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Jody thought she had all her bases covered. She and her husband were believers. They took their children to church, to Awana, and later to youth group. It wasn’t until her son came home one year after college and told her that he no longer believed in God that she knew anything was wrong. I consider Jody the ORIGINAL Mama Bear! Over the last several years, she has slowly but surely equipped herself in Apologetics for the sake of maintaining open communication with her son about spiritual issues. Listen to her story as she describes the dangers of raising kids in a Christian bubble, and how we can avoid it.

[**DISCLAIMER** The recording quality isn’t as good on this interview as our previous podcasts because it was the first time to try and get 3 people on 1 microphone. Glitches have been fixed for future podcasts, but the quality isn’t up to our normal Mama Bear standards, and we apologize. Normally, I am a perfectionist about quality, but the content was just too good to let it go to waste though. (It’s THAT good.)]

Topics covered in this podcast:

• Jody’s story
• Antagonism of faith prevalent on the college campus
• What happens when kids are raised in a Christian bubble
  • They are surprised when temptations come
• What is the Christian bubble?
  • Wanting to protect our kids from all the “bad” things in culture, making them unable to interact with the world once they are away from our protection
• College is the perfect storm to tear away the faith of kids raised in a bubble
  • vulnerable kids away from home
  • powerful temptations and challenges from newfound freedom
  • negative pressure from authority figures (college professors)
• Raising kids in bubble is like raising plants in a greenhouse and then putting them outside
  • they will grow straight, but not strong
  • they whither once exposed to unfamiliar elements
• We need to allow our kids to struggle with difficult concepts while they are still in our care – pop the bubble
• Importance of kids seeing the church live out the gospel by helping those in need
• The danger of allowing sports and extracurricular activities to take precedence over being the hands and feet of Jesus in the real world
• Solutions?
  • Make their faith real by being the hands and feet of Jesus within the community
  • Need teaching AND doing
  • Don’t allow their faith to just be theoretical
  • Teach Bible stories as historical fact, not fairy tale.
    • ex: Jody’s teaching of Jericho to 5th grade Sunday school girls
  • Importance of Apologetics – making things real to kids no matte what their learning style
  • Teaching kids to talk to God themselves, not always facilitating it through you
  • Have to move beyond modeling behavior to helping them walk through spiritual disciplines themselves
  • Take the training wheels off!

Resources and People Mentioned:

• God’s Not Dead movie
• “Intellectual Predators” talk by Frank Turek – full lecture at the bottom of this document
• Alliance for Defending Freedom – group of lawyers who prosecute cases where kids are being denied freedom of religious expression
• Dr John Lennox – corrected quote listed below
• “The Number 1 Sign Your Kids are Just Borrowing Your Faith and Not Developing Their Own” – article by Natasha Crain
• The Story of the World homeschooling book series
• Authentic Parenting in a Post Modern Culture: Practical Help for Shaping Your Children’s Hearts, Minds and Souls – By Mary DeMuth

Quotes:

• “Christianity is a fairy story for those afraid of the dark.” – Stephen Hawking
• “Atheism is a fairy story for those afraid of the light.” – John Lennox
• John 16:33 – “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! For I have overcome the world.”

Intellectual Predators Talk by Frank Turek

Hillary Morgan Ferrer

Hillary Morgan Ferrer is the founder of Mama Bear Apologetics. She is the chief author and editor of Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies and Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality: Empowering Your Kids to Understand and Live Out God’s Design. Hillary has her masters in Biology and has been married to her husband, Dr. John D. Ferrer, for 15 years. Don’t let her cook for you. She’ll burn your house straight to the ground.