Releasing Your Children to Serve

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*This post contains affiliate links. Some of the books mentioned in this post were given to me to promote as I see fit. All opinions are my own and are my honest thoughts about the books.

Releasing Your Children to Serve

Wow! This week went by quickly, and I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but I did get some of my summer reading done!

I’m over halfway finished with Tricia Goyer’s Blue Like Play Dough now. This week I read about Tricia allowing her children to be involved with her in serving the community and about her struggles with doing that. She wondered how much she should let them participate, cringed when she saw them being taken advantage of by some of the people they were helping, and had to learn to gradually let go so they could learn how to serve wisely and well.

This caused me to do a lot of soul searching. I have one child who has already surrendered to a call to missions, so this is a sensitive topic for me. We serve in our church and community—actively, as a family. We have also had to discuss with our children the fact that some people they try to serve may attempt to take advantage of their time and willingness to help and that they must serve with discernment. BookGirl has already been on one in-state mission trip with our church and will go on another one this year. I know that both of my children will continue to serve and volunteer in ways that God leads them to, so I need to gently, gradually, as their maturity and circumstances dictate, let go so they can do all that God has called them to.

Other reading progress I’ve made:

• I am almost finished with Moms’ Night Out and other things I miss . . . . by Kerri Pomarolli.
• I confess that I got sucked into reading Hacker by Ted Dekker. (I’m a big Ted Dekker fan.) I’m over halfway through it too.
• I’m reading more in Restless by Jennie Allen.
• I found some friends to work through Hands Free Mama with me, so we’re going to begin gradually going through that. I’ve already taken a big step by turning off notifications for Facebook on my phone.
• I’m reading Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper aloud to the kids. It’s so funny! (Review and giveaway coming at the end of the month!)

Writing Goals

I almost met my goals for this week! I didn’t get the 500 words written, although I do finally have direction for the structure of the book! Instead of doing the writing on my book, I wrote an article for another site. It was a paying gig, and we need the cash flow.

Next week, I plan to work on the first two chapters, writing at least 500 words a day.

What are you learning through your summer reading? I can’t wait to hear!