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The vocation of a teenager

The vocation of a teenager

Last updated on: February 9, 2016 at 10:04 am by Gene Veith

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The vocation of a teenager 2016-02-09T10:04:42-05:00 Gene Veith

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Vocation is in the here and now, and it’s something all Christians have. It doesn’t mean just “job” but refers to the arenas God brings us to for love and service to our neighbor. So teenagers aren’t just preparing for a vocation in the future; rather, they can love and serve now.

Scott Keith, at the Jagged Word (a multi-author blog you should keep up with, affiliated with 1517: The Legacy Project), 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’s vocation.

From Scott Keith, I Can Dooey It!, at The Jagged Word:

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, “I can dooey it.” “I can dooey it,” has been her motto from that time forward.

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––about fifteen hours a week in total––she 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.

My point is not to brag about Autumn per se––though 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: “Sheesh, you better be careful letting her do all of that, she’s never going to want to be a mother.” Comments such as these always confuse me. Their argument seems to be that giving teenagers responsibility will cause them never to want responsibility again.

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 helicopter 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.

I am not trying to say that every child needs to do as much as Autumn is doing. In fact, they don’t. 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.

[Keep reading. . .Seriously, read it all.]

HT: Joanna Hensley

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