s grace, last year our daughter was accepted to a charter school whose values parallel ours to some degree. She’s not getting a Christian education there by any means, but so far we have not had any major concerns about what she’s being taught at school.

That said, we also know that she’s at a public school and many of her teachers are not believers. Many of her friends do not come from believing families. The biblical teaching we uphold in our home will be challenged by her peers and likely also by some of her teachers. Though she’s not faced it yet, and may not even face it this year, the likelihood of these challenges becomes more real the older she gets. So we must be praying now for the hope of the gospel to become more sure in her as she grows.

I pray every day for my kids’ salvation, and as my daughter ventures back out into the school world, I also pray that the foundation of truth we have laid since she was born will be strong. I pray she will only become more convinced of the truth as she grows older. I pray that my husband and I can help her navigate the questions she will inevitably have as she faces these challenges.

Help her to have confidence in the right things.

Like the previous prayer, this is more of an anticipatory prayer than one related to our current experience. As our children begin to show signs of increasingly complicated emotions, we pray that ultimately their confidence rests in who they are as image bearers. That’s a big ask for a child, and likely an even bigger ask as they grow into teenagers. Yet, while we recognize the reality and remember the challenges of our growing up years, we know that God is sufficient for our kids in all circumstances.

We have no way of predicting whether our kids will struggle with friendships, peer pressure, body image, performing in academics or sports. However, just as we pray that biblical truth becomes the lens through which they interpret what they’re being taught at school, we also pray that truth develops into a quiet confidence that is not shaken by the challenges of simply growing up. So we pray for God to give them strength to withstand the temptation to seek validation and identity in something other than the gospel.

Give us wisdom to help her navigate growing up.

Related to the previous two, this one is on our behalf. We are quickly learning in this season that while the physical requirements of parenting tiny children subside as they enter the 4s and 5s, the emotional requirements are growing exponentially. Of course, they still need our physical presence and help with a lot of things, but we are confronting an increasing amount of emotional needs and struggles that are new to us as their parents.

I’m so afraid we’re going to get this part wrong. So, I’m praying even now that God will help me trust in His sovereignty and sufficiency for my husband and me. We do not raise these kids alone. We have the Holy Spirit who gives us wisdom for each moment, we have our own parents who modeled being good parents for us, we have a church community to support and encourage us, including parents whose children are older than ours and can speak wisdom into this season.

Help us to be good stewards of this time.

I’ve learned, though, that life frequently feels too short–what I have not quite learned, yet, is how to steward the days well. I get too caught up in the minutiae of daily life and before I know it, the summer is gone. I’m tired of getting to the end of a season, even a short one like summer break, and feeling like I didn’t take advantage of the time. I pray the Lord will, as Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

In this season, that primarily means not squandering the times both of my kids are home and enjoying the time with them. Soon, the other will go to kindergarten and they will both be out of the house more often than not. While some priorities (like my job), are still pressing and necessary to steward, others (like cleaning the house) are less so. I am praying the Lord can help me sort those out in a better way.

Not only that, but I’m also praying the Lord helps us to use this season for His glory. That means praying for gospel opportunities in and around my child’s school. Connecting with other parents has been difficult, but it can’t be impossible! I’m praying the Lord will give us wisdom to see how we can be more present with the families of my daughter’s friends and give us opportunities to bear witness to the hope we have in Jesus.

June Favorites

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

June was an absolute whirlwind with travel for my husband and I, a mission trip for my husband, a visit from my mom (who kept us all sane while my husband was gone), camp for one child, swim lessons for the other, and trying to maintain some semblance of routine with the kids while enjoying the last couple of weeks before the firstborn heads back to school. I love the year-round school schedule but I think I may need another year to get used to the shortness of summer break!

Here are this month’s reads and other random tidbits:

Reads

I am finishing up a couple of books that I started in June, one of which is a pre-release I got access to through NetGalley. Looking forward to sharing those with you in July.

Articles

The Ford Executive Who Kept Score of Collegues’ Verbal Flubs

Mike Colias
MSN

I laughed out loud at one point while reading this. I love a good-natured joke or prank on someone (as long as they can take it), and feel I would do this with typos.

Pentagon Pizza Index: The theory that surging pizza orders signal global crises

Eve Upton-Clark
Fast Company

Scientific? Probably not so much. Entertaining and oddly coincidental? A little bit, yes.

The Dumbest Phone is Parenting Genius

Rheana Murray
The Atlantic

The timing of this article was serendipitous, because we literally got a home phone just a week prior. It’s not a literal landline–it runs through our internet–but it’s a phone our kids have access to that’s not our cell phones, particularly if they need to call someone in an emergency. However, this article touts other benefits of a home phone as kids get older. And I am here for it.

The House is Empty of All but Memories

Andy Stearns
Thoughts Worth Thinking

A beautiful look at the places that hold our earthly memories, while pointing us to our eternal home.

When Ball Becomes Baal

Jim Elliff
Christian Communicators Worldwide

My kids have recently entered extracurricular age, and the pull to sign them up for all the things is real. So I’m grateful for any article, advice, and encouragement to swim against the current on this particular topic.

Review: The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, by Karla Kuskin

Jane Psmith
Mr. and Mrs. Psmith’s Bookshelf

While I don’t necessarily agree with the CTA at the end of this book review, it is my goal to write a review of a children’s book as compelling as this one.

One Step Closer

Till We Are Home

The author reflects on the loss of his daughter with the weight and hope that only comes from someone who both grieves deeply and trusts God implicitly.

My School Banned Phones for the Year. Here’s What Happened

Gilbert Scheurch
Fit to Teach

This article was reposted in Jonathan Haidt’s substack, and while anecdotal, I imagine if more schools implemented the same kind of phone policies, the results would look similar. Some colorful language in this one, but worth the read.

Listen

Movie Scores

I am not really a music person. I used to like music more, but apparently I have reached the age of “turn that racket down.” Actually, I think part of this is that 90% of my car rides consist of DannyGo songs or PawPatrol episodes (yes, you can listen to some on YouTube and my kids treat it almost like an old-timey radio program), so I enjoy the quiet when I have it. The other part is that I can never think of what I want to listen to if I get a moment to choose myself. All this to say, I have found that I really love putting on movie scores when I’m working. I like instrumental music for working because it’s not distracting from the actual work, and movie scores are just really fun to listen to. Any playlist will do, as long as it contains music from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Things I’m Loving

Every year, we attend the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. While it probably sounds like the least exciting thing to most of you, it’s always so fun to see so many old friends each year. My husband and I have both worked in various circles of the SBC for most of our adult life, so we have lots of reunions to attend to each year. (I also didn’t mind having two whole days in a hotel room by myself while my husband had meetings before the meetings.)
Speaking of reunions, we were able to get brunch with one of our friends from Houston, who just happens to have family in our area. Not many around here quite get our love of Houston (which is fair, it’s a terrible place to simply visit), so it’s always nice to be with people who share our love for the city.
Speaking of Houston, we came across a Shipley’s donuts in Charlotte, NC on our way to visit my family in SC. Praise the Lord for finding a kolache in the Carolinas (yes, the Buccees in SC does have them but they only carry them at breakfast, which is super lame because we are never passing through there at breakfast time).
I mentioned above that we recently set up a home phone, and my kids love calling their grandparents on it. They also called us while we were out of town just to say “I love you.” So I think it was a worthwhile purchase.
As my children have gotten bigger, I’ve loved watching them get to participate in things like camp, dance, soccer, etc. While we don’t want to overload them with activities, it’s so fun watching them learn to do new things and have fun.

_{Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash}

Helpful Resources for Family Worship and Discipleship

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Both my husband and I have written about instituting a family worship time in our home, and throughout this site are scattered recommendations for books that have helped us with this. I thought it might be helpful to compile them all in one spot. Below you will find a list of books and other resources that you might find helpful if you’re interested in beginning family worship time with your own children. (You can click on any image to find the Amazon listing for each book.)

One note/disclaimer- we have not read or used all of the resources in this list since nailing down our family’s specific rhythm. However, I wanted to point towards a variety of books from trusted publishers and authors, in case you’re just getting started and want to do something a bit different than how we’ve done it.

Books on Family Rhythms

If you’re not quite convinced of the benefit to family worship, you’re not sure where to start, or you simply need some encouragement to keep going, I recommend any of these books with one disclaimer. I have not yet finished Building Spiritual Habits in the Home so I can’t recommend it based on content, yet. However, it is written by the creators of Advent Blocks, which we use every Christmas, so I feel comfortable pointing it to you as a potential good option.

Bible Storybooks

If you have young children, a Bible storybook is a good place to start with family devotions. We simply call it “the story” when letting our kids know it’s time to transition to family worship time. We have used two storybooks with our children, and I compared both of them in other articles– The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Biggest Story Bible Storybook.

If you have very young children (think 0-2 years) you might consider checking out God’s Big Promises Bible Storybook. I did not find this one until recently, but most of the stories in this one are quite a bit shorter than in the other two storybooks and the language is simpler. Like the other two, there are a wide variety of stories included in this book but it may be better for little ones with shorter attention spans.

Memorization

We have not done much catechesis with our children, but there are two options listed above if you’re interested in starting that kind of practice with your kids. Our children do memorize Bible verses through the Truth Trackers program at our church, but I recently came across the Easy for Me Bible Verses book that looks like a great option for families who desire to help their kids begin memorizing Scripture but may not have a dedicated program at their church.

Bibles

Once our children get a little older, we will transition to reading the actual Bible with them. We own all three of the Bibles shown above. Our five-year-old uses the Easy for Me Bible in church and, with my help finding the passage, she follows along with Scripture reading during the service. I like that this one is simpler, while still containing “extras” that she finds interesting. She really enjoys looking at the Explorer Bible at home–it’s well-designed for children with bright colors and lots of additional information to help them understand what’s going on in the passages.

When she “graduated” out of the preschool ministry, our church’s children’s ministry gave her the CSB Explorer Bible. This Bible is chock-full of great information like background, dates, highlighted memory verses, and more. There are inserts with QR codes that parents can scan, linking to videos about certain passages and discussion questions families can use during devotional time at home. We don’t use this with our kids regularly right now, but I think it will be a great tool to use as they get older.

The Read to Me Bible is probably the simplest of the three. The “extras” are fewer, and geared more towards younger, preschool-aged children.

Devotionals

We have not used a devotional in our particular rhythm, but if you’re interested in beginning family worship time with a devotional, I recommend looking at any of these. We own a copy of Unfolding Grace but it’s written with children ages 8 and up in mind, so we’re not quite there yet. The other two devotionals are better suited for younger children.

Other

I mentioned this above, but we have been using Advent Blocks from GoodKind for years. In fact, Advent Blocks is how we began our family worship time in the first place. They created several other products, which we have not purchased, but it’s worth a look if you’re interested in a more specified approach. (Also, I feel like this reads like an influencer-esque paid promotion, but it is not! We just really enjoy Advent Blocks.)

_{Photo by Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash}

Encouragement and Hope from Hebrews 10

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

2020 was a hard year. A pandemic wrecked the world, and many lost their lives. My family and I were living in Houston,TX at the time and while we were blessed to remain largely unaffected by Covid itself, 2020 accelerated a season of spiritual dryness that had been creeping up on me for several years prior, largely of my own making. New motherhood, combined with the uncertainty of the pandemic, combined with the (thankfully temporary) loss of in-person community had me feeling far away from God during that time. Spiritually, I was a desert.

If anything, the pandemic revealed two things: first, that I had neglected to keep my eyes fixed on God and forgot the sufficiency of Christ in all circumstances. Second, that gathering with my local church community was vital to my spiritual health.

We all encounter circumstances that tempt us to withdraw from the Lord. Hebrews is a book that encourages us to have confidence in Christ’s sufficiency so that we may persevere in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves. Specifically, Hebrews 10:19-24 shows us that Jesus’s sufficient work in his life, death, and resurrection grants Christians confident access to the Father and exhorts us to respond with individual and corporate actions.

Jesus’s work provides bold access to the Father.

Through his sinless life, death on the cross, and his resurrection, Jesus accomplished everything for believers to be reconciled to God. In this particular passage, the writer of Hebrews reminds us of two things: through Jesus, we are granted access beyond the curtain of the sanctuary and we are given a great High Priest in Christ.

Christ’s shed blood on the cross and his subsequent resurrection granted believers entry into a place that before, only the high priest could enter (and only once a year) to make atonement for the people’s sins. Any deviation from this practice resulted in death. Now, though, all believers have direct access to God, who they can approach boldly because of Jesus. We are able to enter the sanctuary simply through our position as Christ’s redeemed ones. This should give us confidence to withstand any trial.

But, not only does Jesus’s work grant us entry into the sanctuary, it also gives us a great high priest in him. Unlike earthly priests, who had to make sacrifices for their own sins before they could make sacrifices for the people’s sins, Jesus is a perfect and permanent high priest. His perfect shed blood was a sufficient sacrifice that once and for all time paid for the sins of man. He now sits at God’s right hand and continuously prays to God the Father on behalf of believers.

1 John 2:1 calls Jesus our “advocate” with the Father. He prays for the continuing forgiveness of our sins based on his own sacrifice and righteousness. While we may not know everything that Christ says in His prayers for us, I imagine it is a lot like His prayer recorded in John 17. With Jesus continuously interceding for us, we can have confidence that He will sustain us in all circumstances.

This leads us to respond appropriately.

Jesus’s work compels Christians to respond with individual and corporate actions.

Jesus’s work grants us entry into the sanctuary and gives us a sufficient high priest, so it only makes sense for us to draw near to God with assurance, hold fast to our hope, and gather with other believers for mutual encouragement. Here are three logical responses to what has just been said about us in this passage.

Draw near to God with assurance.

Though our hearts and bodies were filthy and could not be in God’s presence, Jesus’s shed blood cleansed us. Now, we can daily draw near to God with full confidence that he will accept us on the basis of Jesus’s righteousness.

Think on the book of Esther and consider the contrast between Esther’s position and ours. Esther, though she was queen, found herself needing to approach the king. But in her day, anyone who approached the king without being summoned risked their very lives. Esther, even though she was queen, approached her earthly king with no assurance that she would live to see the next day because of it.

How much more should we tremble about approaching God Himself? It is only through Jesus’s finished work on the cross that we may daily enter into God’s presence. We can draw near to Him with no fear that he will reject us. God is not a transcendent, distant being. He is personal, he cares for us, and his loves for us is unconditional.

We may not often consider the gravity of it, but every morning when we get up and spend time in God’s word and prayer, we are entering into the very presence of God. There is a sacredness to our daily time with God, and in doing so, our faith is made sure and we can face each day with full assurance of our faith.

Hold fast to our hope.

We confess that Jesus saves sinners. Since God is faithful to save us, we are able to persevere—not by our own strength but by His—in this life through our hope in a future that is sure.

This is actually the fourth time the writer of Hebrews tells readers to hold fast and each time, it’s said in light of what Jesus has done. Al Mohler, in his commentary on Hebrews, says “the Christian holds on not by his own tenacity but by God’s faithfulness.”

If holding on were dependent on us, we would all surely fall away. Seven or eight years ago, I would’ve told you that I had never struggled with doubt in the Lord. Sure, I had seasons of uncertainty in my circumstances, seasons of dryness. But, I had always trusted what I knew to be true about God.

However, in 2020, I struggled with doubt like I had never done before. I was plagued by fear, anxiety, guilt, and shame. My own ability to hold on to my confession had shriveled. Looking back, I see now that I was not in danger of falling away from my faith, because it was never dependent on my own faithfulness.

The God who created the world, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, who remained steadfast with them in the wilderness, brought them into the promised land, stayed with them through the exile, and sent Jesus to save sinners is the same God in whom we confess our salvation and by whom we hold fast to that confession.

Encourage mutual support among believers.

Finally, we do not confess just as individuals, but with others. Our shared confession with other believers—and specifically those with whom we go to church—should compel us to consider one another, to not neglect gathering together, and to encourage each other to persevere as we anticipate Christ’s return.

In a book called Faithful to the End: An Introduction to Hebrews through Revelation, the authors write about Hebrews: “The epistle mirrors a struggle…it is the struggle to endure, to be faithful, to persevere with joy. And it is a struggle that unites, rather than separates, the people of God in the old and the new [covenants].”

While this is anecdotal, I think one of the first signs a Christian is struggling is withdrawal from Christian community. This could be because they don’t feel safe sharing their struggles, but it could also be because they don’t want the accountability that can come with Christian community.

If the pandemic showed us anything, though, it should have shown us that we need each other. Christians aren’t meant to live in isolation, and those who do often wither without the support. While the Holy Spirit is sufficient to sustain the faith of those who may live in isolation because of persecution or a pandemic or other circumstance outside of our control, our faith was never meant to be “just me and Jesus.”

We need to gather regularly with other believers to, as this passage says, provoke love and good works, to encourage each other to persevere through trials and endure until Christ returns.

Hebrews 10:19-24 shows us how we can, as Colossians 3 says, keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfector of our faith. In Christ, we have hope no matter our circumstances because we can draw near to God and encourage fellow believers to do the same.

_{Photo by Eliecer Gallegos on Unsplash}

When Life is a Chevy Chase Movie

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The last two weeks have been quite eventful in the Cook household. Septic tank issues and a busted pipe under our house had us making phone call after phone call to a septic company, a plumber, a water damage company, and our insurance agent. At the same time, we had to replace the AC in my car, rounding out a nice trifecta of maintenance issues. Add to that our resident snake ¹ disrupting our repair work and the fact that this all happened right before an out-of-town work trip for both my husband and I.

In short, our life over the last two weeks has been a Chevy Chase movie.

I would be lying if I said it had not been a bit stressful, but two weeks of one-thing-after-another has had me reflecting on just how much we have to be grateful for. It seems odd to even write about this, because all things considered, these are a mere inconvenience for us–and that in and of itself has held me back from grumbling about it (well, from grumbling more than I would have otherwise).

Cultivating Gratitude

I resonate with Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth when she writes, “In my own life I find that a default position, hidden beneath the surface, is an ever-present ‘entitlement’ attitude. This, more than any other single thing I can identify, is my biggest problem.” (Choosing Gratitude, 55²) Ingratitude, and specifically entitlement, leads down a road of spiritual destruction, stealing our joy and distancing us from God and others. It steals our joy and causes unbelief. When Scripture says to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18), the imperative nature of that verse signals to us that doing what it says is, in fact, possible.

If the last two weeks have revealed anything, it’s been to convict me of my natural tendency to grumble and to remind me of the Lord’s providential care even in the tiniest of details.

With this in mind, and knowing my tendency toward ingratitude, I wanted to write down a list of all the things I’m grateful for through the last couple of weeks of home headaches.

I am thankful for the reminder that these are not big problems, particularly when compared with the suffering so many are currently experiencing.
There’s the Lord’s sovereignty over seemingly unconsequential actions that led us to discover the burst pipe in the first place. We have well water (so, no water bill to monitor water usage), and it could have been weeks before we realized it was happening.
For two sets of parents who were very flexible. They all came to visit for my daughter’s kindergarten graduation and had to stay in other accommodations since our home was not exacly livable for a day or so.
For guest housing at our seminary. We stayed there a night while our water was shut off.
For kids who are not thrown by all the insanity. Honestly, they had a blast getting an unexpected sleepover in a hotel-like room.
For responsive companies and insurance who have helped us get started on the process of repairs.
For in-laws who are happily taking care of our children and for a father-in-law who has no problem handling maintenance issues while we’re gone.
For my parents, who were ready to be on-call in case any of our plans changed.
For a husband who is not easily bothered. He’s helped keep me sane the last couple of weeks.
For a church community always willing to step in and help if we need it, and to lend a sympathetic ear.
For the opportunity to trust the Lord and witness His working. In the grand scheme of things, these maintenance issues are small matters, but we have witnessed the Lord’s providential care in the tiniest of details. How much more will He care for us in truly difficult circumstances?

_{Photo by Imani on Unsplash}

We have a (quite large) black snake that lives around our house, that we see about once a year and that apparently lives under the house this week. We call him Burt. I’m no fan of Burt, but we leave him alone because he deals with larger problems (rodents and poisonous snakes). Unfortunately, he has to be removed so the companies can do their work under the house. ↩
I think this the right page number, but it’s hard to tell on the e-reader app that I use. ↩