{"id":23200,"date":"2016-02-09T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=23200"},"modified":"2016-02-09T10:04:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T15:04:42","slug":"the-vocation-of-a-teenager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/","title":{"rendered":"The vocation of a teenager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Vocation is in the here and now, and it\u2019s something all Christians have. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean just \u201cjob\u201d but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love and service to our neighbor. \u00a0So teenagers aren\u2019t just preparing for a vocation in the future; rather, they can love and serve now.<\/p>\n

Scott Keith, at the Jagged Word<\/a> (a multi-author blog you should keep up with, affiliated with 1517: The Legacy Project<\/a>), has written a great piece about his daughter Autumn and her service (to which I have a personal connection), along with misunderstandings people have about a teenager\u2019s vocation.<\/p>\n

From Scott Keith,\u00a0I Can Dooey It!<\/a>, at The Jagged Word<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Our youngest child is our daughter Autumn who is sixteen years of age. She has always been a very competent child. She learned how to do things very early; walking, talking, tying her shoes all came quickly and seemingly natural to her. When we would teach her to do something, as soon as she had even the slightest idea of how to do it, she would push our hands away and say, \u201cI can dooey it.\u201d \u201cI can dooey it,\u201d has been her motto from that time forward.<\/p>\n

\n

When she was twelve, she started babysitting two days a week for some friends of the family. When she started, the family had four children, one of whom has special needs. Soon after, they had their fifth child, and Autumn has been there twice a week every week doing her best to be of some help to this very busy family. Last year, she added to her cadre of duties by taking on the task of watching the infant of another friend once a week. So, three days a week\u2013\u2013about fifteen hours a week in total\u2013\u2013she works for these families watching their children, teaching them, helping them to potty train, dressing them, and filling in wherever necessary. She does all of this in addition to her standard home-school curriculum while taking two college courses a semester.<\/p>\n

My point is not to brag about Autumn per se\u2013\u2013though I am always ready to do that. Rather, my point is to examine the reaction of other people. Almost without fail, when we tell people about her babysitting endeavors, they inevitably say something like: \u201cSheesh, you better be careful letting her do all of that, she\u2019s never going to want to be a mother.\u201d Comments such as these always confuse me. Their argument seems to be that giving teenagers responsibility will cause them never to want responsibility again.<\/p>\n

To be honest with you, I think this line of thinking is dangerous. In fact, I know it is. It is another manifestation of the\u00a0helicopter and snowplow parent mindset. These parents seek to remove all responsibility and burden from the lives of children and instead produce anguish and anxiety in those same children. Removing legitimate vocational pursuits from the lives of our children and teenagers will only cause them to disregard the idea of vocation altogether. It is in living our Christian vocations that we learn how beautiful the gift of vocation is.<\/p>\n

I am not trying to say that every child needs to do as much as Autumn is doing. In fact, they don\u2019t. Rather, this is to say that we ought to stop being afraid that we will soil our children on the idea of vocation by teaching them to live it. If we are truly free to love God on account of what Christ has done for us, and free to serve our neighbor on account of what Christ has done for us, then we should not fear our freedom to serve one another in vocation.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .<\/a>Seriously, read it all.]<\/a><\/p>\n

HT: \u00a0Joanna Hensley<\/p>\n

Stay in touch! Like Cranach on Facebook:<\/em><\/p>\n

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Cranach<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vocation is in the here and now, and it\u2019s something all Christians have. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean just \u201cjob\u201d but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love and service to our neighbor. \u00a0So teenagers aren\u2019t just preparing for a vocation in the future; rather, they can love and serve now. Scott Keith, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,34,48],"tags":[2848,4273,4359],"class_list":["post-23200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-personal","category-vocation","tag-childrens-vocations","tag-teenagers-vocations","tag-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\nThe vocation of a teenager<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vocation is in the here and now, and it's something all Christians have. \u00a0It doesn't mean just "job" but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The vocation of a teenager\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vocation is in the here and now, and it's something all Christians have. \u00a0It doesn't mean just "job" but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-09T11:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-09T15:04:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/\",\"name\":\"The vocation of a teenager\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-09T11:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-09T15:04:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Vocation is in the here and now, and it's something all Christians have. \u00a0It doesn't mean just \\\"job\\\" but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/the-vocation-of-a-teenager\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The vocation of a teenager\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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