39 - Use Great Stories to Shape Your Kids' Character (with SD Smith & Josiah Smith)

Today's episode features an interview with author SD Smith of The Green Ember series, along with his son, Josiah Smith, with whom SD just co-authored a book called Jack Zulu & The Waylander's Key. We discuss the Green Ember series and how they can be used within families; we discuss their new book together; and we get a window into what life is like in the Smith Family household, including how they seek to be a family of "grace and truth" -- just like Jesus Christ.

In this interview, we discuss:

How the Green Ember story got started with telling stories to his young daughter.
One of the most Christian things we can do is do our work in excellence
How SD Smith writes from the overflow of his heart and his values leak out into his work.
As a Christian and a Christian parent, when you read the Green Ember stories, it will deeply resonate.
SD Smith did not intentionally write Green Ember as a read-aloud but it works as a read-aloud.
How the Green Ember series has prompted great conversations through the books.
The difference between allegory and application -- allegory forces things on the reader; application gives freedom to the reader.
How SD Smith wants to write "true" stories -- not in the sense that they actually happened, but that they reflect reality, the world in which we actually live. It's so important for us to write "honest" stories, especially for our kids.
About Jack Zulu & The Waylander's Key, and particularly about the role of a mentor/father-figure in the storytelling.
For SD Smith, being a father is the first "province of [his] stewardship"
For Sam and and his son Josiah, who they are becoming in Christ and how they're living out God's story for their lives is much more important than anything they put on paper.
Some of the strategic, intentional things that the Smith Family does together.
The value of making "mistakes of action" rather than "mistakes of INaction."
The heart of the Smith Family home is devotion to Jesus Christ -- awesome!
They're people committed to the Bible and to their church.
Underlying philosophy is: "big love, big discipline" -- they like to teach their kids that they're loved enough to have a "fence," or boundaries.
GK Chesterton: Orthodoxy is a fence, but a fence around a playground. Christianity is a garden of "yes" and a tree of "no."
How there's a lot of love and affection in the Smith Family -- their kids will know they belong and they'll know there are boundaries.
They want to be a family of grace and truth, just like Jesus Christ.

Resources:

Scriptures referenced:

Ecclesiastes 11:7-8, 10:7 (NIV)
Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
However many years anyone may live,
let them enjoy them all.
But let them remember the days of darkness,
for there will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
...
So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NIV)
Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—

James 1:19-21: 19 (NIV) My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

John 1:17 (NIV): For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Music:

Intro: Life of a Traveler, by Black Rhomb (License #3565685)
Outtro: Avocado Street, by Wes Hutchinson (Courtesy of YouTube Music)

Song Recommendation: If the Walls Move by The Gray Havens

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