Pursuing Your Calling Rather Than Your Potential

I received Amy Chua’s book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother this past Monday and could hardly put it down.  Our lives and parenting styles are vastly different; however, each page I read makes me think about why I do what I do and how I can do it better.  Each night after reading I went to bed and thought about why I felt something huge was missing when taking the Tiger Mother approach to parenting; it dawned on me that, while the dedication and service to the children achieving their potential was unmatched, serving others was not a priority as the child became the extreme focus of each and every day.  God gave me the gift of a servant’s heart, so it becomes a part of everything I do and what I try to teach my children.

At the same time as reading the book, I listened to a sermon from Pastor Mark Driscoll in his series on the gospel of Luke.  Jesus just gets through casting out demons and healing the sick and in Luke 4:42-44 He moves on.  As you can imagine, everyone wants Him to heal more people.  He has the power to make everyone well but He does not.  He tells them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”  You see, He has huge potential but a very different calling.  He does heal others and casts out more demons but His focus is on preaching per His calling.

I have a very dear friend, Hannah, whom I met on a mission trip to Ukraine.  We were there to be of service to orphans, while showing Jesus’ love to them.   Hannah distinctly heard God’s calling for her life to be one of service to Ukrainian orphans.  For the almost three years since our trip she has been back to Ukraine three times, staying 82 days.  Did I mention Hannah is still in high school?  Not only does she have a heart to serve, she excels academically and has the most amazing voice.  Before the first trip, she was planning on majoring in music.  After several trips, she had everything in line to study at a Ukrainian institute for her medical degree, while pursuing her ministry with the children in the orphanage system.  Just recently she decided that, although by being a doctor she could be of great service (she certainly has the potential for it), she also wants to focus on orphans and eventually to be a mother.  With wisdom beyond her years, she understands her purpose is not in line with her potential.  She is instead pursuing a ministry degree and planning her permanent move to Ukraine this summer.  That is inspiration and inspirational.

In high school I wanted to be an architect.  I received early admission to the school of my choice in their pre-architecture program but was persuaded to go into geological engineering because, at the time, there was not a job market for architects, and the engineering field was a prosperous one.  I did not end up getting that engineering degree because in my junior year I hit a breaking point while working on a physics problem requiring me to calculate some sort of friction some sort of monkey caused by climbing up a rope.  I could not care less and felt my chosen path was wrong for me.  Always being the one to make rash decisions based solely on emotion, I switched to biology without a plan for what I would ever do with a biology degree.  After MANY years of blowing aimlessly from job to job, I discovered teaching and found my calling.  I had never thought of teaching before but now after teaching both high school sciences and preschool students, I cannot imagine any other field of work.  Looking back, I would have been a great architect.  I have a great aptitude for math (or at least I did at one point) and love design, building, and creating.  I do not regret not following my calling back then, as I would not have the blessings and pure joy I have now, or maybe I would, it just would have been different. 

So while Amy Chua pushes her children to pursue their potential, I have chosen to push my children to pursue their calling.  Do I know what their calling is yet?  Honestly, no.  But I do have an idea of what their calling is not.  It is awesome Amy had the courage to write such a book and give us an insight to the hows and whys of being a Chinese Mother.  Reading this will make me push myself and my children a little harder, but in their pursuit of calling instead of that which the world deems as potential. 

God Loves Me More Than That - Book Review

God Loves Me More Than That, a sweet, beautifully written book by Dandi Daley poses the question “how much love does God have for me?” This question is asked by an adventurous little boy and answered throughout the book. The illustrations by David Holm are captivating and detailed, capturing the heart of the story. The book will hold the attention of both boys and girls; however, I like there are many “boy” things – bumble bees, space shuttles, cowboys, footballs, semi-trucks, etc. Of course, my girls did not notice, they just enjoyed the story. The book does a fine job conveying to a child the depth of God’s eternal love as told in Ephesians 3:17-19.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Show and Tell - A Book of Inspiration

This week's Show and Tell Saturday over at Homesteader's Heart is all about sharing a book that has inspired you as a person.
This was a no-brainer for me, it's Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical which made me change my way of thinking about many things. It was funny and easy to read, was informational - I had to break out my highlighter, and it has changed me.

His message of simplicity is a great one in this age of materialism. Although doing everything his way would not work for us and I don't agree with all that he says, many of his ideas have hit home. It certainly does challenge you. If a book can do that, I believe it was a good choice!

Free Books Work for Me!

Have you already heard of Paperback Swap? I absolutely love it. All you do it find 10 books around the house that you no longer want. Create an account and add the books. You will then get 2 free credits. This means that you can get 2 free books right off the bat. You search their database and pick any two you want. That member then sends you the book. When a member requests one of your books you send it to them and earn another credit. When that member requests the book you print out a book wrapper - it's all done for you - tape it around your book and mail it (addresses and everything are already on it). You can use media mail that costs around $2.25 - much less than a new book and comparable to a book you can get resale.

**If there is a book that you want that is not listed you can put in a request. When another member lists that book it will notify you.

**They even have a printed postage option so you can skip the post office all together. There is a small fee for this but is probably less than gas to the post office. I haven't tried this yet but am going to do it the next time someone requests one of my books.

** There are almost 3 million books listed.

**What a great way to reuse and recycle. Maybe get rid of a little clutter (I know, you will just add more with more books)

If you love to read and it's obvious from the tons of books you have in your house, why not? Go over to Rocks In My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

Sorry about the plug below...while doing a little research (how many books were listed :) I found out that you could get credit for referring a member.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?r_by=gert003%40aol.com


If you use the link above to join, I'll get a free credit when you post your first ten books (and you'll still get 2 free credits for posting them!) but you certainly don't have to sign up through me!! Just an option :)