HONEST ANSWERS: EXPLORING GOD QUESTIONS WITH YOUR TWEEN BOOK REVIEW

I received a free copy of the following book from New Growth Press in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Somewhere between "Jesus Loves Me" and high school cynicism, the childlike acceptance of pat answers about faith is lost--often forever. But while many parents find this transitional period daunting, they don't want their kids to leave the Christian faith just because they didn't get good answers to how prayer works or whether dinosaurs were on Noah's ark.

Honest Answers is a discussion book to help parents tackle the God questions that make them sweat. This isn't the place to come for pat answers that will make their kids nod, smile, and disconnect. Janelle Alberts and Ingrid Faro know that when tweens start asking questions, they're already old enough to understand the answers. They're determined to equip parents with the language, theology, permission, and confidence to join in the discussion--and to learn how to offer deeply doctrinal answers in 140 characters or less.

The tween years present an incredible opportunity to build trust with kids and to keep them coming back to their parents for answers rather than finding other sources. With the tools and conversational tips here, mom and dad can engage in a hopeful conversation and help their children build a Christian faith to hold them steady their whole lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Janelle Alberts spent her early career in PR departments for Microsoft and UPS, boiling down logical, clear corporate messaging. She now attempts the same for parents who love Scripture, often featuring bits we’ve never heard but wish we had. Alberts wrote her first faith column for the Akron Beacon Journal in 2010 and has since been a regular contributor to various online sites including Christianity Today’s Gifted for Leadership, RELEVANT magazine, and others. Honest Answers is her first book. Alberts and her family make their home in Ohio. Visit her on Facebook (@AuthorJanelleAlberts).   Ingrid Faro is dean of academic affairs and associate professor of Old Testament at Northern Seminary. She is also associate professor of Old Testament at the Scandinavian School of Theology in Sweden. She has an MDiv and PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Faro is an international speaker at conferences and churches and writes on topics that include navigating evil and suffering, abuse and power dynamics, women in the Bible, forgiveness, the goodness of God, identity in Christ, discipleship, and leadership. Her motivation is to encourage people, help them navigate the pain and sufferings of this world, and grow in thriving relationship with God and others. She is the coauthor of Honest Answers. Faro has two married children and three grandchildren. She lives in Illinois. MY REVIEW For most parents, it's an easy task sharing their faith and love of Christ with their young small children, you take them to church, you read them bible stories, and pray with them at night and all the while you are praying that they will accept the Lord as their Savior when they are old enough to make that decision for themselves.  However, cue the teen years, for some teenagers, it's like they are morphing into an individual that you hardly recognize, for most parents it's a real struggle watching their precious child changing and developing into an entirely new person. It can be daunting. And they begin to question everything you've taught them about God and life. And that's a good thing, but it's a time when a parent may need a little help with some of the tough questions about God's existence, prayer, evolution, atheism, just to name a few, and there are questions accompanied by multiple choice answers, and then the answer is explained in terms a teenager can grasp and comprehend. This book is fantastic teaching aid to help parents on really delving into the Word of God and the world that they exist in, which is pretty scary right now due to COVID-19. This book came at the perfect time.  During these dark and dismal times, this is the perfect opportunity for parents to sit with their teenagers and work side by side with learning and embracing God, and the world He created.