{"id":842,"date":"2008-08-14T12:27:04","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T12:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/08\/god_calling.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:44:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:44:47","slug":"god_calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/08\/god_calling.shtml","title":{"rendered":"God Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"

My two oldest daughters, Emily 11 & Jessica 13, are at that self realization stage in their lives. It’s a challenging time, they’re figuring out who they are and who they aren’t and what they can become. As their ages would suggest, they are in different places in this journey, but at the same time similar. In some ways the younger one seems to be rushing headlong into the fray while her older sister proceeds with caution.
\nA few weeks ago, after a particularly challenging evening, I was talking with the 13 year old and I asked her why she had acted as she did that night. Her response, through tears, was “I don’t know! I don’t know why I do half the things I do anymore!” Her frustration and confusion was palpable. Ah yes, welcome to puberty. \ud83d\ude00
\nHer younger sister has always been the tough one. I’ve written about her struggles<\/a> as she approaches puberty before and they continue. The nature of her personality – driven, fearless, outgoing, selfish – means she gets in more trouble than the others. She’s not a bad kid, not hardly, but she just rushes in headlong and before she knows it, she’s busted. At times, in the evening after a particularly tough day, she lays in her bed and cries. “Why am I this way?” she asks. It’s hard for an 11 year old to understand why she seems inclined to sin. Of course, she doesn’t see the more subtle, but not less serious, ways her sisters sin, to her God made her worse than they.
\nDifferent questions, but both rooted in the bigger question of “Who am I?” My answer to both, at least in part, is the same.
\nPay attention, God’s calling you.
\nI told them both that this is God showing you that you need Him. In their failures, God is watching (I wonder if their loss of innocence breaks His heart as it does mine?) and He’s waiting for them to realize that they can’t make it on their own. He’s calling them in their inadequacies. The answer is not for them to work harder to be different. Although that’s needed, it’s not going to ultimately fix the problem. Try as they may, they’ll never make themselves into the person that they want to be, let alone the person that God wants them you to be. No, I believe that in this common struggle, God is there, knowing that He has the cure, calling their names, hoping they’ll respond.
\n“Emily, you need me to make it though. You cannot do it alone, you will continue to fail. I can help you do it, in fact I’ve already done it for you.”
\n“Jessica, without me you are nothing. You aren’t who think you are, you don’t even know who you are. But I know who you are and what I can make you.”
\nMy goal isn’t to make them into better people as much as it is to point out the voice of God calling to them and help them to hear it and by listening, to be transformed. Because I know personally that all the hard work in the world does little but prove how inadequate I am. It wasn’t until I dropped my fight and turned to Him that I found peace with my self. If they will hear Him calling, drop their own fights to be better and follow Him, then he will make them better.
\nIt’s a lesson that I still need to remember all too frequently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My two oldest daughters, Emily 11 & Jessica 13, are at that self realization stage in their lives. It’s a challenging time, they’re figuring out who they are and whoRead More God Calling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGod Calling - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/08\/god_calling.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Calling - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My two oldest daughters, Emily 11 & Jessica 13, are at that self realization stage in their lives. 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My Dad is an avid Barbershop singer (for about 38 years now) and my Mom is a tap dancer. Dad's placed as high as 13th in international quartet competitions and Mom's danced on the big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":730,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/09\/strong_fathers_2.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":842,"position":1},"title":"Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters – Chapter 2","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My reading of Meg Meeker's Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters stalled, but I'm picking it back up. My posting on it just flat died, so I'm going to try to catch up. Chapter 2 - She needs a hero. What does a hero do? A hero has strong convictions. 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She's wrestling with her own soul, it seems, these days, and dragging Mom and Dad (and whoever happens to be around) into the fight with her.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/before_the_prod.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":842,"position":3},"title":"Before the Prodigal was Prodigal","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I wonder what the story that preceded the prodigal son is. Luke tells us simply that \"The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.'\" but I wonder what transpired before that. 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