FERTILE GROUND WITH LEE ANN MANCINI // S03E03 (EPISODE 31)
Our choice to follow Jesus doesn’t just impact us—it impacts those closest to us, especially our kids. Arm your children with truth! We talk with host of Raising Christian Kids and producer of SeaKids TV, Lee Ann Mancini, about the value of preparing fertile soil for your kids early and often.
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VERSES FROM FERTILE GROUND WITH LEE ANN MANCINI
Isaiah 54:13, Psalms 78:6, Psalms 127:3
QUOTES FROM FERTILE GROUND WITH LEE ANN MANCINI
I couldn’t find books that would show children how to tangibly live out the biblical principles that I was teaching them. I wanted them to have a story that they could read that would show the child going through a difficult situation and then praying to Jesus and asking for his help or, or giving thanks for a situation and also show them how to behave, how to be loving and kind to others for their differences. So I wrote a few stories and I read them to my children and they loved them, read them all the time.
Lee Ann Mancini, Fertile Ground, The Pantry Podcast
In fact, the minute we found out that Michelle was pregnant, that was the day I started praying over that woman telling God, this is, this is your child.
Shea Watson, Fertile Ground, The Pantry Podcast
You know, whenever you find out you’re pregnant, you spend the rest of your pregnancy learning about birth. And a lot of parents get so caught up in something that at most, I mean, my labor was what, three and a half days something I was trying to do home birth. That’s a whole other episode, but, but, um, it’s a few days max, right? And yet becoming a parent is a now lifetime thing, raising a child, even when they’re an adult. There’s, you’re, you’re always their parent. And we don’t spend much time there.
Michelle Watson, Fertile Ground, The Pantry Podcast
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT
Shea: Hey, good to be back, sitting here behind the microphones. It’s always a good time to sit down with my wife. And today we—actually, we have a special guest.
Michelle: Lee Ann Mancini is passionate about helping children build a strong foundation in Jesus while learning compassion and love for others. She established God Loves Me Publishing and, in 2014, published Fast Freddy, the first book in her adventures of the SeaKid series. And then in 2019, she released her animation series in conjunction with P23 Entertainment. SeaKids now includes books, toys, educational materials, animations, and uplifting resources for children. You may also know Lee Ann as the host of the raising Christian Kids Podcast. Welcome.
Lee Ann Mancini: Thank you. I’m very happy to be here.
Shea: I think it’s awesome. So I didn’t know anything about SeaKids until, just like she said, “Hey, I have the producer of SeaKids. She’s going to come online. I started watching these episodes. Hey. Bravo, Bravo. I love them. I love the idea that Christ is centered. You know, you start them with a verse and then you expound on that verse through the animation. And that’s just beautiful.
Michelle: ‘Cause we just switched from Netflix to PureFlix a few months ago and so I was looking at all of the kids’ programming and that one caught my eye just because I love the quality of the animation. So we let Calia watch it. I loved it. It’s like, out of nowhere, these little crabs—I don’t know everyone’s name yet—but the little crab parents just drop biblical knowledge. Just bam, just straight out. No analogy, no anything. It’s like, this is what the Bible says, kids. It captured Calia’s attention. But I also know as she grows, it’s just very straightforward. She’ll be able to learn verses and see how a godly family interacts, how godly friends interact.
Lee Ann Mancini: Thank you. Yes. You know, it’s a big thing that I’m all about preparing that soil right now in which to plant seeds into rich fertile ground. So as she’s watching those videos, she’s hearing those Bible verses, and the more she watches them, she’s going to be able to recall those Bible verses.
I really believe that we need to give more meat to our little ones. We give a little bit too much story and they need some real solid meat to build that strong foundation.
Michelle: Right? I’m still nursing our daughter, but she’s also eating three solid meals and two snacks a day. And I think people, when they think of babies, they think milk for like five, six, like they just associate milk, but they, but then when they’re actually looking at a real kid, you know, they’re like, wait, why isn’t that kid eating some goldfish, some carrots, you know? It would be weird if you saw a toddler or a small child still completely on milk. So I love, I love that, that you have gone ahead and filled that void that you were seeing out there in the programming.
Lee Ann Mancini: Children love color. They love the underwater world. And we wanted to make sure that each child could comprehend the story easily. So the head animator worked for Disney. So, uh, our producer Cliff McDowell from P23 Entertainment, he did a fantastic job. As you say, really, really impressed with the outcome. And a lot of parents are writing us or emailing us and telling us they want to season two coming up. So we’re hoping to be able to provide that down the road.
Shea: Yeah, that’s so exciting. I was reading a little bit of the biography or an endless story behind it. And this started in a book: Fast Freddy. So how did that even come to mind?
Lee Ann Mancini: Well, we used to take trips to Michigan for the summer to go visit grandma and grandpa. We’d fill up our van toys and educational materials. And I’m talking about almost 30 years ago. I couldn’t find books that would show children how to tangibly live out the biblical principles that I was teaching them. I wanted them to have a story that they could read that would show the child going through a difficult situation and then praying to Jesus and asking for his help or, or giving thanks for a situation and also show them how to behave, how to be loving and kind to others for their differences. So I wrote a few stories and I read them to my children and they loved them, read them all the time. And then I figured I would shell them and bring them back out when my grandkids were born and God had other plans throughout the years, I kept feeling this tapping on my shoulder.
You know, these thoughts of publishing them so other children can enjoy them. So the first thing I did was having an editor edit my manuscript. It took me about a year to get an illustrator because if you see the books, they’re very, very fully colored illustrated, just like the TV show. And I wanted it to pop out at children and grasp their attention. And then I made a galley and I sent it to local Christian elementary schools with a questionnaire. And I asked the teachers, do you like the book? Do the kids like the story? What did the kids do after you read this story? How can I make the story better? Would you like to see more stories like this? And can I use your comments? You know, for marketing, if I decide to publish these, the response was overwhelming. Yes. They love the stories.
The kids would go to the corner and act out the stories with their little hand puppets. We need more stories like this. So that was my sign. Okay, Lord, you want me to do something? So I published Fast Freddy, and then I said, “do you want to do continue with this Lord? I need another sign. I’m going to send this book out for an award independent book publishers association for the Benjamin Franklin awards.” Now this is a secular award.
Michelle: Wow.
Lee Ann Mancini: And they get hundreds and thousands of books and these awards, give me a sign. Lord. If I win something, that’ll be my sign that you want me to continue to publish the rest of these stories. And I want second place. I want to silver or my little fishy Christian children’s book. And you know, we all decided to do GLM Publishing. My husband and I decided to go for it.
Michelle: That’s so cool. You know, I think when we were thinking about this episode, and then when we came to decide to, to ask you to be our guests, it made me think of Isaiah 54:13, where it says:
All your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children.
Isaiah 54:13
And this whole season is about worship, not just singing praise, but living out a life that praises the Lord and what can come against you when you actually are trying to follow the Lord, the challenges that come and, you know, as believers, the enemy doesn’t just attack us and come for us. But also our children, when we have them.
I know, SeaKids is such a tangible public thing you’ve done. And I love the idea that you saw the gap and started making books for your own children. What else have you kind of grasped from this whole journey of filling this void? What have you learned about the value of, and, and the methods of trying to instill truth in your children?
Lee Ann Mancini: Well, that is a great question because I learned a great deal. I just thought it was writing some simple stories to help children pray to Jesus and God has other plans. So from there I decided, Oh, maybe there’s more to this. I felt the Lord wanted me to help parents to teach their little ones, how to grasp concepts early to prepare, like I said, prepare that soil, right? Because we have a serious problem in our country. We are losing the next generation. 11 out of a hundred seniors walk away from their faith and they don’t return. So I said, okay, so I’m gonna do some research. And I took about two and a half years researching the brightest minds in children’s spirituality and condensing all this great information into one book.
Shea: Wow.
Lee Ann Mancini: So I’ve written a book and a study guide. And in my book is also a chapter implementing tools where I give the parents the tools, not only tell them what to do, how to do it, but here’s the tools to do it with. So I’m hoping to, you know, get that into the parents’ hands. And then in the meantime, I’m sitting on this great information I want to share. I just can’t wait to share them first at the same time, telling every parent, I mean, did you, blah, blah, blah, raising Christian kids, podcasts. That’s all I said, you want me to do a podcast on top of everything else?
And so I’ve teamed up with some great people in podcasting, Misty Phillips from Rocket Podcast, phenomenal. And so they’ve helped me greatly to get my podcasts going. And I’m sharing this wonderful information in a 10- to 15-minute weekly podcast for parents. I have one segment called Disneyland or Destinyland: does your child know more about Disneyland than Destinyland?
So it was like having a seminary education, how to raise children, to have a strong faith in Jesus, how to prepare, prepare the parents. You know, it’s really about key concepts built on introductory truths to help prepare that soil to be fertile ground.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lee Ann Mancini In Psalm 78, it says, teach it to the children who are not even yet born. I believe a lot of our parents don’t realize that this teaching starts in the womb. Amen. Amen. And it’s evident. Also, God’s word tells us that Paul was saved by grace before birth that says David, Jeremiah, Timothy, Samuel. They were all called either before birth or infancy. We need to start feeding our children, biblical concepts early and often, according to the Shima, Deuteronomy chapter six, when you rise up, when you walk along the path, when you lie down, impress these principles into your children,
Shea: Alright, I already like you’re doing exactly what I like. I like verse. I like to bring it out real. I like to teach it real. Um, as, as you were saying that I was thinking of like, Psalms 127:3:
behold, children are a heritage, a fruit of the womb.
Um, where does this fruit come from? You know, it’s like, it’s like, why would we be describing this as fruit? You know, something that we all like, we all like the fruit, right. Or we like to have fruit or we like to, and it’s already building up that idea that a child is that important and how we raise that child. I know that, um, when we had, or we’re going to have Calia, I turned her over to God. Yeah. Um, now granted, I didn’t take her to no temple. I didn’t bring her a jacket yearly, you know, that she could grow into. But, uh, with today’s society the way today is, um, and the things that are going to be coming at our kids as Christian parents, we’ve got to raise them from, from the start. In fact, the minute we found out that Michelle was pregnant, that was the day I started praying over that woman telling God, this is, this is your child. And let me tell you, as she came into this world and even in birth at the beginning, we’re supposed to be the scared parent I’ve always been there. Nah, she’s fine. She’s okay. She’s—God’s got her. And so I understand what you’re saying, you know, raising them up in the word. Um, as far as this household, we’re going to serve the Lord, you know, because there’s so many enemies and, and this year, this, this season actually, I like Michelle came up with a title for this season is really cool because it’s a battle and we’re fighting it.
Michelle: Um, when we were expecting, we prayed every night before we go to bed. And when we were praying, we would be very early on. We were like, Lord, let our child be used for your glory. May she have amazing intellect? So she can grasp your word and articulate from a ridiculously young age, like we were praying for these blessings so that he could use them. And then a few months in, when you can start feeling the kicking, she was most active. When we prayed, she would just kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. And it was this amazing confirmation. There was something for her. God had something planned, right? And so for us, we had this episode in season two in the way they should go where we’re like, you don’t have to be an experienced parent. If you have the word of God to know how to raise your child, because He’ll give you all of the customized things that are perfect for your individual child.
Lee Ann Mancini: But those deep roots that you were talking about, they’re the same for every child in your development of these things. What are some of the overarching lessons that you find yourself putting in again and again, that you might share with us that really help build that solid foundation. You can start with just little simple baby prayers for the tiny ones, the tiny, even before they can even speak. Because at six months of age, children understand more than, than they can actually speak. They understand what you can do or simple baby prayers. Jesus loves you. Jesus made that tiger. You need to say the name Jesus often all day long. They should be saying by the time that they’re talking, when you say, who do you love most, they should either say Jesus, or they should say mommy, daddy and Jesus.
And if they’re not saying Jesus, then that means you’re not talking enough about Jesus and then little prayers at night and use words like sin, salvation, honey, that’s a sin to lie. Now they might not understand the whole concept of sin, but you’re building a vocabulary and a category in their mind in which to prepare that rich soil to plant the seeds of understanding later. Right? I give another example of when mothers are breastfeeding or bottle feeding, when you’re, when you’re connecting that emotion that they have the child satisfaction, the happiness of being fed. Use the name of Jesus. Jesus loves you. Jesus is so happy for you. You’re connecting the name Jesus with that wonderful emotion. Right? So introduction.
Shea: Yeah, that’s really cool. Okay. So we’re driving back today from lunch and Calia gets frustrated. Cause I’m agreeing with you. I’m a hundred percent. I’m like you’re right. Start, start raising them up in the word because I need to understand, watch where their comfort comes from. And she was getting a little fuzzy it’s you know, in that time they get a little fussy and she threw her cup across the car and you’re like, okay, honey, you know, I know you’re frustrated. I said, you don’t need to throw your cup. In fact, why don’t you ask Jesus to comfort you right now? I said, just, just say, Jesus is comfort. Jesus. And you know what, for the first time today, first she said, amen. She knows amen. So she’s like, eh man. And then she goes, Jesus, Jesus. And she was calm the rest of the way home.
I mean, it has always shown when we bring him into the equation that there is a change even in a child that doesn’t understand, you know, can’t speak it out necessarily. But she’s understanding this piece that comes from Jesus. So, and I, I just, can I say something I’m real quick, season one, episode two is unique gifts and better together. I am a basketball player at heart. I love basketball. And I just loved how the poor little crayfish, I want it to just be on the team. Right. But then he goes home and his mom watched, he comes home, he’s sad. He wants to do something. I’m not going to throw it all out there. But he comes home and his mom gives him truth and says, you know what? It’s okay. How they treat, you, treat them better, treat them the way Jesus would treat them.
And you know, it comes down to the body parts and you know how we’re all one body. And they found out that dude could pass. And I’m like, what? So now he, you know, he became a part of that, that body, that click and, and the truth in it though lightened my day. Now I have another resource for my child to watch because there is not enough good Christian based TV. Not that we let her watch a lot of it, but you know, you want to sit them down sometimes because there’s good learning opportunities. And there’s like one we were watching for a long time. And, but we’re like, well, she’s going to get tired of this. Cause there’s only so many episodes. And then we found jurors and I’m like, I can’t wait until she starts to grasp a little bit more. And I’m, I’m down for season two, whatever it takes, let us know because, uh, I would love to be able to have more of these episodes.
Michelle: I think my favorite episode that I’ve seen so far is the little crab sisters that had to share a room and then see kids. They often have an issue in one scene, but then they go elsewhere. Maybe they have the issue at school, but then they come home and parents take notice and the parents bring in the biblical wisdom. And then you see the little characters go to their friends and impart. And it’s, it’s just like, you see how it passes and impacts all aspects of their life, relationally, how God can be implemented from parents, from siblings, from friends. And so it seems like your whole life has touchpoints where you can access biblical truth, which I think when you’re saying the meat and it being important, that’s what you need. There, there has to be a next step. You know, those shows that are super simple are great when they’re super little, but then what do you do next? You know, I think that those steps, those building blocks, where they keep expanding their understanding of what it means is so important. I think this show could expand some adults to on that level. I think it’s fair to say. And I’m going to ask you, if you agree with this, we are discipling our children.
Lee Ann Mancini: Oh, absolutely. And you know, you said about parents not really being equipped or knowing how to raise their children. Well, the disciples were not equipped. They know their backgrounds, but Jesus equips, those he calls exactly. And parents are called. It’s a calling when God and trusts you with the life of another human being that he has created, that is a big responsibility. And so I always say, you really need to educate yourself. Look, we planned for many things, we planned for vacations for what house we’re going to buy. Financial security parents need to plan how they’re going to raise their child and all the directives, everything they need is in God’s word. And they should write down every Bible verse that they find about anything to do with the next generation or raising children. And they should reach, research their commentaries and see what the experts are saying of the biblical meaning and apply those to everyday life situations.
That’s why in SeaKids, like you said, it’s not just about them at home. Something happening, a child goes to school. He goes, and he plays with his friends. He comes home. It’s learning how to apply God’s word in every area of their life. And it’s vitally important that we start really young because we only have like seven years to build that foundation. In my book, I talk about the sand palace, that it was a house that was built in Mexico city. And when hurricane Michael came through the panhandle, it destroyed every single house except for the sand palace. And when they interviewed the people who constructed the sand palace, they asked him, why is your house standing like untouched? Right? And he said, well, when we decided to build this house, we decided to go above and beyond code. So we built the house to withstand 240 to 250 mile per hour winds.
And the pylons, we gave them 40 feet instead of 30 feet because we kept asking ourselves what it’s survived the big one. And that’s what we need to do. As parents sending your kids to a Christian school, reading your Bible, sending them to Bible, study a vacation Bible study, playing with other Christian kids. That’s great. You should be doing that, but are you going above and beyond? Are you starting to teach them when they’re in the womb? Are you teaching them every day after birth moment? By moment, day by day, instilling this solid foundation. That’s not going to crack against this ever increasing evil, secular world. They are finding a world when they’re adults, it’s going to be worse than we have right now for us. And when people say, Oh my kids, you know, they’re, they’re the salt. We’re going to keep them in public schools. No, they’re not the salt. They are in bootcamp. They are training to one day, be adults. The adults are the salt and the light of the earth right now they’re in bootcamp and we’re training little warriors and we better equip them. You know, ISIS schools we’ll train starting at three years of age for their kids. At eight years of age to go kill someone in the name of Allah. Surely we can start training our little ones to be strong, to love in the name of Jesus.
Michelle: Amen. As a mom, I can attest to seeing this very often that the idea of childbirth is scary enough, both for us physically, but also for the wellbeing of our children that we spend. You know, whenever you find out you’re pregnant, you spend the rest of your pregnancy learning about birth. And a lot of parents get so caught up in something that at most, I mean, my labor was what, three and a half days something I was trying to do home birth. That’s a whole other episode, but, but, um, it’s a few days max, right? And yet becoming a parent is a now lifetime thing, raising a child, even when they’re an adult. There’s, you’re, you’re always their parent. And we don’t spend much time there. We might get that unexpected, sometimes unsolicited parenting advice from, from other people. And there’s discernment in that it can be a blessing, but our active pursuit of how to be a parent is what I challenge all parents, all expecting parents to do, because it’s so much less scary to be a parent when you know, God’s on your side, because you’ve been drilling that into your soul for the time that you’ve been preparing, you know what I’m saying? I think even before we conceived, we wanted to have a child. And so we started focusing more on those verses and praying to God about it, let it be your will let it, you know, kind of surrendering it all to him. And that’s kind of what I mean, that’s what you’re saying. And, and I love how clear it is when you see a child that’s been brought up from just from the moment they existed, you know, that God’s in their home
Lee Ann Mancini: Because it’s, I see the fruit of it at our church. It’s not just our daughter. It’s all the little children there that are just flourishing in ways that are unexpected. Because you know, at home, Jesus is invited to the table all day long. Yeah. Whore. Horesh Bush. Now he’s, um, a theologian from the 18 hundreds, but he said a child should be raised to believe they’re Christian and no, no different, nothing different there to always know they’re a Christian and nothing else. And when you were talking about pregnancy, a lot of mothers they’ll be preparing for what’s the nursery going to look like, right? What bottles do I want to use? What diapers will I use? What’s the best food to feed my child. That’s great. But how about how you’re going to intentionally ways this child at all stages of their little lives, what you’re going to do to see what you’re going to do and say, I’m start preparing for the spiritual teaching. Cause that’s more important than any teaching at all, because that’s, that will take them into heaven into eternity. Right. And don’t sugar coat it. Yeah.
Shea: Well actually I got the Bible app and you know, you can, you can set it to read scripture for you. And I’ll put Calia on the counter downstairs as I’m preparing breakfast and we’ll listen to the Bible together. I’m like, just let it be in the atmosphere. Um, but Hey look, SeaKids cartoons, come on. That’s awesome. No, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed the complexities in your show that you’ve put together through, you know, the grace of God. He started just with wanting to take care of your own. And you know, that’s where it starts. It starts there. It starts at the home. It starts, you know, Hey, if you’re blessed enough to have two parents, parents stick together, be one minded, be equally yoked to Jesus Christ. If you’re not, Hey, you can still be that, that powerhouse stick together with Jesus. That’s our marriage.
Um, and so then raise our kids in that marriage because honestly I know in my own life, from my own experiences, from, from my past, Jesus has my solidification, everything else to include my child and my wife and everything else could actually fade away because Jesus is still going to be there. And we need to raise our children in, in this idea that they’re okay in Jesus, that, that no matter what happens to them, whatever fades away, he never does that. He’s always there always ready, arms open, ready to just propel them forward through any trial or test that they might go through. And man, I am thankful for people like you, who continually put out good content that help us as parents, you’re making content available. That’s going to help my child. That’s going to raise her up in the way of the Lord, which is going to give her empowerment that lasts that does lift them up, talking about the bride of Christ.
Lee Ann Mancini: And in my book, um, I do a chapter geared for children, teaching them how to be the bride of Christ. When you’re reading the story of snow white snow, white went under a spell and she took a bite of a poison fruit, one under like a deep sleep like death. Her Prince came, his love rescued her. And he took her into the palace. His father’s palace to live forever. What story does that remind us of?
Shea: Right. I like that.
Lee Ann Mancini: You know? And um, I believe that we have to really start thinking about how we’re going to raise the next generation. We need to not look at our children through our childhood eyes. Right? Okay. Cause we look at our children. We want them to play and have fun and not to be serious, not to be worried. And that’s great. But we got to start looking also at our children, through our adult eyes in preparation to prepare them for this world. So we need to teach them how to be loving and kind against the bully. Right? Your child comes home and they’re crying because you know, Johnny called him a name and Johnny’s picking on him instead of saying, well, let’s talk to Johnny’s parents. Let’s see what the teacher. And let’s find, sit down and say, you know what, Johnny, we got to pray for Johnny. There’s something wrong with Johnny. Let’s forgive him. Let’s pray for him. What you’re doing is you’re taking the fear away from the bully and you’re teaching your child how to love unconditionally. Of course, now Johnny gets a little bit rough and starts touching your child. That’s a different story, but try to do the things that Jesus would do and his teachings, not what the world constantly says. We should, how we should do it. Right.
Shea: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Hey, we really appreciate your time
Lee Ann Mancini: So much for being here. And I thank you for having me on your podcast. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
Shea: I, I I’m edified. I am definitely edified. It’s time to be bold. And when I say that, not going out and just beating people down in the word of God, but teaching, like you said, little Johnny let’s pray for him. Let’s love him. Let’s do what Jesus would do. And just take on that, that truth and share it. Amen.
Michelle: Amen. For everybody listening. Remember you can always rate, review, share, subscribe to The Pantry Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and of course on ThePantryPodcast.com. Don’t forget to give us prayer requests. You can support us with merch. You can send us questions on there and you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram @ThePantryPodcast.
Shea: And I think all of Lee Ann’s details will be in the awesome till next time.
Michelle: Yep. Bye.
Shea: Bye.