204 Safe Haven: Parenting When News is Big

Ever felt a sense of unease discussing current events with your kids? Fear not, as we're here to help you create a safe haven at home while maintaining awareness of the world around us. Balancing knowledge of global events with the well-being of our children is paramount, and we draw on scripture to guide us through this journey. Val Harrison, The Practically Speaking MOM, chose to push pause on the scheduled episode for this week to address how to handle an international conflict (currently the crisis in Israel) when we also want to protect our kids' delicate hearts and let them be young as long as possible. Discussing complex issues with kids can be daunting, but we're here to help.

Here are links to the videos I recommended about the history of the crisis in Israel:
https://www.prageru.com/video/the-middle-east-problem?fbclid=IwAR0hPEHGvAgVfrhT-PzkM4C7vRmdL9KQ_cVuXkGVS3TKmofGQoZSlZHIsTU

Why Isn't There a Palestinian State? | PragerU

Here's a link to the Wallbuilders Podcast, that I recommend you listen to their podcast on Fridays when they do Good News Friday: 

Transcript

val harrison: 0:00

THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS CREATED ELECTRONICALLY AND HAS NOT BEEN EDITED. It just didn't feel right to put out a regular podcast today. I have one ready to go for you, but it can wait till next week. If you are listening to this on the week that it airs, then you know there has been an international crisis going on and, because of this global internet environment that we live in, it's certainly important for us to have a buffer between the news and our family life. Our life should not be dictated by the news outside our home, because our job is that we're we're raising these kids in a safety greenhouse in our home, and I don't mean we're at home all the time, but I do mean that when we are home, it is a safe haven that shouldn't have the news on all the time or the TV on all the time or the radio on all the time. Let it be a place of peace and security, a thriving place to grow, to have creative time and play time and laughter and prayer and learning. There's so many great ways that we can invest in our growth every day that our home can be this haven. But at the same time, of course, we have to not stick our head in the sand so as we make our kids aware of what's going on in the world. I want to do it in a way where I have complete peace inside of me, because I know that I can trust God, that God has no limits. He's all powerful, he's all knowing, he is love, he is a God of peace, he is a God of justice. It doesn't mean that every given moment justice is served. It means that God will make sure that justice is served over time. Eventually it's all in his hands. But he doesn't see time the same way that we do. He's not limited by time the way we're limited by time, and his justice is not on our timetable because we're not God. We're not God. These kind of calm understandings, knowledge of God, brings security to our kids minds.

val harrison: 2:15

While we also are instructing them about the issues so as they are able to comprehend some of these things, we do gradually introduce them to. This information, current events and history is so vitally important for us to be sharing with our kids and have discussions with our kids so that we are equipping them to make good decisions in their lives. They are the future leaders in their household, at least in their neighborhoods or in their church in the future, but maybe in their city, maybe in their state, maybe in their nation, they'll be leaders, and so let's equip them by having quality discussions about these things from a young age. That can be really intimidating to parents and I feel intimidated by it all the time too. Don't get me wrong I may sound confident and stuff, but the truth is I am intimidated by history. All of it is always bigger than my understanding and comprehension. I mean, anybody who thinks otherwise is not realistic about the smallness of people. You know, one person cannot comprehend the magnitude of every historical event, but we can gradually grow in our knowledge as well, and I've grown most of all by caring that my kids get good history information. So really I just learning right along with them. Or maybe I stay a step ahead by previewing stuff first. One good, balanced way to look at current events through a godly lens, through an accurate historical lens and through a positive lens, like not getting consumed with all the negative aspects of it.

val harrison: 4:00

Once a week, every Friday, you could listen to wall builders, which is a podcast by David Barton, and if you listen just on Fridays, I think they call it good news Fridays. So they do share current info, but they share it from the standpoint of some good news that has taken place. It's a newscast for adults, not for kids, but so, depending on the age of your kids, you might be listening to that without them, because it will definitely talk about complex issues, be it social issues or international news or whatever, and they usually hit on some of all of that both US news and international news but all from a biblical perspective and a historical, accurate perspective and a positive perspective. But I just felt like for today that it was important for this podcast, for the Practically Speaking Mom podcast, to honor those lives that have been lost in the last week and to, in solidarity, care about those who are in danger, who are afraid or who are mourning the loss of their loved ones, and so we are praying here for peace and praying that many will come to salvation.

val harrison: 5:17

This is a spiritual conflict. In reality, there might be a lot of physical aspects to it, but it is first and foremost a spiritual conflict, and so I pray that there will be some spiritual victories from this as well. This episode is not necessarily for young years. If you are listening to this on the week that it airs, then you know there has been an international crisis going on. It was the size of New Jersey and it's being attacked from land, from air. The unexpected attack against Israel has been incredibly violent and I am not about to repeat here the type of gruesome violence against every age, including infants in large numbers. In case you're not familiar with the history there, this really all stems back to biblical times, the difficult conflict between Isaac and Ishmael. It really all begins there, isaac being the Jewish nation or Hebrew nation, or the people of Israel, versus Ishmael, which is now the Muslim or Arab community. So this is a very old argument that they're having.

val harrison: 6:33

The Bible commands us to pray for peace and the Bible commands us to care about Israel. Psalm 122.6 says pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say peace be within you. That's just one example of scripture addressing how we should care about the Jewish community, and that's what I want to do out of solidarity to acknowledge anyone that is grieving or in danger or who are hurting. But I know that God weeps with all those who weep, no matter what side of the conflict the people are on, and what I wanted to do in this episode is to address how do we handle these difficult kinds of things with our kids in young years.

val harrison: 7:32

If our kids are going to be going to school or be in settings, in public settings, where they're going to be interacting with other kids, it's very possible that some of these topics are going to come up, since this is an active issue going on right now. So if they're too young that you feel like you shouldn't bring it up to them, then at least you probably need to be asking them a lot of questions after they've been around other kids. If you weren't within earshot of all the conversations monitoring what are my kids hearing about? That could be questions like was everything fun today or did you hear anything said that made you sad or scared, afraid, concerned? Sometimes, when you need to ask hard questions like that, if you could both be coloring or playing with Legos or playing with their toy train or their dolls or you know whatever it is they're into, if you guys could be playing at that same time so that their eyes don't have to be on you, so that their body is busy, hands are busy, it kind of lowers their inhibitions to feel like then they can speak up, where if you were just both sitting still with nothing to do and your eyes were on them, it might put them in a more pressured spot where they don't feel comfortable opening up. So asking some questions can be helpful.

val harrison: 8:58

But if they're at an age where they are able to handle a little bit of this complex issue, then I really highly recommend two videos by Prager University that gives the history in cartoon so clear that kids can understand it, if your kids are old enough for these world issues. So I'm going to put links in the show notes to those two videos. You know they're five minutes long and you can use those to talk about these issues. So next week, what can you expect? On the Practically Speaking Mom podcast? You can expect three things there will be one big announcement, there will be two lists and we will also look at the next element of confidence that can help your kids. So that's what we're doing on the podcast next time. I'll see you then.