Never too early to discern
In the past few weeks, Myles has been working on his plans for his future. I think he might be caught up in the various levels of panic of plan-making going on in our home---new baby coming within the next month, probable move to another city in China, dreams of moving back to the US, etc--and wants to get in on the action. For a while he would say things like, "when I'm 20 and I go to work with my dad," and more recently he's been talking about "the candy company I'm going to start when I'm 23."
Somehow we recently ended up discussing discernment, but, hopefully, on a level that he can understand. He was playing with my little Playmobil nun doll and he asked me, "What does she do again?"
So we talked about sisters and priests. In Pittsburgh I don't think Myles ever met a nun, but here in China one of the daughters of a family with which we are close is a sister working at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Guangzhou. So I explained to him how Sr. Rita has heard a call and chosen a special life that allows her to serve God and His Church, and she'll never get married or have a family, and how priests make similar decisions. I assured him that there were different paths to serving God, including for those who have families.
He thought for a minute and said, "I think I'm going to choose to have a family." I think I said something along the lines that he had a long time to make that decision.
Sunday night before Mass he whispered to me, "My angel is sitting right in front of me (pointing to empty space in the pew). I think he has already told God that I am going to choose to have a family."
We certainly wouldn't want God to be taken by surprise.
Somehow we recently ended up discussing discernment, but, hopefully, on a level that he can understand. He was playing with my little Playmobil nun doll and he asked me, "What does she do again?"
So we talked about sisters and priests. In Pittsburgh I don't think Myles ever met a nun, but here in China one of the daughters of a family with which we are close is a sister working at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Guangzhou. So I explained to him how Sr. Rita has heard a call and chosen a special life that allows her to serve God and His Church, and she'll never get married or have a family, and how priests make similar decisions. I assured him that there were different paths to serving God, including for those who have families.
He thought for a minute and said, "I think I'm going to choose to have a family." I think I said something along the lines that he had a long time to make that decision.
Sunday night before Mass he whispered to me, "My angel is sitting right in front of me (pointing to empty space in the pew). I think he has already told God that I am going to choose to have a family."
We certainly wouldn't want God to be taken by surprise.
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