When all the little TCK/MK boys in my house were little, life was so much easier. It often didn't seem so with diapers and snacks and a million things to pack for even just a trip to the next town. Mama had to play games and sit on the floor with books and puzzles. She had to tend to wounds and fix hurt knees. Boys had to be "encouraged" to participate in outdoor Bible club meetings and with camp projects.
Now all the MK boys are teenagers and life is much more complicated. Sometimes no one wants to go anywhere. Sometimes they want to go to town but don't want to tag with Mama and Papa. Then there are the days at camp where nary a one can be found when things need to be done.
In some ways it's not all that different from when I was a teenager growing up in the middle of S.W. Virginia's rolling farmlands. I would hide from garden chores and my brother even pretended not to know my parents once at summer camp. Yet, the comparisons stop short at some point when all the added factors are weighed in on the other side of the globe.
What do missionary families do when their little helpers grow up and would rather "skip out" than "pitch in?" Now, please note, I'm not saying all my boys have turned into lazy-good-for-nuttins. On the contrary, I'm glad for boys that help when asked and are a big part of our work on the mission field. But some days are rough and then as a MK parent I have to ask myself, are MK's required to participate in all of their parents' missionary labors? It's a YES and NO answer...
It's one that we are learning to deal with every day as we live with three teenage missionary boys! Got any good hints? Send them my way! And pray! Pray that we do well and continue to raise up our fellows in the Lord's will and way. Pray, too, as we face furlough at the end of the year and get psyched up for all that cultural upheaval.
Deuteronomy 11:21
that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. Tauscher
Bless you, Michele! I don't have any advice. My 15 year old is working part time this month to save up money to go to GERMANY, and along with school, he has little time to do chores! So for this month, I'm sucking it up and taking care of things myself!
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