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Welcome to another encouraging episode of Fierce Calling with Doris Swift, where today we have the pleasure of introducing Lee Ann Mancini, an award-winning executive producer, author, podcast host, and advocate for raising children with a strong Christian foundation. In this episode, Lee Ann shares her incredible journey and passion for equipping families to instill biblical values in their children, and to help them become critical thinkers. Her new book Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God, is a powerful resource for parents, that doesn’t just tell parents what to do, it shows them how to do it.
We discuss some startling statistics regarding young people leaving the faith, concerns about culture shifts, and what we can do to help kids build strong spiritual foundations. Lee Ann also discusses her captivating children’s book series, “Sea Kids,” and the animated adaptations that aim to teach children to live out God’s principles in everyday life. With her nonprofit dedicated to providing Christian resources to families, Lee Ann speaks on critical issues like religious beliefs, parenting, and the challenging cultural shifts impacting Christian households. She is also passionate about the importance of apologetics, and what that means for our kids and us.
Doris and Lee Ann engage in a profound discussion, exploring practical advice for parents and grandparents who play vital roles in the spiritual development of the next generation. This episode is packed with valuable insights, not only from Lee Ann’s books but also from her impactful parenting resources and approaches to teaching children about absolute truth, identity, and faith.
Stay tuned to be inspired and equipped to reinforce a solid Christian foundation within your family!
Key Topics and Takeaways …
- Belief and Critical Thinking:
- Importance of children understanding faith beyond parental influence.
- Critical thinking as an essential skill for children
- Early Education and Vocabulary:
- Children’s understanding extends beyond what they can articulate, even as young as six months.
- Recommendation for parents to use biblical language from an early age.
- Encouragement to teach terms like ‘redemption’ and ‘salvation.’
- Parenting and Family Structure:
- Initiating family meetings to create a mission statement
- Emphasize accountability to God, love for children, and safety.
- Importance of distinguishing children’s privileges from rights, such as technology use.
- School and Gender Discussions:
- Concerns about children choosing identities in schools without parental consent.
- The concerns surrounding early gender identity discussions and potential identity crises.
- Identity and Christ:
- Raising children with Christian values for a true sense of identity.
- Reassurance for parents regarding past parenting mistakes.
- Children’s Media and Learning:
- Lee Ann Mancini’s observation of a gap in biblical principles within children’s stories.
- Creation of “Sea Kids” series to teach biblical principles in real-life scenarios.
- Availability of the series on various platforms and adaptation into an animation.
- Lee Ann Mancini’s Nonprofit Projects:
- Projects like the parenting book and “scripture bear” that support Raising Christian Kids.
- Proceeds from projects support Mancini’s nonprofit efforts providing free resources.
- Financial Struggles of Christian Families:
- Research statistics on Christian families’ financial struggles.
- Free resources provided by Mancini’s nonprofit to families through South Florida Bible College.
- Additional Resources and Recommendations:
- Available resources on Mancini’s nonprofit website, like expert tips and videos.
- Recommendations for a Trumie phone for safety and Answers in Genesis’s apologetic curriculum.
- Church Events and Influences:
- Mention of a church event featuring Greg Kochel.
- The inclusion of the “Tactics” book in church’s discipleship pathway.
- Fostering Faith in Children:
- Importance of parents and grandparents in influencing children’s faith.
- Practical ways parents can pass teachings to their children, even from afar.
- Lee Ann Mancini’s Book “Raising Kids to Follow Christ”:
- Provides practical resources for faith-related questions and emphasizes absolute truth.
- Encourages critical thinking and role play for children’s independent development.
- Focuses on inner transformation and obedience to God rather than behavior modification.
- Age-Specific Faith Education:
- Addresses parenting from the womb to age 13.
- Emphasizes laying a solid faith foundation and building on it.
- Apologetics and Cultural Concerns:
- Includes a chapter on apologetics with 312 Bible references.
- Discusses challenges like gender issues and decline in Christian values.
- Countering cultural challenges with a well-rounded, faith-based upbringing.
- Deconstruction of Faith:
- Acknowledges the trend of people leaving Christianity.
- Importance of solid early faith education to counteract this trend.
- Educational Approach and Community Role:
- Critiques of “Sunday school faith” and advocacy for deeper faith education.
- Importance of parental and church engagement in children’s spiritual development.
- Spiritual Warfare and Biblical Directive:
- References to cultural “spiritual warfare” akin to World War 2 efforts.
- Advocates for integrating faith into daily life, referencing Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
- Host Doris’ Reflections:
- Agreement with the practical nature of Mancini’s advice.
- Emphasis on establishing good habits to equip children.
Connect with Lee Ann!
You can connect with Lee Ann and find her podcast, books, and free resources at raisingchristiankids.com
Lee Ann Mancini is the author of Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God, and hosts the award-winning podcast Raising Christian Kids, available on all major platforms and streaming on KHCB Radio’s Uplifted station. She shares expert godly advice, biblically-based wisdom, and insightful tools for parenting children to bring them closer to Jesus. Lee Ann is also an award-winning Christian children’s author and executive producer of the animated series Sea Kids, which can be viewed on Answers.TV, Pure Flix, Right Now Media, and SeaKidsTV. This series is based on her children’s books about cute, colorful sea creatures who learn about God’s morals and values and how to live those daily.
Lee Ann Mancini An adjunct professor at South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary, as well as a sought-after speaker on topics such as Christian growth, biblical understanding, and children’s spirituality, she received her B. A. in Religious Studies from Regent University, master’s degrees in Christian & Classical Studies and Biblical & Theological Studies from Knox Theological Seminary, and a master’s in Christian Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Lee Ann and her husband Guy have two adult children and make their home in South Florida.
Connect with Doris!
Connect with Doris at https://dorisswift.com/ For speaking engagements, visit her booking page at womenspeakers.com
Join us for this heartening episode of Fierce Calling and be inspired to deepen your biblical study and walk with God.
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Transcript
What is threatening to steal your joy? What is it that feels so heavy right now that you could barely stand? God has a plan, and his plan is to surrender it. Surrender it to him. It might be a prodigal. It might be a relationship, a marriage, something with your job, so many things. We have so many amazing blessings, but there are so many things in our life that threaten to steal our joy. I’m Doris Swift, author of the award winning 6 week bible study, Surrender the Joystealers, Rediscover the Jesus Joy in You. And it helps women rediscover the overflowing, ever present Jesus joy within that fills, empowers, and ripens the fruit that God produces in our lives. Using personal and biblical stories, I share how you can identify your joy stealers, surrender them to God, reawaken the joy within, and share the joy with others.
You can do it on your own or with a group. Check it out, friends. Surrender the joy stealers. Rediscover the Jesus joy in you. It’s available on all the online retailers. It’s time to take your joy back. Welcome back to the show. I’m excited today to introduce you to my friend, Leigh Ann Mancini.
She is passionate about helping children build a lifelong unshakable foundation in Jesus. She’s the founder and CEO of Raising Christian Kids Inc, which is a nonprofit dedicated to equipping parents and caregivers with the tools they need to become the best spiritual leaders for their children. It’s very powerful ministry. Leanne is a wife and mom, and her award winning children’s books and animated series, sea kids, are based on the stories she wrote for her young children about cute sea creatures who learn about God’s morals and values through everyday childhood experiences. So I love how that came about and how God has been just using it so powerfully and mightily. She is an award winning author and podcast host. She has the podcast Raising Christian Kids. So check that out because you love podcasts.
And she’s also an adjunct professor at South Florida Bible College. So that is amazing. I love that so much. Welcome to the show, Leanne. It’s so great to have you on.
Lee Ann Mancini00:04:10 – 00:04:17
Thank you for having me, Doris. I’m so happy to be here and see your beautiful face across the screen here and spend time with you today.
Yes. I enjoy you so much. You are just a real deal. Woman of faith and loves Jesus and has a heart for families to speak the name of Jesus and to have tools to teach their children in Jesus, and that their faith is strengthened. And I just love your book so much. We’re talking about Leanne’s book today, Raising Kids to Follow Christ, instilling a lifelong trust in God, among other things we’ll talk about. But I love this book. It’s beautiful, and it’s just so colorful and special.
And so we’re gonna talk a little bit about that. And, Leanne, I would love if you would share a little bit about your story and how you’re taking action where your passion, compassion, and conviction intersect.
Lee Ann Mancini00:05:07 – 00:05:51
Well, it started a long time ago when I was a child. I believe my mother instilled, that compassion and and desire, to want to love and serve Jesus. When I was young, I remember looking up at our family wall with the family pictures, and in the middle of the family pictures was a huge, gigantic picture of Jesus. And he was center of our family. He was the most important person on that wall, and my mother raised me to love him and to pray to him. And so I never knew a time where I actually, you know, accepted him because I’ve always loved him. Mhmm. You know, some people say, well, I know the day I was born again.
Lee Ann Mancini00:05:52 – 00:06:19
Well, I can tell you that as I grew older, I learned more and more what that meant. Mhmm. What did it mean to love Jesus and to follow him? So my childhood faith became an, an adult faith. And, just raising my own kids even brought me closer to Christ. Mhmm. Every step of the way of my life, I feel myself drawn closer and wanting to learn more and more about him, and we never stop learning, do we?
No. Never stop learning. That’s so beautiful that you’ve always loved Jesus, and you had a heart for him. And I love the way that you explained it because I feel like there are a lot of Christians out there who have had that same experience that their family loved Jesus and raised them in a home that loved Jesus and knew Jesus, and how you kinda shared that there wasn’t a specific date and time where you said, this is when I became born again, but that your faith grew as you grew closer to Jesus. And as we’re sanctified day by day, and we grow closer to him to be more like him. So I love how you explain that, and that is so beautiful that you were raised that way. And it’s your heart to help families to be equipped, to be able to help their children to love and know Jesus. And I know that you mentioned different things.
I know the book covers it too about the fact that it’s startling how many kids are leading the faith because it’s not really their faith. You know? So so it’s gotta be their own personal faith. So tell us a little bit about that too, Leanne.
Lee Ann Mancini00:07:29 – 00:07:56
It is shocking, Doris. I mean, I was shocked. 5 years ago, I was hearing that 40% of children from Christian families were walking away from their faith in middle school and 65% in high school. That was 5 years ago. Wow. And I I said, lord, what is going on? I’ve been praying, please, lord, don’t let these children walk away. They’re our future. And then I felt, the prompting from the holy spirit will research research, find out what’s going on.
Lee Ann Mancini00:07:57 – 00:08:55
And so I started doing that, and that’s when I started the podcast sharing information on how parents can keep their children from walking away from their faith. And then fast forward, I read about between 250 and 300 books. I can’t remember so many parenting books and, the best minds in children’s spirituality and condensing that information into this book and sharing that also on the podcast. Now fast forward when I my book came out this February 2024. At that time, the statistics were that 70% of 13 to 14 year olds from Christian families don’t believe Satan exists. They think he’s a tail. 84% don’t believe we’re born into sin and need a savior. Now these are 13 to 14 year olds from Christian families, and 90% don’t believe in absolute moral truth.
Lee Ann Mancini00:08:56 – 00:09:38
And 2% of Christian parents have a true biblical worldview. And it’s it’s not much better for the Christian pastors who are teaching our children, the children’s pastors. 53% believe in reincarnation, 56% don’t believe in absolute moral truth, and 50% actually believe that Jesus sinned while he was on earth. Wow. That’s our Christian children’s pastors teaching our children. So now we have we’re to the total of 1% of Christian children Mhmm. Have a true biblical worldview. 1%.
Wow. I mean, that’s crazy.
Lee Ann Mancini00:09:41 – 00:09:57
You know, Doris, I this is how we find ourselves living in the times we’re living in. Mhmm. Because we raised Christians, strong Christian disciples Yeah. Be in the world. The 4 pillars of society, the government, academia, the media, and the church.
Yeah. Wow. Those are startling statistics, and it’s it’s, like, leadership is contributing to this issue and the belief system. Because when someone says that they’re Christian, it doesn’t always mean the same thing. So it may not be comparing apples to apples anymore because of all the difference. And we always say things like, well, as long as we believe the main thing is the main thing, and we can, you know, disagree on certain other things. But these are critical aspects of the Christian faith, historical Christianity, that is a biblical foundation and having a biblical worldview. And so, it is so powerful and impactful for you to have this message that you speak out through your podcast, through your books, the message of absolute truth.
That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, that there is there’s demonic presence or supernatural warfare. Satan exists, and there’s a hell. Because that’s another thing too. Even Christians that are adults that have believed for years are now questioning, is there a hell? You know, why would a good god let people go to hell? And those kind of questions. And I know in your book, you give a lot of practical responses to some of these really difficult questions that parents may or may not be equipped to answer, and also could help leaders, church leaders as well. So what parts of the book, do you feel cover that kind of, kind of thing as far as being helpful resource for for parents?
Lee Ann Mancini00:11:49 – 00:12:30
Well, throughout the book, it is it’s not your normal parenting book. As I said, I read a lot of parenting books, and there’s a lot of great parenting books out there. But a lot of them will tell you what the problem is and what needs to be done, but they don’t tell you how to do it. So my book is very applicational. You can find throughout the book, various ways to raise your children through role play. I think role play is important. Asking questions, helping kids to become critical thinkers. Instead of your answering your child right away when they come to you with a question, for example, if they come to you and they say, well, my friend says, the devil’s not real.
Lee Ann Mancini00:12:30 – 00:13:18
He’s a fictional character. What do you think, mom? You can say, well, tell me what you think. Now you’re helping them become a critical thinker, and then you can answer their question, based on what they’re thinking. So if they say, well, I think the devil is real and he and it’s horrible and we need to follow Christ, then you can say, great job. I’m so glad you think that. That is absolutely correct, and you praise them. But if they come to you and they say, well, I just don’t know because whatever the reason is, now you know how to answer their questions specifically. But to help our children become critical thinkers, in the book, I teach a lot about how to transform their hearts so they don’t behave because of behavior modification.
Lee Ann Mancini00:13:18 – 00:13:43
They behave because they want to obey God and they want to obey their parents. So there’s a lot of practical application. There’s a chapter on apologetics. You know, when someone says to you, there’s no such thing as absolute truth. You reply, are you absolutely sure? You know? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. A lot of application throughout the book.
Lee Ann Mancini00:13:43 – 00:14:21
In fact, in the back of the book, there’s 312 references to the bible. So you can say, hey. I remember in the book, she talked about this one bible verse. You can go find the bible verse and find the page it’s on in the book. And then I have, the bibliography of just the experts that I quoted in the book, although I read many, many more, expert, books than what’s listed in the book. The book would have been, 600 pages if I could, if it could have been. But, you know, the publisher’s like, yay, that’s a little bit too heavy. You gotta cut it in half.
Lee Ann Mancini00:14:21 – 00:14:50
So I just tried to put the most important main points in this book to help parents know how to raise their kids from the womb to age 7, where you build the foundation, and then how you build upon the foundation from age 8 to 13. You know, children’s worldview starts to formulate at 15 months, and it’s solidified by age 13. Wow. So we have that period. Mhmm. You know, for very short period.
Yeah. For that for the minds as they’re developing those things. And I love that you do have apologetics that you cover that because that is I just love that so much. And those statistics are startling, and we’re seeing even now people who have been Christians all their lives are going into deconstruction and walking away completely from the faith. Some well known people that have been leaders and leading others and shepherding. And now all of a sudden, they’ve just decided, I don’t even know what I believe anymore. So this is so powerful and practical because it helps that foundation to be solidified. And you just never know the impact it’s gonna make when these children get to be adults and even older adults, that they will feel that strong faith and that connection to Jesus that will not waver.
And looking at just the culture, if you if you wanna touch on that a little bit, the culture that we’re in right now and how difficult that is for children to navigate.
Lee Ann Mancini00:16:03 – 00:16:51
Well, you were talking about deconstruction. I think a lot the problem I think also is that a lot of parents are unchurched. Mhmm. And so but they’re seeing what’s happening out there in the culture right now with, you know, the gender confusion, the woke agenda, not teaching ABCs and 1, 2, threes to little ones, but teaching them in kindergarten about sex Mhmm. And talking about things that a 5 year old should not even hear and not leaving it to the parents to raise. So the parents are getting scared, but they’re not sure what to do because they’ve been unchurched. And then you have, parents who are raising their kids, but they’re giving them what Ken Ham calls a Sunday school faith, and it doesn’t work anymore. You know, back in our days when we’re growing up, a Sunday school faith worked.
Lee Ann Mancini00:16:51 – 00:17:34
Well, what what’s a Sunday school faith? You read the bible with your children. You prayed with them every day in the morning, at night, and at mealtime, and they attended Sunday school, and they went to vacation bible school. And, you know, that was that was strong enough because the society as a whole accepted Christianity and the values. Mhmm. Well, now we come fast forward to the times we’re living in, and everything is anti Christian. Yeah. How did we get here? Well, part of the problem, I think, also is that we have Christians for quite a while who wanna use the book, the bible as a weapon against others. And that’s what Christ taught.
Lee Ann Mancini00:17:34 – 00:18:11
We’re to love people who are unsaved. We’re to build that bridge. That’s what we teach in apologetics. Build that bridge of love and communication and understanding, because, look, they are created in the image of of of god. They are not the enemy. The enemy is the devil who’s trying to influence them. So when you build that communication with somebody who doesn’t believe like you, you can show them the path to righteousness. And but too many times the Christians have been mean, and, you know, some of them will even say, well, look, I can’t be intolerant.
Lee Ann Mancini00:18:13 – 00:19:03
Well, that’s not what Christ taught. So I think we have a lot of different things going on here. And now we have children who have been taught to believe, but not why to believe, You know, not that heart transplant. They’ve been taught what to believe and told what to believe. It’s when you transplant that sinful heart, by the way God says is sinful from birth, with a heart that is truly loving and adoring Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and understanding why, then you have a different child at the end of all of this, one who is strong in their faith. And there’s a lot we can do. God doesn’t make us parents and then leave us on our own to figure out how to raise these kids. There’s so much we can do.
Lee Ann Mancini00:19:03 – 00:19:45
The Bible is full of references of of how to train your train your children. A lot of parents will quote Proverbs 22 6, train them up in the way they should go, and they will not depart from it. But Proverbs, that’s not a promise. Those are not promises. That was King Solomon, preparing his children to be future kings. Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which is called the Shema, that is the real biblical directive for parenting. And it says when you rise up, when you walk along the path, when you lie down, impress these principles upon your children. Press means to mold, to mark, to brand.
Lee Ann Mancini00:19:45 – 00:20:23
We’re to live as if Jesus is with us every moment of the day in our homes. You know, Doris, I even say the Muslims, they pray 5 times a day. Yeah. Do we do that? Do we pray with our children 5 times a day? We could set an alarm. There’s so much we can do and and have fun doing it. We just have to. I I say we have to be like Rosie Riveter. World War 2, the parents got out of the sidelines, got into the war effort, made the ammunition to fight the war, and that’s how we won World War 2.
Lee Ann Mancini00:20:24 – 00:21:08
Well, we’re in a spiritual war like warfare like never before, and the devil’s main target is our children. So while we’re out there fighting about all these other things, he’s zeroing in on our children because why? God said they’re the arrows in our quiver. What are arrows used for? They’re made precise, and they’re used to shoot and kill the enemy. So let’s be like Rosie Riveter. Let’s put all this other stuff aside, and let’s 0 in on our children and and helping parents raise them well. You know, churches spend more money on mission overseas than on mission to raise the next disciples in the church. There’s so much too, Doris. So much.
There is. And thank you for sharing all of that. And it’s so practical that we can do these steps. They’re not hard. It’s just something that we have to get into the habit of good habits. I mean, we can get into bad habits pretty easily, but getting to these good habits that are going to encourage and equip our children. Because parents need to be equipped, but also they’re equipping their own children as they go out into the world. So that children, like you said earlier, when we’re talking about apologetics, because that I love that so much.
Because it’s like, well, not just believing because someone told me to believe this. It’s because then they can fall prey to false teachers, and if they don’t know what the truth is, they cannot withstand the lies because they don’t know what to compare it up against, which is the word of God. And so when they are equipped like this, their children can be witnesses to their friends and not just, you know, hey, I believe this because my mom said. And it’s like, oh, well, I don’t think there’s a devil, you know. And then it’s like, well, I do, and this is what, you know. And so they they are critical thinkers, and I think that is so powerful. We underestimate our children sometime, don’t we, Leanne?
Lee Ann Mancini00:22:25 – 00:23:03
Oh, absolutely. In fact, in my research, the experts say that a 6 month old understands more than they can articulate. So when you’re training your young ones up, don’t hold back on any biblical language. Use the term, redemption, salvation, you know, epistles, whatever it is. Use those terms, and I’ll give you an example. I say in the book now half the things I did half the things in the book I didn’t do because I didn’t know. So I always tell the parents, have any mommy guilt. Don’t have any mommy guilt because it’s never too early and it’s never too late.
Lee Ann Mancini00:23:04 – 00:23:47
But for an example, a a toddler getting ready to take a nap. Instead of let’s take a nap, you say, let’s take a Sabbath’s rest. Now they don’t have the term the real full meaning of the word Sabbath, but they know it has something to do with rest and praying to Jesus. Now between the ages of 47, when you’re teaching them what the meaning of Sabbath means, you’ve already built a vocabulary and a category in their mind for that world word. Now you can teach them the true meaning, and so you’re planting seeds to enrich soil to grow deep roots. And that’s that’s so there’s so many things you can do. And I tell parents, Doris, I have I have a teenager. They don’t listen.
Lee Ann Mancini00:23:47 – 00:24:35
I never did these things. What am I gonna do? In god’s economy, it’s never too early, and it’s never too late. He will restore what the locusts have eaten, he says in Joel, and he says, my my word never returns void. So I say, simply sit down and have a meeting with your your teenagers and say, look. I’m gonna apologize. We haven’t been doing the things we should be doing as a Christian family, and we’re gonna draft a family mission statement, and we’re gonna draft a disciplinary contract and have your teenagers involved in doing this. Because if they’re involved in drafting it, they’re more likely to adhere to the stipulations that you’ve, you know, worked on together. And then if they you say to them the reason we’re doing this, and there are three reasons they can’t push back.
Lee Ann Mancini00:24:35 – 00:24:55
It’s not because I’m the parent and you’re the child. I’m the boss. You’re not. The reason I’m doing this is because we have to be accountable to god for how we’re raising you. We’re doing this because we love you, and we’re doing this because we wanna keep you safe. And so they they can’t argue with that.
Yeah.
Lee Ann Mancini00:24:56 – 00:25:26
But then a parent come back and say, well, you know, we did this now, but they’re still not listening. Then I say, well, you let me tell you something. Children don’t have rights. Okay? They have rights to food and clothing and shelter, but they don’t have rights to, the cell phone, the computer, or the keys to the car. Those are privileges. And you take away those privileges, you’ll see how fast they turn around and wanna be obedient to the rules that you’ve all established in the home.
Yeah. That’ll get get the attention pretty quick. But thank you for, you know, sharing that, the difference between the 2. Because even children when they go to school, depending on the school, it’s not all schools, but when children go to school, the parents are up against this agenda where kids are allowed to share things with a teacher and a teacher is allowed to affirm it without even the parents’ knowledge. Is that true? I think we kind of touched on that earlier, Leanne. So what is happening in that arena?
Lee Ann Mancini00:25:59 – 00:26:33
Oh, it’s so upsetting. They will take a a kindergartner or a 1st grader, and they’ll say, without the parents’ knowledge, because they don’t have to tell the parents, and these are in some of the states and it’s whatever it spreads in one state, it spreads like wildfire in all the other states. And they’ll say, tell us what you would like to be called. Would you like to be called a boy or a girl, or would you like us not to call you either and just address you, by your name or whatever they you know?
What are nouns? What pronoun or
Lee Ann Mancini00:26:36 – 00:26:59
Pronoun. What pro these are little kids. They can’t choose. They don’t know the difference, and probably many of them haven’t even heard of it. And now they’re like, you know, but if they go home and tell the parent, the parent can’t do anything about it. They cannot come back and say anything, and they don’t even have to tell the parents. And, you know, let me just say something, Doris. This, gender dysphoria and gender confusion, there is no confusion.
Lee Ann Mancini00:26:59 – 00:27:24
You’re born a boy or a girl. What it is, it’s an identity crisis. It’s these kids who identify themselves as something different. And if they do, they need help. For example, the child who, you know, is anorexic, they identify themselves. They look in the mirror, and they’re skinny. Their bones, most of them, they get so bad. It’s so sad.
Lee Ann Mancini00:27:25 – 00:27:42
But they look in that mirror, and they see a fat person. Mhmm. It’s an identity crisis. Yeah. There’s no gender problem. We’re born boy or girl. I mean, there’s a few exceptions, but we’re we’re born a boy or or a girl. It’s an identity crisis.
Lee Ann Mancini00:27:42 – 00:27:53
So we need to address children that have that problem, you know, get psychological help, whatever it is, but it’s it’s not an issue with how you were born.
Yeah. Amen to that. And then the whole identity thing, when we’re raising kids to follow Christ, they find their true identity is in Christ. So that is a powerful way also for them to relate. And like you said, things are being affirmed. You know, kids kids are being affirmed about things. I mean, when I grew up, I, you know, I went through a tomboy stage. But, you know, I could have been susceptible to someone saying, oh, well, maybe you should have been a boy, you know.
And then it starts to get children thinking that way and their the brains aren’t even fully developed to comprehend certain things. So they can be easily influenced by these ideologies and lies that are out there. And having a biblical worldview foundation. But I but I also love though how you were encouraging the parents out there, primarily women listen to the show, but I know men too, that there’s no guilt. There’s no guilt in missing or thinking you missed the boat and the kids are like this because this is my fault or something that you’ve done wrong. Well, maybe now to get back on track, and it’s never too late. I mean, there could be prodigal adult children that need prayer and need to know what the truth really is because it’s, it is confusing world out there, but it doesn’t have to be because God’s not confused by any of it. So, we can look to him for everything that we need in his word.
The solutions to everything we need is in his word. So I love that so much. And so tell us more about when you got involved in doing the c kids. That was something that you began early on with your children, and I love that story.
Lee Ann Mancini00:29:49 – 00:30:35
When my children were little now my son’s 33, my daughter’s 31. But when they were little, around 5 really around 4 and 6 Mhmm. I could find stories that taught them how to live out the biblical principles I was trying to instill. I found a lot of bible stories, fruits of the spirit, but I couldn’t find stories where characters this 30 years ago now Mhmm. Where characters were living out, you know, in a situation that a child faces, and they were going to Jesus and praying or asking for help or giving thanks and being loving and kind to others. So I wrote a few stories. I read them to my kids. They absolutely love them.
Lee Ann Mancini00:30:35 – 00:31:09
I read them to my nieces and nephews. They absolutely love them. And then I shelved them thinking I was gonna bring them out one day when I had grandkids. But god had other plans. Long story short, we have I have 7, children’s books, the c kids. And from there, they were made into an animation series. So the c kids animation series is on Right Now Media, Pure Flix, Answers TV, Minnow, and soon to be on Yippee. And they are, I have to say, they’re amazing.
Lee Ann Mancini00:31:09 – 00:31:48
My producer did a phenomenal job. I was executive producer and and working with the producer. Our lead animator worked for Disney. Wow. So but you’ll see a child saying, mom, you know, I have a problem. I I don’t wanna do my homework, or I don’t wanna read my Bible. And and the parent will say, well, you know, Corrie, the apostle Paul said and then they repeat the Bible verse. So little ones see God’s word being lived out in real life situations they face, and they teach them how to be loving and kind and compassionate to others.
Lee Ann Mancini00:31:48 – 00:31:52
So it’s a how to instead of a don’t do.
Wow. Well, I love that. It’s a how to instead of a don’t do. Even us grown ups would that that appeals to us too. Because we sometimes we wanna do things the right way, but we just don’t know how or we need practical steps. And these stories are so beautiful because they have, like, the morals and the values of the Christian faith and help children to know how to navigate certain things in their life that are very practical that happen in everyday life. And, it it must be just so sweet and special for not only you, but for your kids to see these characters come alive and to have gone on to this. I’m just, like, getting these little goosebumps, you know, because it’s just so it’s so sweet and powerful and precious.
Because, I know I had I have a couple of children’s stories that I wrote and they were based on what happened with my grandkids, and it they are just feel like part of the family.
Lee Ann Mancini00:32:53 – 00:33:17
So I’m sure you’re listening. 7 c kids books are my other children. I always say those are my other children. They’ll say, which one do you like the best? Oh, I I can’t tell you. I love them all. Yeah. But I do want I want your listeners to understand my See Kids books, the animation series, my parenting book, and my scripture bear, our new scripture bear that plays 8 bible verses. I’m not lining my pockets with money.
Lee Ann Mancini00:33:17 – 00:33:56
All my proceeds are donated to our nonprofit Raising Christian Kids. The Pew, Pew Research has indicated that 66% of Christian families make less than $30,000 a year. Doris, they can barely afford food and clothing and shelter, let alone a Bible, a devotional book, a parenting book, or a children’s Christian book, or one of my scripture bearers. So we have a room at South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary where I teach. It’s Seminary where I teach. It’s stocked full of all these resources. A lot of my author friends have donated their books. We’ve put them there.
Lee Ann Mancini00:33:56 – 00:34:04
And, the college works with the churches to to identify those families in need. They come and they get these resources for free.
Wow. That is fantastic. I love that so much. And the scripture bears are so adorable. And what a great gift for not only your own family, but for baby showers and, you know, any other types of events or when, someone has a new child and, you know, a new baby and you wanna bless them to bring them one of the bears maybe with a meal. Because oftentimes, we will bring meals to new parents, and so we could bring a little scripture bear with that too. So, you know, feed them both ways.
Lee Ann Mancini00:34:36 – 00:34:44
We have one church, who has bought a bunch of bears, and then when they have the baby dedication, they give them a scripture bear.
Oh, I love that. That’s a fantastic idea. Yeah. That’s that’s really great. So many ways that it can be used to glorify God. And the fact being that this is this is a nonprofit, and this the true heart is to help others to learn and grow in the word and to love and know Jesus personally. And it’d be personal for the children and the parents. And like you were saying, there are so many parents that are unchurched.
And how many stories over and over and over do we hear about parents coming to Christ through the witness of their children?
Lee Ann Mancini00:35:21 – 00:35:24
Yes. That’s Or growing in their faith.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. Well, this has been fantastic, and I love your book so much and all that you’re doing in the name of Jesus to bring families closer to him and to be equipped and to have that empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be bold in their faith, and stay with their faith, and have true faith that the that’s their own faith. So is there anything that you might wanna leave the listener with that we haven’t talked about yet before we let you tell us how we can have a listener connect with you?
Lee Ann Mancini00:36:02 – 00:37:06
Well, I’m gonna do both those things right now. Okay. So if we go to raising Christian kids, with an s, dotcom, we have a lot of free resources on our website that the parents can, print out, easily because we mean pretty much black and white, so they don’t use a lot of ink. So we have a lot of free resources the parents can use. I also have a section called tips from the experts, where I have a lot of experts, for 5th 15 minute videos, give their advice and talk about their resources. And then, my podcast, you can, look back upon the month of apologetics and listen to the experts there. We had j Warner Wallace, Natasha Crane, Greg Cokull, a lot of experts, how you can teach your kids, you know, how to be good apologists for their faith. And then I have a a month of disciplining, which was really popular.
Lee Ann Mancini00:37:06 – 00:37:17
So you can listen to those in a chunk, or just listen to the podcast in general. So we have a lot of stuff we’d like to, we we just wanna support parents.
Yeah.
Lee Ann Mancini00:37:18 – 00:37:49
Oh, and one more thing. We have a new section called recommendations. And on it, we have a recommendation for Trume phone. This is so cool. It’s t r o o m I. The cell phones are killing our kids. Spiritually, emotionally, and even physically, kids are taking their lives because of what they see on these phones. Trumefone has come out with a great phone, and it grows with the child.
Lee Ann Mancini00:37:49 – 00:38:26
And you can first, you have mom and dad’s number, then you have mom and dad and grandma, then mom and dad and grandma and their friends or whatever. Then you have the apps that are all vetted so that the kids can search, but they search safely. And what they found was that, some of the parents who took their iPhone away from their teenagers, the teenager had a meltdown. But later on, the teenager came back and said, you know what, mom? Thanks for giving me this phone because now when the kid when others teens come up to me and they say, hey. Look at this. Check this out. I just say, I can’t. My mom got me this phone.
Lee Ann Mancini00:38:26 – 00:38:51
So it takes the peer pressure off of some of these kids. It’s it’s a great phone. The other recommendation we have is Answers in Genesis new curriculum for kids k through 12. It is an apologetic curriculum. It is amazing. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of curriculum. Hands down, I think this is the best.
Nice. And that’s all on your website. Right? They can go and find all of these things on there. Yes. And I’ll have the links in the show notes so the listener can find that and connect with you. And any other things they might, you know, wanna reach out to you if they have questions or if they need additional resource information, and that would that’s so amazing. And and I love that you mentioned Greg Kochel. He’s gonna be doing one of our, forums at our church in let’s see.
I guess it’s gonna be in the spring, so we haven’t booked to come because we’ve, gone through his books and stuff at church. So
Lee Ann Mancini00:39:27 – 00:39:53
Yes. His his book, Tactics, is one of the best simple apologetic books for anybody. I love that book. I taught I taught apologetics several years ago at the college, and now I’m teaching parenting classes for the, counseling degree. But I used his book. It’s so, so good. Tactics. If you wanna learn simple apologetics, get his book, Tactics.
We have that book as part of our discipleship pathway that we have at our church. So that is one of the classes that we offer, and it yeah. All of all of his books are fantastic. So thank you so much, Leanne. This has been amazing. It’s just been such a joy and a pleasure to have you on. And I think that the conversation will really encourage and help a lot of listeners today because there are parents listening, but there are also grandparents listening. And they have a very vital role in the way the way that their grandchildren are brought up.
And they may not even live near them, but they may connect on Zoom or have conversations or even visits during the summer. There there are so many ways that grandparents and parents can be equipped to help their children to follow Christ. So thank you, Leanne, so much. This has been amazing, and I hope to have you back on.
Lee Ann Mancini00:40:47 – 00:41:05
Thank you. I hope to be back on. And one last thing, my book, it also teaches the parents. So the if you’re a parent that’s unchurched, you are going to learn what you need to learn because we can’t give what we don’t have. Amen. Beautiful. And then they can pass it on to their children. Thank you, Doris.
Lee Ann Mancini00:41:05 – 00:41:07
I so much my time with you today.
Exclude
Well, I enjoyed it so much. So listeners, check out the show notes so you can find out all that we had discussed in today’s episode. And god bless you. And, Leanne, god bless you and your family and your ministry and what you’re doing in the name of Jesus, and we will talk soon, friend.
01:38 – 43:26
Thank you for listening to this episode that is part of the Spark Media Network that can now be heard on the Edify app.
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