Reading our Bibles regularly can be a challenge, but we're all on this journey together.

We're praying that this podcast inspires you, helps you better understand God's word, and builds

your faith. This is Join the Journey with your host, Emma Daughter.

Thanks for joining. I am in the podcast studio with the one and only, Catherine Meredith. Hi, Emma. Thanks for having me. I am so glad you're here. Before we jump in, we have a really fun announcement. And it is that the uncommon parenting conference is going to be hosted at our church at Watermark on November 10th through 11th, 2023. If you're listening to this episode in the future, that's really important. November 10th and 11th, 2023. If you're listening to this episode in the future, that's really

important. November 10th and 11th, 20203, and the conference is designed to help parents feel more

confident as you raise children in an ever-changing culture according to God's Unchanging Church.

Now, I will be there. I'm not a parent, but I will be there leading a breakout entitled

Families Reading the Bible Together, in which I'll be interviewing actual parents about what it

looks like to read the Bible as a family, regardless of your child's age. And it's fun that you are

here, Catherine, because you are very passionate about children's ministry,

kids' ministry. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about why kids ministry is so important to you.

That's right. Well, I would say it really was a time in college when I was reading through the book of

judges, which feels like kind of a random book to pull. A little dark. Right, exactly. But at the

beginning of judges, you see in chapter two that Joshua and the elders around him had all

passed away. And judges 210 follows and says, and there arose another generation after them

who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for

Israel. And I remember just reading that verse and just feeling the weight of it. And really just a

prayer kind of came out of that of saying like, Lord, not on my watch. Like if there's a part that I get

to be in plain, that that's not true of our generation,

that we wouldn't say, man, the generation after us doesn't know.

And the way it talks about no is not just facts, but it's a heart knowledge of who God is.

And so I think from that, the Lord just started to stir a greater desire that future generations would know not just stories or facts about who God is,

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