Skip to main content

Life Used to Be Easy


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.

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  Tauscher
Labels:

Comments

  1. Betsy de CruzMay 12, 2013 at 11:45 AM

    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!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you would.

Popular posts from this blog

The Sun is Not Yet Set

  Byron, the guy in the white helmet, turns 61 today.  That's our son, Byron the Third in the black helmet.  He'll be 30 on his next birthday at the end of the year.   My husband and I were close to thirty ourselves when we had our first son. Lately it seems that every other day or so someone wants to know "When we are going to retire?" Sometimes it feels more like, "When are you going to leave" is the real question, but that's a story for another post sometime. Has the sunset on our work and ministry in Brazil?  Is it time to hang our hats and pack it all up.  Are we too old? Too old for what?  Too old to tell others about the love of God?  Too old to preach and teach?  Too old to ride a motorcycle on dirt roads? Okay, you may have us on that last one!  It took a few days to recover from our 8 days of motorcycle travel with our oldest and his wife last month.  It took a few weeks to recover from all the bumps and aches of our ...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Promise Verse

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This verse has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. When I was a high school senior at a Christian school in Virginia, Job 23:10 was chosen as our class theme verse. At our graduation commencement, the valedictorian and saludatorian in their addresses that day divided the verse in its two natural parts as a basis for the core of each one's address. I was the salutatorian of my senior class that year.  I chose to speak of how God would one day reward our faithfulness and thus, we should always strive to remain true. For many years though, the first part of the verse haunted me in a way. As a missionary especially when times were lonely or difficult, I assumed it was my "trial" or "test," and as such must be accepted in all humility. As I have grown older, I have begun to look more toward the pearly gates and have reconsidered the thr...
2 comments
Read more

Old Film, Same Message

A missionary colleague recently uploaded some old films made about the work in Brazil by Baptist Mid-Missions many years ago in the 1950's. Yesterday I was able to watch the first of the series.  All I can say is "Wow!  Things haven't changed much in Brazil.  And things haven't changed too much with the work of missions in Brazil either!" There are still donkey carts in the street.  They have better wheels nowadays! There are still people who live in grass huts and high apartment buildings, too. Bicycles are still many people's only means of transportation, if they are that lucky! Many roads in the interior towns are still paved with cobblestones, if they are paved at all. And yes, chickens are everywhere, even in big cities. Brazil still needs missionaries! That's right, Brazil is not evangelized and in no need of foreign missionaries today.  It still needs workers to spread the Good News of the Gospel and the Risen Saviour!  Sadly that part of t...
2 comments
Read more