Leslie Fields, “Parenting is your highest calling” 자녀교육보다 더 큰 부르심이 있다. 그 때야 바르게 사랑할 수 있다.

Leslie Leyland Fields, “Parenting is your highest calling” And 8 Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt, Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbooks Press, 2008  

Myth 3 Parenting is your highest calling

I understand the essence of that these women were saying, I feel it too: my role as a mother to my six children is one of the most essential duties and loves of my life. Yet as I listen to some voices in the Christian culture address issues of family and parenting, I am concerned. (61)

The mother of Zebedee’s sons (Matthew 20): She came to Jesus not as a child of God but as a mother on a mission. Her concern was not the death of her Savior but the fame and well-being of her two sons…. In her mother’s pride, she had elevated her desires for her children above the concerns of the Savior…. She had buried her own needs and found her fulfillment through the success of her husband and her sons. (64-65)

Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:37-39)

He could have said no out of his concern for God’s own promises that “through Isaac… your offspring will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:12)…. We know this because the book of Hebrews tells us that he believed God could raise Isaac from death… God sent a ram to take Isaac’s place – a ram that foreshadowed the coming of Christ as the sacrifice that takes our own place in judgment. What God asks of us, he himself will provide. (69)

After choosing obedience to God over his love for his son, what kind of father did Abraham become? I am certain he did not love his son any less. But perhaps his love changed. He was now freed from requiring from Isaac what only God could give. His legacy was not his blood-and-flesh progeny but his extraordinary faith in God, which god counted as righteousness. (69-70)

It is possible to love our children too much… God calls us to our own family, but also calls us to….a stranger whom God calls our ‘neighbor’ and commands us to love. (70-71)

The family reunion that awaits us at the end of time is not a reunion with our family of origin or the family we are raising but a reunion with God our true Father and our blood-bought brothers and sisters. (71)

This might mean giving up the idea that we alone are the best and only godly influence upon our children. (72)

 

I know an even greater call: the call to know and love God. If I pursue God first as my highest call and am satisfied in his love, then I am freed not to love my children less but to love them rightly. (72-73)

Knowing this, when my children disappoint me, I need not to be shaken. I am freed to love them as God loves them. (73)

 

Reflection

1.     What are some of the callings on your life right now? When are you most likely to feel those callings compete with one another?

2.     Do you believe it’s possible to love your child too much? Why or why not?

Genesis 22:1-19

3.     What do God’s words in verse 2 suggest about how God sees our relationship with our children?

4.     How did God use Abraham’s obedience to bless the nation of Israel (15-18 vv)?

5.     In what way(s) might Abraham’s obedience to God have freed him to love Isaac more?

6.     When are you most tempted to put family before God?

7.     Describe a time you experienced God’s blessing on your choice to serve him before directly serving your family.