Kathryn Slattery - If I Could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids

Finally a book that speaks to the wonderfully curious minds of children! If I Could Ask God Anything is a marvelous resource for parents and teachers to help start meaningful conversations with young kids about the heart of the Father and the journey of faith. I highly recommend it!

The Rev. Ian Cron
Senior Minister, Trinity Church, Greenwich, Connecticut

There are Sunday school teachers who know their Bible really well and there are Sunday school teachers who know kids really well. In Kathryn Slattery youll meet a Sunday school teacher and writer! who knows her Bible and kids, and knows just how to bring the two together. What a resource for all of us Sunday school teachers with classrooms of kids!

Rick Hamlin
Executive Editor, Guideposts

I know this book will be an enormous help and encouragement to Christian parents looking for a friend to help them tackle some of their childrens most challenging questions about God.

Dr. Hillary Bercovici
Scholar in Residence, Trinity Institute

What my husband and I would have given to have this treasure of a book available when we were fumbling for answers to these very questions from our children!

Elizabeth Sherrill
Author of the best-selling inspirational classic, The Hiding Place

If I Could
Ask God
Anything

KATHRYN SLATTERY

If I Could Ask God Anything
Copyright 2006 by Kathryn Slattery

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture quotations are taken from the following sources: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (RVS). Copyright 1946, 1952, 1973 by National Council of Churches of Christ. All rights reserved. The New Century Version (NVC). Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Living Bible (TLB). Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Whenton, Illinois 60187. All Rights Reserved. The King James Version (KJV). Public domain.

Cover Design: DeAnna Pierce, Bill ChiaravalleBrand Navigation, LLC, www.brandnavigation.com
Cover Photo: Getty ImagesStockbyte Platinum
Interior: Kimberly SagmillerVisibility Creative, www.visibilitycreative.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 13: 978-1-59145-411-3

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Contents

For Katy and Brinck
and children of all ages everywhere

With special gratitude and love to all the children
of Trinity Church, Greenwich, Connecticut and
St. Marks Episcopal Church, New Canaan, Connecticut.
Thank you for your inquisitive minds, your great
big hearts, and the many excellent questions
you contributed to this book.

Children, like grown-ups, need faith. We are now living in what historians and many theologians call the post-Christian age. Secular humanism, moral relativism, materialism, and political correctness have created a moral atmosphere of murky gray where there are few absolutes to help parents and children discern right from wrong. Even the way we do something as fundamental as note the passage of time has been secularly redefined. In academic circles, BC, which traditionally stands for before Christ, has been replaced by the more politically correct BCE, or before the common era. Likewise, AD, which stands for the Latin anno Domini, or, in the year of our Lord, has been replaced by CE, or of the common era.

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 childs life. Young people can be motivated and empowered by faith to make a positive difference in a fallen and hurting world. Children can and should be able to articulate what they believe and why they believe it.

We can rejoice that children enter this world with a tremendous capacity for faith. For children, believing in God is instinctive. It is as natural as breathing. As Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16).

It is not only our privilege but also our responsibility to nurture our childrens Godgiven faith. Typically, our childrens Christian education includes involvement in Sunday school, familiarity with the Bible, and routine prayers at meals and bedtimes. But thats not really 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 have been stunned to discover how little my students know about the basics of the Christian faith, let alone about the Bible and the church.

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, such as:

If God is invisible, how can I know He is real?
Why did Jesus have to die?
How can God be three persons at the same time?
How can I know for sure that Jesus really was resurrected?
What is communion?

It also includes answers to fun and challenging questions such as:
Does God ever sleep?
Did Jesus live on earth before or after the dinosaurs?
When I die, will I become an angel with a halo and wings?
Are Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus the same person?
Is it OK to pray for help on a test?

If I Could Ask God Anything will deepen young readers understanding of how faith works in their own lives, and help them see how they fit into the larger body of Christ at work in the world today. Most importantly, this book is written with the aim of helping young readers establish a deep and lasting personal relationship with a living, loving God through faith in Jesus Christ.

If I Could Ask God Anything is, quite frankly, the book I wish my two children had when they were young. It is also the book I wish I had during my many years teaching Sunday school.

I encourage you to explore the questions in this book with your child and grow in faith together. And dont be surprised when your child teaches you!

There are, of course, an infinite number of questions about Godmore than could ever be answered in one book. When your child comes to you with difficult questions, you may find that your own faith is challenged. When there seems to be no satisfactory answer for a question, dont be afraid to say, I dont know or, Lets look in the Bible or, Lets ask our pastor about that.

In the end, you and your child will gain a clearer understanding of exactly what you believe and why. Remember, God loves a seeking heart (Matthew 7:712)

And God loves you.
Kathryn Slattery
New Canaan, Connecticut
Visit the author at www.KathrynSlattery.com

God is the creator of everything, visible and invisible. God created heaven and the angels. God created time and space. From Gods fingertips tumbled galaxies, stars, the sun, the moon, and our beautiful planet earth. God loved His creation so much that He didnt stop there. God created the oceans, the animals, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea. God created human beings (Genesis 12).