Nonfiction,  Parenting

Parenting Is Your Highest Calling (or… is it?)

I’ve had Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us In Worry and Guilt on my TBR list for a couple of years. In it, Leslie Leyland Fields debunks a number of perfectionistic expectations that can lurk below the radar and leave us with the nagging feeling that we’re sub-par as parents. They are presented as “myths” common to evangelicals:

  1. Having children makes you happy and fulfilled
  2. Nurturing your children is natural and instinctive
  3. Parenting is your highest calling
  4. Good parenting leads to happy children
  5. If you find parenting difficult, you must not be following the right plan
  6. You represent Jesus to your children
  7. You will always feel unconditional love for your children
  8. Successful parents produce godly children
  9. God approves of only one family design

Whether or not you struggle with discouragement because of any of these lines of thought, this is a book I recommend to refresh your faith that God can operate through a variety of styles and structures to accomplish his plan for both you and your children. It doesn’t hinge on perfection, but on faith. Fields punctuates a reasoned, biblical discussion with anecdotes and experiences that left me with enormous respect for this mother of six, writer, teacher and co-operator (with her husband) of a commercial fishing business in Alaska.

I married late (32), and had children later still. I had already invested a lot of time and energy on a life path by the time children came on the scene, and this may be why I haven’t really struggled with the feeling that parenting is the one and only calling on my life. But I do struggle at times trying to determine the “what else.” This book didn’t help me with that exactly, but it did reinforce the essential goodness and largeness of God’s purposes in our lives in ways I found encouraging.

3 Comments

  • Carrie, Reading to Know

    Hmm. This is a very interesting premise and one that, on it’s face, I’m not totally sure I would agree with. I’d be very curious to read her thoughts for myself to see if I agree with the things that she’s saying. Very,very curious!

  • Janet

    I should clarify that she’s not saying “anything goes.” But she does show how if we get too attached to this or that plan or principle, we can end up trusting in that instead of God.

    I hope you read it so I can hear your thoughts.