For Episode 011...

Micah Fries joins us to help us understand why there are kids who go to bed hungry at night, why earthquakes or tornados destroy entire towns, and why we face hard times that seem to be too much to bear. In this episode we talk about how sin has invaded every piece of life on earth, how we shouldn't sanitize Bible stories, and how we can parent kids who love God's Word.

You can listen to the Questions Kids Ask episode answering Why Do Bad Things Happen? on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play, or listen below.

Micah Fries is the Senior Pastor at Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. He and his wife, Tracy, have three super fun kids. He has written a few books including Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and M… — Micah Fries is the Senior Pastor at Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. He and his wife, Tracy, have three super fun kids. He has written a few books including *Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi*, and he has a book coming with B&H Academic soon called *Islam and North America: Loving our Muslim Neighbors*. Micah is also the co-host of the @ESTChurch podcast.

I asked:

Where has your favorite place been to travel?

The mountains of Lesotho in South Africa. It is the only country in Africa that has annual snowfall. Nepal is also unbelievably beautiful.

Big question: Why Do Bad Things Happen?

We want our kids to have a strong understanding of sin. Sin has broken all things - both individually and globally. Sin invades every corner of every cellular structure on the planet - humanity, grass, trees. The created order longs for restoration, and one day Jesus will restore all things.

And when we say, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
RC Sproul addresses this, "Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered.”

Feature Resource

Here are the books in The Big Picture Interactive Brand. We use the Old Testament and New Testament board books for our toddlers and they carry them around all the time, attempting to tell anyone who will listen the stories found inside.

How do we encourage our kids to love God's Word?

Mom and Dad need to love God's Word. Discipline is important, but not the fundamental foundation of our faith. That we love Jesus and God's Word is foundational. It cannot be a duty, we need to have a love for the Word.

Find resources that your kids love that will make your kids love God's Word. If you kid is artistic, get them a coloring devotional Bible. Throw as many darts at the wall and see if any of them stick.

Where should you start reading the Bible with kids?

The Old Testament is a great place to start. No book in the world rivals the stories found in the Bible. We have to make them exciting for kids and read them as if we've never read them before, experiencing them through the eyes of our kids.