CONVERSATION STARTER FOR PARENTS

You’ve probably heard of “escape rooms”—you know, those places where you get locked in a room with your friends and then try to escape by solving puzzles and secret codes? Some people love them and can’t wait to solve the puzzles, while others count down the minutes until they’re over. Just like an escape room, we all handle difficult and painful situations differently . . . but often we look for some type of relief. Maybe it’s a Netflix binge, or gaming, or spacing out while listening to Spotify. Maybe it’s staring at a phone and scrolling for hours. Whatever it is, we all have a favorite distraction—something we get lost in. Something that helps us escape reality. But the trouble is, these good and fun distractions sometimes lead to hurting others, hurting ourselves, or damaging our relationship with God. In this series, we’ll look at how to deal with difficult situations in our lives. As we do, we just might find that God’s inviting us to stop avoiding and escaping hard times, and instead, face our troubles head-on. And maybe we’ll see that through our struggles, God builds our character, provides us with comfort, and calls us to share that comfort with others.