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Don't Mom Alone Podcast

Doubt, Questions & Your Teen’s Growing Faith :: Mary Jo Sharp [Ep 375]

Don't Mom Alone Podcast

Don't Mom Alone Podcast

Education, Leisure, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.9 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Doubt is a normal part of a growing faith. When the big questions come, you can navigate them with confidence. 

Is it worth it to go to church? If God is loving, why would he allow bad stuff in the world? Did God really create me the way I am on purpose?

Questions and exploration are rites of passage for the teenage years as each of us grapples (in varying degrees) to figure out who we are and where we want to go in life. With a near endless supply of voices, ideas, and influences from the internet and culture at large it can feel like our kids are in danger of being lost in a sea of information we have no control over. 

But all is not lost! My guest this week, apologist and writer Mary Jo Sharp, encourages us to walk with our kids into the tunnel of doubt. She reminds us that contrary to what we might think, we really are still the biggest influencers on our child’s religious views and that the culture we create in our homes around self transformation and questioning can help our kids make their faith their own. By giving them a safe space to ask and discuss the big questions of life we will likely give ourselves a seat at their decision-making table. 

Mary and her team create resources for parents and teens as they walk through doubt and faith finding at DarkroomFaith.com

Connect with Mary Jo Sharp:  Links Mentioned:  

 

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey y'all welcome back to the Don't Mom Alone podcast. I'm your host Heather McFaddean

0:12.0

and this is the place where I get to walk alongside you and connect you with people and

0:17.4

resources so you know that you don't mom alone and in this episode number 375 I am

0:24.4

welcoming to the show Mary Jo Sharp. It's really important that the child sees the parent

0:31.8

engaging in the you know education of their own beliefs and their faith. I think that's

0:37.6

what it like your own I would say your own transforming self is like the best thing that

0:42.4

you can bring to your kids because that that'll speak volumes to them about how you value

0:47.3

Christian education the life of the mind exploring the hard questions and they'll see that

0:53.7

it is safe to bring these to you that you're the kind of person that they should come to

0:58.7

their questions and that's really what we want. Mary Jo is a former atheist who came to faith

1:06.0

and has become an apologist who works at a university in Houston. She is going to talk more

1:14.0

about her journey in this episode but she is a part of a project I wanted to connect you with

1:19.6

called darkroom you can find it at darkroomfaith.com it's a great option if you are a youth leader if

1:26.7

you want to get a group of teens together maybe you want to yourself to help you as you parent

1:33.5

your young adults and teens or even just if you have young kids these are great videos

1:39.8

navigating hard questions that our kids are asking as they intersect with culture at younger

1:47.1

and younger ages and just the normal development of being curious and owning their faith and so

1:53.8

we're going to have this conversation definitely prompted by a lot of you who reached out who are

1:57.8

in that place where your teens or young adults are struggling I want you to know you are not alone

2:03.1

I also learned about another option for you something to watch that I'll tell you about at the

2:08.7

end of this episode but let's get right to it here we go. Hey Mary Jo welcome to the Don't

2:16.0

Mom Alone podcast. Hey thanks for having me on. Well I told you I've asked the moms the listeners

...

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