Making God Real to Your Kids – Jonathan & Carrie Cronkite

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FamilyLife Today® with Dave and Ann Wilson – Web Version Transcript

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Making God Real to Your Kids

Guests:Jonathan and Carrie Cronkite

From the series:Making God Real to Your Kids (Day 1 of 1)

Air date:June 16, 2025

Carrie:“Faith without works is dead.” I think getting into service—and being in a body/in the church and serving there—and also: “Whatever you do, do it for God’s glory”; because God wants to use your time, your effort—everything—to share His Word. You can do it creatively.

Ann:Welcome to FamilyLife Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I’m Ann Wilson.

Dave:And I’m Dave Wilson. And you can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com. This is FamilyLife Today.

Dave:Alright, so we’ve got the Cronkites, Jonathan and Carrie. What I wrote down that we’re going to talk about—hopefully, this is okay with you guys—is making God real to your kids. Is that where we want to go?

But before we do that, I thought it’d be interesting. There’s a lot of our listeners, or people even watching on YouTube, who have never been on the [FamilyLife Love Like You Mean It] cruise. You guys just got off the cruise; in fact, you talked to us in the ballroom or the auditorium, whatever you want to call it. What do you think of the cruise? If you’re listening, and you’ve never been on it, would you say, “Go on it”? Do you think it’s good? What do you think?

Carrie:We’ve already talked, how many couples, into going?

Jonathan:Yeah, we’ve got three or four friends, already signed up, who are coming.

Ann:Really? Wow!

Dave:Oh, good.

Ann:And this was your first one?

Carrie:It was.

Jonathan:This was this the first one.

Dave:What did you like? What was good?

Jonathan:It was an amazing atmosphere. The atmosphere is completely different from past cruises that we’ve been on. Everything is uplifting, encouraging, God-honoring—the entertainment, the musicians, the speaking—and then, what was even better was people, like you, coming and speaking, really encouraging, equipping, and inspiring us as married folks.

Dave:It’s really a great, great week.

Carrie:I thought all the speakers were incredible. Usually, when you attend—or maybe we haven’t been to one in too long—but the speakers usually are like: “Look at me; I’m perfect. I’ve got it all together, and you should be like me,” kind of thing. And you’re like, “Can’t do that.” But I felt like everyone was so real and authentic—and shared their weaknesses, their struggles—and connected with us. It’s like, “Wait! Even y’all said that from the stage. If they can do it, then we can do it,” kind of thing. That was encouraging.

Ann:I think the thing that’s unique about it too is—you can go to a Weekend to Remember getaway, which is phenomenal; and we would recommend anybody to do that—but when you have time to process with your spouse—you’re on the cruise seven days—and that can feel like a long time to people.

Dave:—in the sun.

Ann:—in the sun.

Dave:—process in the sun; better than the snow.

Ann:Generally, you go home to a chaotic home, where kids are/your life is crazy; you get back to work. This gives you a little time to have fun, to laugh, to tour,—

Carrie:—and dance!

Ann:—to dance.

Carrie:We had so much fun with the ballroom dancing.

Ann:We have lessons that you can take.

Jonathan:Yes, every night we went to a lesson.

Ann:But you have time, like, “Hey, what did you think of that?” You don’t always have that in just regular life.

Dave:That’s enough of a pitch.

Ann:Okay, that’s good.

Dave:Go to FamilyLifeToday.com, and we’ll have a link there to sign up for the Love Like You Mean It cruise. It’s almost sold out; it really is. So you want to do it.

Okay, let’s talk: “Why do you have this passion for making God real to your kids?” Every Christian parent I know—this is what we want to do—we are hoping and praying that God can be real to our kids when they’re toddlers all the way through adult.

Ann:And you have a passion to help disciple parents.

Jonathan:Yes.

Ann:Our listeners are like, “Oh, this is me. Help us; help disciple us.”

Jonathan:Well, the passion came from being a student pastor for like 15 years, at this point. I went on a quest. I went on a quest: “If I’m going to do this for my life, I want to be the best and most effective for reaching kids for Christ to become and they continue to be Christ-followers.” I just asked myself, “Okay, to be the most effective, I need to focus on: ‘What’s most effective? So what’s most effective?’—was it one-on-one discipleship, mission trips, retreats, Sunday school, youth group, parents? ‘What is it, frankly, that I’m doing that’s most effective and I need to do that?’”

I made a list of those things and the list of the kids that we had known. We now know kids, who are pretty old, when they were just 12 years old when they were in our program. I made that list of those kids, who are lifelong adults, who are following the Lord. I found the common denominator, and the common denominator wasn’t anything I was doing.

Dave:—as a youth pastor.

Jonathan:—as a student pastor. The common denominator with all those kids, who had a lifelong faith in the Lord, was that they had parents who effectively lived out their faith at home. They prayed together; made God real as a daily part of life; read the Word together; and just, authentically, made God a part of everything at home.

Ann:Jonathan, we saw the same thing at our church. We started our church—I think we were both in our early 30s—I think I was 30, actually. We did the same thing—as the church got older—we’re watching these students/these kids: “What’s happening with their faith as they get older?” And we’re asking those same questions: “Why are these kids so on fire for Jesus? What’s going on?” We discovered the exact same thing; it’s the home that’s making the difference.

Dave:Yeah, so what’s that home doing? You mentioned several things; but sometimes, as parents, we think: “Oh, they had the right curriculum,” or “They did the right Bible studies or devotionals.”

Ann:—or “We homeschooled,” or—

Dave:—or they didn’t go to public school. Is it all that—all the above? Every family wants to be that home; coach them up.

Jonathan:I don’t want to speak for my wife, but I’m not the perfect parent.

Carrie:Neither am I.

Ann:We wrote a book called No Perfect Parents.

Dave:There aren’t any.

Ann:There aren’t any.

Jonathan:There aren’t any, so we know that.

We actually have on our website a list of home impressions, things that you can do—things that parents can easily do—to make God a priority and known in the home. Our greatest passion is teaching families how to do things. Probably one of the two most important things would be praying together and reading God’s Word.

Carrie and I came up with an acronym: PRAY. PRAY is”

P is “Praise.”

R is for “Repent.”

A is “Ask for others.”

Y would be “Ask for yourself.”

“P”: “Finish the sentence: ‘God, You are…’” They would finish the sentence with an adjective for God. I think we still have on our website just a printout of adjectives that describe who God is.

“R”/Repent: “God forgive me for…” When we go around, and we’re doing this as a family, we want kids to acknowledge that they’ve got faults and they are in need of forgiveness.

Ann:So you would do that out loud.

Jonathan:We would do this out loud, and go around the table or couch, wherever we we’re sitting down.

Dave:Is this happening when they’re five years old, and when they’re fifteen?

Carrie:—babies. Our little tiny ones would have a little rock in their hand. While we’re “Asking for Others,” that’s when they would use their rock.

Ann:People are like, “Wait; where’d the rock come in?”

Dave:Yeah, what’s the rock?

Ann:What’s the rock?

Dave:They’ve got a rock in their hand, our boys are going to throw it—

Carrie:I know; right?.

Dave:—at another brother.

Jonathan:I know; that’s what a friend of mine, Barkley, said: “I can’t use rocks. My boys will be throwing them, and breaking windows and breaking heads.”

So we got “P” for “Praise God”; “R”/”Repent”: “God, forgive me for…”; “A”/”Ask for others.” And then, we’ll come back to the prayer rocks after that; that’s when we would use the rocks. And then, “Why ask for yourself.” We want our kids to be thinking about others; we want them to be others-centered. We want them to, not only be asking God for their things and their needs; we want them to be sensitive to the needs of others.

That’s our acronym: very simple, very easy. We would go around the table, and the family would do it. They would do it in that order. It was known and easy; and yet, meaningful. That’s what we still do.

Dave:Did you continue that into high school years?

Jonathan:Oh, yeah.

Carrie:We still use them.

Ann:Do you?

Carrie:And we always start with him. He goes first; and then, we go in birth order—oldest to youngest—and then, if there’s friends or guests, they would join in after the youngest child. I always finish.

Dave:So you have friends do this when they’re over?

Carrie:Yeah!

Jonathan:We kind of fill them in on our format and what we do so they feel more comfortable.

Ann:How often do you do it?

Jonathan:That changes based on the week and the year. When our kids were young, life—I thought—was hard; but it was actually easier. We would do it on a daily basis.

Dave:Really?

Jonathan:We don’t want to put that kind of pressure on parents, who are listening to this, if they don’t do this on a regular basis. The point is/the goal is—and I’ll keep saying it—to connect their hearts with God’s. Nothing does that better, I think, than praying together—putting a prayer request on a rock and seeing God at work—seeing God answer prayer. That’s what I think. I did youth ministry for a long time, and I really think kids grow up and grow out of their faith because they’re not seeing God at work.

Ann:So how did you come up with the rock?

Carrie:Well, we were working at a church. You know how, when you’re at church, you’re talking to people; and they’re telling you about things that are going on in their life. You’re like, “Oh, I’ll pray for you”; and then, you leave and go back home. And then, the next Sunday, we’re coming into church. As we’re driving into the parking lot: “I had told So-and-so I was going to pray for them and I forgot!”

I’m like, “That’s so bad. I’ve got to think of a way to remember to pray for these people. I need something visual.” I’m a very visual person, as are a lot of people. I’m like, “I need it right in front of me.” I had a journal; I would write the prayer requests in a journal and the answered prayers in the back of the journal. But then, it’s kind of “out of sight, out of mind.” We ended up messing around with different things—even popsicle sticks; we’d write prayer requests and put them in a canister—and you can really do anything. That’s nice when you’re traveling or something.

But we wanted something that would be prettier and a monument of sorts. We came up with—that was the craze of the painting of the rocks and people were putting rocks everywhere—I’m like, “Well, let’s write it on a rock!” He was looking up Scripture about it and read Joshua—

Jonathan:—Joshua, Chapter 4. This is really cool. To refresh our memory: Joshua’s leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. They come to the Jordan River; God stops the Jordan River from flowing. The ark goes in; everybody goes out. And then, God says to Joshua: “Get 12 guys. Go back to where the ark is and grab a rock; put it on your shoulder,”—so it’s a big rock—”Bring it out; place it here, and it’s going to be a memorial.”

God says to the people of Israel: “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you shall let your children know Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. The Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan until you passed over as the Lord your God did the Red Sea, which He dried up for us until we passed over so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that you may fear the Lord your God,” —so this visual reminder.

That’s what we use prayer rocks for—we write prayer requests on rocks—they’re a visual reminder. We’ll keep them in a bowl on the dining room table; they have just one word on them. When we pray, we pass those out to our kids—whoever’s praying with us—and sometimes, my sister and niece are with us. We use those rocks as reminders to pray for other people and things that are going on.

The cool thing is—when God answers that prayer—that goes into our memorial, which right now is in our hallway around the kitchen. Every time our kids go to the kitchen, there’s this—

Carrie:—which is a lot; they’re young adults.

Ann:Yes, of course.

Jonathan:So they’ve grown up with seeing a reminder of God’s faithfulness, of God’s power, of God being at work in our family’s lives.

Dave:So you have a memorial in your hallway?

Ann:What’s it in?

Jonathan:It graduated into something bigger than this right here, but it’s in a huge platter. It even has a bowl in the center of it because we’re overflowing; we’ve been doing this for years.

For listeners, who may want to do this and get started, very easy to get started. You could gather the family together, and just ask, “What are prayer requests that God has already answered?” Think about those; and then, they’re going to be challenged because we forget!

Ann:It creates a heart of gratitude, too, of: “Look at what God has done.” I think one of the reasons I like it—I was just telling our crew this—is I’m a very visual person too. I think I see, as God was appointing and telling the Israelites to do certain things, He used a lot of symbolism and reminders. If you look at Deuteronomy 6: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength; and you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I’m giving you today. Repeat them, again and again, to your children. Talk about them when you are at home, when you’re on the road, when you’re going to bed, and when you’re getting up.”

This is the Part Two: “Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

I don’t know: have you guys been to Israel?

Carrie:No.

Jonathan:We have not.

Dave:That’s next.

Ann:It was remarkable to me to go over to see Orthodox Jewish men on the plane, going over. I’m like, “What are they doing?” I had never seen these prayer boxes on their heads. I even wrote it down—it’s called a tefillin—I’m probably saying that wrong. They have Scripture in it; they put it on their head; and then, they tie that also around their arms. When they go in their house, there’s something called a mezuzah that they put on the doorposts of their house; as they enter in, they touch it. In this little—it’s just this little scroll-looking thing inside—they have actual Scripture of this verse. You see how it’s all symbolism? Remember the tassels on their robes?—it’s remembering. To me, this is all about that: you’re creating—

Jonathan:—a visual.

Ann:—a way for your kids to visually be reminded: “God is faithful; He is with us.”

Dave:Maybe, we need to bring your memorial out of the backyard into the house. She’s got one in the backyard.

Ann:I told them.

Jonathan:She mentioned that.

Ann:I haven’t heard very many people that have done this before either, so I was so intrigued that you guys are doing the same thing.

My friend, Michelle, and I would fast and pray for our kids one day a week. We ended up in my favorite woods by our house. I have a woods—I go; I pray; I sit there a lot—spend time with God. But on this day, Michelle was with me. I’m like, “Let’s write down our prayers and take these rocks as symbols of what we’re praying for our kids,”—we planted these rocks with our kids—she has three girls; we have three boys. I started going more and more often to that place, laying down these rocks, asking God for things. I would write them down too. Mine were outside, so it washed away; even the permanent [marker] washed away. I like yours way better.

Can you remember a time where your kids—their prayer was answered—and you could tell they were excited?

Jonathan:I don’t agree with God, necessarily, on this answered prayer. We had

12 puppies. I don’t know if you’ve ever bred puppies.

Ann:It’s like the tribe of Israel. Alright; you had 12.

Jonathan:We had 12 puppies. I’ll try to keep this short. We had 12 puppies, and we had mom and dad. Dad was our son’s—19-year-old, now, Josh—his dog. Well, of course, Bethany—who was like 10 at the time—wanted to keep one of the puppies. We said, “We cannot have another dog in this house, another big dog.” We said, “As soon as Blue moves out,”—which was Josh’s dog—”we will buy you a puppy; but we cannot do it now.”

She helped so much with these puppies. “You keep praying about this”; she wrote on a prayer rock, “Puppies.” Josh moves out, six months ago?

Carrie:Yes.

Jonathan:She didn’t forget. I’m like, “Carrie, I will do anything; I will pay anything. We do not need another dog.”

But God was faithful to Bethany. We get a call one day. It’s been a year since the puppies have been/had found new owners. This family had this dog/this puppy for a year, and said, “We can’t keep it; will you take it back?” Grudgingly, I was like, “Bethany, God answered your prayer.”

Dave:“There it is.”

Jonathan:Now, we have two dogs.

Ann:Oh, my goodness. What about when prayers aren’t answered the way you want? We both shared some stories that: “Look what God did.” A lot of our listeners are thinking, “I prayed for years, and God didn’t answer it the way I wanted.” What do you do with that, with your kids and family?

Carrie:Well, we’ve had deaths amongst friends and family members; and we were praying for healing. And then, we do—we put it in the answered prayer—”They are healed; they’re with the Lord.” We talk to our kids about that.

My sister—her family—had a horrible loss of their daughter, my niece. Even my sister—who obviously, every single day, hurts as a result of it—she’s even said, “I can see how God has worked good from this, and my faith is so much stronger. My husband’s faith is so much stronger.” Every day is more meaningful as a result of what happened and the loss that they had. We talk about those things so that the kids can see: “Yes, it’s tragic; it’s horrible, but there is good.” There’s always fruit and growth.

Jonathan:Yeah, God always answers: “Yes,” “No,” “Maybe,” “Not yet.” Can we trust God in the midst of not answering the prayers the way we think He should?

Dave:Maybe, you’ve already answered this—but as a youth pastor; and more importantly, as parents; because every Christian parent is asking the same question—“How do I help my little boys and girls, as they move through the middle school; and then, teenage years, adult years; how do I help them walk with God?” You said it already; of all the things, if somebody said, “I need three”; what are the top three?

Jonathan:We’ve already talked about praying together. I really think praying together, and seeing God at work—experiencing God at home—and not just hearing about the answered prayers from church and other places.

I think doing devotions together. I remember when our kids were four, six, eight, ten. They’re crawling all over me, and sitting on my lap; and one’s behind me on the couch. We tried, every morning before I went to ministry, to do ministry in my own home and read a Bible story. We were very consistent with that. Those are two of the most important things.

Ann:So the Word and prayer.

Carrie:I would say, “Faith without works is dead.” I think getting into service—and being in a body/in the church, and serving there—and also, whatever gifts or talents that you have, using them for God’s glory. Our 12-year-old—the spoiled one—is an aerialist. She does aerial—

Ann:I have a niece who’s doing that.

Carrie:Really? Cool!

Ann:Yes, she’s 12.

Carrie:I’m like, “I’m fine with doing this.” I have to drive back and forth to the gym all the time and that kind of thing. I go, “But we’re doing it for God’s glory.” She takes it on the road. We go to assisted living places, and we bring a portable one. We share the gospel, and she does it to worship music. She plays the violin and all that kind of stuff, too, that we do.

Ann:That’s what this niece does too!

Carrie:Really?! They should get together.

Ann:What a good idea to go to an assisted living, because she’s using her gift to serve.

Carrie:We hand out tracts the kids color. I take my homeschool co-op—there’s like nine or ten kids in the group right now—I teach the kids: “Whatever you do, do it for God’s glory because God wants to use your time, your effort, everything to share His Word.” You can do it creatively—it doesn’t have to be just from a pulpit or whatever—that we’re sharing the love of Christ. These people love it, and they love having these kids come. And then, the kids, afterwards, I send them out amongst the people/the residents. They share the little tracts that they colored. They talk to them; and they pray for them, and they hug them.

Ann:Carrie, that’s really cool.

Carrie:I love it.

Ann:It’s getting their eyes off of themselves.

Dave:In some ways, it’s what we model more than what we say. Everything you just said—you’re not like, “I got to do this so my kids walk with God,”—it’s your life. It’s what you’re doing, personally and as a couple, with God. It isn’t like: “I have to find a devo to…”—it’s coming out of my own walk—it’s an overflow. And kids smell that—they know if this is: “Oh, they talked about this at church Sunday; and now, Dad is leading us in a thing.” It’s like: “No, this is who he is,” “This is who she is. This is an overflow of their own walk with God spilling over into the family room.”

Jonathan:That’s why the Scripture—the command is: “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind,”—then: “Impress these on your children.”

Dave:Right.

Ann:Exactly. It’s on us first. We used to call it “car time,” “table time,” and—

Dave:—“bed time.”

Carrie:Oh, that’s cute.

Ann:They’re just natural places to be talking about God during the day as we go about our day.

Carrie:We don’t have to be perfect; we just have to show up, spiritually, for our kids. I get a lot of one-on-one time with Bethany, which is fun. I mess up a lot in front of her. I think it’s been great; because I get a chance to repent and to tell her: “I’m sorry. Mom didn’t mean to say that,” “…do that,” “I shouldn’t have gotten upset about that; will you forgive me?”

The neat thing is she’s one of the most—I don’t know—quickest-to-repent kids. She’ll be like, “Oh, I’m really sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to do that.” I think that me—admitting my faults; and bringing them out on the table, where everybody can see them, with the “Repent” on the prayer rocks—it helps kids to see: “We need a Savior.”

Ann:—and “We’re not perfect.”

Carrie:—and “It’s okay.”

Dave:Yeah. When you were saying that, I was thinking, “She’s just doing what she’s seen. Faith is caught, not taught. She’s catching it. It is your life.”

I was thinking, “How old’s your oldest?”—25?

Jonathan:Twenty-five.

Dave:And that’s the one who is married?

Carrie:No, the 23-year-old.

Ann:When’s that baby due?

Dave:She should bring him, next year, on the cruise, on the Love Like You Mean It cruise.

Carrie:We’ve talked to them about it.

Dave:Yeah. We met a lot of families on the cruise; they brought their kids/their adult kids. Some of them paid for them; said, “You’re coming on this cruise.” It’s as good as a Weekend to Remember, only it’s longer. Like we said earlier—so again, I’m just plugging the cruise—”If you guys want to sign up, go to FamilyLifeToday.com. We’ll get you signed up.”

Jonathan:And seven days feels like a lot; I’m like, “What are we going to do for seven days?”

Ann:It does, right? And then, it’s gone.

Jonathan:Yes! Sixth day, we’re like, “Oh, we have to leave.”

Dave:“It’s over already.”

Ann:I know. You guys, this has been really good and helpful.

Dave:Yeah, you’re going to help a lot of families.

Ann:Yeah.

Carrie:Thank you.

Dave:You should start a Hobby Lobby rock cylinder; I’m not kidding. Ann, we haven’t talked. I’m, literally, listening to you, thinking, “I was going in through my house:—

Ann:—of where we could—

Dave:“Where do we put this?”

Carrie:Good.

Dave:I think near the front door; maybe, in our family room. I don’t know. It’s like you want something.

Ann:Somewhere you go by it a lot.

Jonathan:Right; you want other people to see it; and you want all the kids, obviously, to see it.

Dave:We’re done with the woods thing. Well, we’ll have that too; but we need the house thing. It needs to be in the center of the house.

Ann:Yes, I think so too. I like it.

Carrie:I like it, too.

Dave:Yeah, I think a lot of families might copy what you’re doing.

Ann:As a listener or a viewer, if you have any good ideas—like some of you are probably crafty—send a picture to us. We can post those somewhere; that’d be fun.

Dave:We might just copy it. Thanks, guys!

Carrie:Thank you.

Jonathan:You’re welcome.

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