If there’s one thing all kids have in common it’s questions. This truth is at the heart of a new blog series we’re kicking off today. We’ve invited children’s author and all around rock-star Kathryn Slattery to join us as our resident expert for a “Kid’s Question of the Week.” Our goal is to let Kathryn (”Kitty”) share with you from her new book If I Could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids, and hopefully answer some of your children’s questions along the way!

If I Could Ask God Anything

Today, we’ll just start with an introduction. Here’s Kathryn on why she wrote If I Could Ask God Anything:

Life for a child – any child – is full of struggles. It’s part of being human. But we are also living in what historians and many theologians call the “post-Christian” age. Secular humanism, moral relativism, political correctness, and the powerful push-and-pull of popular culture have created a moral atmosphere of murky gray where there are few absolutes to help parents and children discern right from wrong.

Today – more than ever – children need to be informed and reassured that God is real, that He personally loves them, and that He has a unique purpose for each of their lives. What the late, great Christian apologist C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity” can make a powerful, positive difference in a child’s life.

The good news is that children enter this world with a tremendous capacity for faith. For children, believing in God is instinctive. It is as natural as breathing. You could say that kids are natural-born experts when it comes to believing in God. Jesus recognized this when He said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:16-17, NIV). As parents, it is not only our privilege but also our responsibility to encourage and nurture our children’s God-given faith.

Perhaps like you, when my two children were growing up, I was reminded daily that children possess a very active inner life and can be surprisingly curious about religious and spiritual matters. Consider a few of the questions our daughter, Katy, and her little brother, Brinck, asked when they were young:

• “If God is invisible, how can I know He is real?”
• “When Jesus was born, was it before or after the dinosaurs?”
• “Is it OK to pray for help on a test?”
• “How can God be three persons at the same time?”
• “Mommy, what happens to me after I die?”
• “Does God ever sleep?”
• “Up in heaven, does Grandpa know it’s my birthday?”

As a follower of Jesus, I knew I very much wanted my children to have a strong faith to help them as they grew. Typically, a child’s religious education includes enrollment in Sunday school, familiarity with the Bible, and family rituals such as routine prayers at meals and bedtime. But over the years, I learned that that’s not enough. It takes a personal, intimate relationship with a loving God to breathe life and meaning into these religious traditions. As a Sunday school teacher, I was also surprised to discover how little my students knew about the basics of the Christian faith, let alone about the Bible and the Church as the body of Christ at work in the world today.

So what to do?

If I Could Ask God Anything is, quite frankly, the book I wish my two children had when they were young. It’s also the book I wish I had during my many years teaching Sunday school. I am also thrilled at the thought of it being used as a terrific resource for grandparents, godparents, home-schooling parents — anyone who has a special young person in their life!

If I Could Ask God Anything offers clear, fresh answers in language that kids can understand to a wide variety of questions that ultimately cover the basic tenets of biblically-based orthodox Christianity, including God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the Church, Christian Seasons and Holidays, and many other challenging, real-life questions from real-life kids about faith, life, death, and eternity. Written for children of all denominations, the book emphasizes God’s great and unconditional love for each and every child. Special care has been taken to firmly root every answer in scripture, so that it isn’t just “my opinion.”
Most importantly, If I Can Ask God Anything is written to help young readers establish a deep and lasting personal relationship with a living, loving God through faith in Jesus Christ.

It is my most heartfelt hope and prayer that If I Can Ask God Anything will serve to deepen young readers’ understanding of how faith works in their lives, and help them see how they fit into the larger body of Christ. This is because I truly believe that just like grown-ups, young people can be motivated and empowered by faith to make a positive difference in a fallen and hurting world. Just like grown-ups, children can acquire a vocabulary of faith that enables them to articulate what they believe and why they believe it.

There are, of course, an infinite number of questions about God – more than could ever be answered in one book. And with each passing day, the more persuaded I am that there is not very much difference between the questions asked by curious kids and curious adults. Perhaps this is because we are all God’s “children” at any age. For this reason, I encourage you and your child to use the questions and answers in If I Could Ask God Anything as a way to grow in faith together.

In coming weeks I look forward to sharing biblically-based answers to real-life questions from real-life kids… and hearing from you, too!

Until then, remember that God loves a seeking heart (Matthew 7:7-12)…
And God loves you (1John 3:1)!

Kathryn Slattery is a long-time Contributing Editor for Guideposts magazine, and the author of several books including If I Could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids, the memoir Lost & Found: One Daughter’s Story of Amazing Grace, The Gospel for Kids, Grandma, I’ll Miss You: A Child’s Story about Death and New Life, and The Grace to Grow: The Power of Christian Faith in Emotional Healing. Learn more about her work at her website, and on Facebook.

Stay tuned each week as Kitty answers your children’s questions about God. Feel free to let us know what your little ones are asking about God & enter to win a Tommy prize pack on our Contest page!