Here’s a detail of my faith story I don’t share often. (It’s way more common than I think most of us realize.):
As a young Christian, I believed in the gospel. However, if you asked me to articulate it, I’d stumble and ramble my way through it and walk away every time wishing I had said more of one thing or less of something else.
But, during a season where I was experiencing the power of the gospel in new, day-to-day ways, I also was taught the gospel in an isolated context. The gospel—all by itself—was taught for over a half hour and I was deeply impacted. This experience made me realize that learning to articulate the gospel was imperative to my own spiritual well-being and to sharing Christ with others.
As I learned to preach the gospel to myself, my faith grew stronger and my trust in Jesus deepened. My ability to discern right from wrong and truth from lies improved as well. Likewise, I was better equipped to share the good news with others. I could share it in a variety of contexts, with more confidence, and without worrying as much about whether I said too much or too little.
And, I had a feeling I wasn’t the only believer to experience this type of “gospel illiteracy.”
Addressing the Problem
So, I began asking women in my small groups:
“If you were asked to articulate the gospel right now, do you generally know what you’d say? Or would you stumble your way through it?”
There are always women who admit they aren’t confident articulating the gospel, which contributes to their hesitancy to evangelize. And through these conversations, I realized that while this is a common problem, its not a hard one to fix.
When I became a mom I wondered:
“How can I make sure my children don’t experience this gap in gospel literacy that I experienced? And what might it look like to effectively teach them the gospel from birth?”
These thoughts and experiences inspired my new children’s book, Believe, Live, Enjoy.
My Solution
God alone saves our children. But, He calls all parents to train their children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6) and this starts with the gospel. Believe, Live, Enjoy is a gospel poem and song written for babies and toddlers—and all who read it to them!
Its short, rhythmic, poetic lines were written to keep short attention-spans engaged and returning for more. Its simple illustrations were designed to help little minds make gospel connections with the world around them.
It’s my hope and prayer that God will use Believe, Live, Enjoy to equip parents to teach the gospel to their children, that gospel seeds would take root, and that young children, older siblings, and parents would believe in Jesus, live for His glory, and enjoy Him all their days!
Learn more about Believe, Live, Enjoy
