Taking it Deeper Tuesday: The Mission Minded Family

The Mission Minded Family

List Price: $ 14.99

Paperback: 188 pages

Publisher: Authentic (July 1, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1934068438

ISBN-13: 978-1934068434

Click here to read the first chapter and read about the author.

Taking It Deeper Tuesday is a new carnival about First Wildcard books, started by me. I started it because in reading all these Christian books, and reading other people's reviews of them, I've wondered what effect these books have had on people's spiritual lives. I've also had questions about the beliefs espoused in some of the books, and I've been looking for a place to have discussions about such things. I decided that here is as good a place as any.

Here is now it will work. Each Tuesday I will post a discussion question dealing with the spiritual aspect of one of the FWC books from the previous week (Tues.-Mon.) While the topic will be taken from the book, it will not be one which you will have to have read the book in order to answer--in other words, I'm not going to ask you what the character did, though I might give you a synopsis and ask you what s/he should have done. Some weeks I'll use a novel, others, a non-fiction book. To participate, you can either reply to the question in the comments section, or you can post the question and answer on your blog, and then use a comment to link us over there. If you use your blog, I'd suggest copying the book info at the top of this post, and the question below.

And now, for this week's question:

The first chapter of The Mission Minded Family says: "God will help you, as parents, to train each child toward God’s mission for his or her life, and He will help you to focus your family toward making a strong impact for His kingdom—in your community, in your church, in your children’s schools, and in the world."

Disclaimer: This is not a book I have read so hopefully I'm not taking this quote out of context and misrepresenting the book. That being said--

I think one difference between Catholics and Protestants is the lingo used. As Catholics, I think we would use the word "vocation" where the author uses the word "mission". The word "vocation" comes from the Latin vocare which means "to call". "Mission" comes from the Latin missio which means "to be sent".

Questions: (Sorry I didn't plan on two, but...)

1) Does God call us, or does He send us, or both?

2) As parents, what can we do to prepare our children to fufill their mission and/or vocation?

My Answers.

1. I think He calls us first, and that our response may allow us to be sent. To say that He sends us, to me, implies a lack of free will, and I don't think He ever takes that from us.

2. I think the most important thing we can do is to teach them to pray. The second most is to encourage them. If your daugher feels a call to be a nun, or your son to be a missionary to Africa, they are a lot more likely to listen to the call if you and others aren't telling them they'll outgrow it, or to try something else first.