Bedrooms — like life — will be messy sometimes, and even though earthly parents have a limit to how much of their child’s messes they can handle, God our heavenly Father knows no such limits. God Himself was born into an absolute mess, physically speaking.

“I picked up Ascension Press’ recent release Biblical Heroes because it looked like a meaningful, yet practical way to start each homeschool day with my kids ages 6–16. Between its bite-sized chapters and the many thoughtful discussion questions sprinkled throughout the text based on thirteen scriptural heroes such as Abel, David and Esther, I could tell it would be a huge hit with my family. And I was right.”

CatholicVote asked Hart for recommendations on how best to present the Bible to young people, especially middle schoolers who may think Scripture is confusing or only meant for older people. “I begin by calling out the elephant in the room and admitting, ‘Yep, the Bible can be confusing… very confusing,’” Hart responded. “Sure it seems and sounds like it’s an out-of-date, out-of-touch book, but that’s only when you don’t know where to look or how to read it.”

I had fifty eyes glaring back at me with exhaustion and boredom. It was my first foray into a Catholic middle school classroom as a guest teacher for religion. I was twenty-one years old, relatively “hip” by preadolescent standards, and one week on the job as a new parish youth minister. After a whopping thirty minutes of preparation for a Bible study on peer pressure, there I stood, Bible in one hand and coffee in the other. I was woefully unprepared but didn’t know it.