God had different plans for me, and His plans are always better. For about a year, I had a growing sense that God was leading me to begin a new ministry. During that time, the name Training Them Wisely kept coming to mind. I had no idea yet what it would become. I also didn’t always understand what intentional family discipleship looked like. I loved Jesus, loved my children, and was faithful to take them to church and teach them about God, but I came to realize that there was a difference between raising children in a Christian home and intentionally discipling them in the everyday moments of life. I wish I had understood that earlier, and that realization became part of the burden God was placing on my heart. Fast forward about a year. After living for years in a pretty wonderful church, homeschool, family, and friend bubble, I attended a homeschool conference that changed the way I saw the world around me. I heard statistics about how few people in America hold a biblical worldview and how many young people are embracing beliefs that are contrary to Scripture. I hate math, but I love statistics, especially taking numbers and making them understandable and meaningful to others. Those numbers broke my heart. My bubble had been popped. I started paying much closer attention to what was happening outside my own circle. I went into the community, knocked on doors, and talked with more than 400 people about faith. What I heard shocked me. I began serving children in the community and talking with their parents, and the more people I met, the more clearly I saw the need. Around the same time, a group from my church began providing after-school snacks, Bible study, and games for children in a low-income community. As I got to know those children and their families, God continued to expand my understanding of the needs around us. One thing became increasingly clear: if I wanted to reach children, I needed to help equip their parents. Then women began asking me to teach them how to read and study the Bible and how to pray. Within about a month, nearly 200 women had expressed a desire for help. I remember thinking, Okay, God. You have my attention. Classes began to spring up where I could encourage women to get into God's Word for themselves. For many of them, it was the first time they had ever read an entire book of the Bible. Their excitement was contagious. Some of the emails I received during that time are still among my most treasured. There is something incredible about hearing a woman say, “I just read an entire book of the Bible for the first time,” and then hearing how God's Word is changing her life. At the same time, parents were asking me more and more questions about discipling their children. I began teaching family discipleship classes and eventually started the Training Them Wisely: Discipling Kids podcast with my friend Rebekah Messer. Then I wrote my first book, Training Them Wisely: Discipling Kids. That book took an enormous amount of time, prayer, and research. I remember praying that if even one person read it and it helped them disciple their children, all the work would be worth it. But I also told God that I would really love for 200 people to read it someday. God was incredibly kind. Two hundred copies sold on the first day. Since then, Training Them Wisely has grown far beyond that first book. I now write Bible studies and create resources designed to equip parents, churches, and Christian educators as they disciple the next generation and help people of all ages grow in God’s Word. Our Bible studies make it possible for children, teens, and adults to study the same Scripture together at levels designed for different ages and abilities. Today, Training Them Wisely exists to help families, churches, and homeschool communities make biblical discipleship authentic, consistent, loving, intentional, and a natural part of everyday life.