199Part 4 Thriving in Future:“Adulting”
Part 4
Thriving in Future:
“Adulting”
Adulting: a child’s growth in agency as they embrace opportunities to shape the world around them.
As parents and caring adults, we see our growing kids inhabiting more adult spaces with us. They look more like us. We stand eye to eye while increasingly not always seeing eye to eye. We find ourselves negotiating their schedules (that conflict with ours), debating politics (that conflict with ours), or questioning their aspirations (that conflict with our hopes for them).
Perhaps it is fair to say that we simultaneously desire and dread their adulting. Relationally, they are learning to grow and deepen their friendships and romantic interests. Vocationally, they are discovering their true passions and real limitations as they consider their contribution to this world.
How do we offer input without being too controlling?
How do we stay connected as they become more independent?
How do we encourage them to figure things out on their own while reminding them that we’re here for them?
How honest will we be with ourselves when their relational or vocational decisions challenge our values or family image?
In chapters 7 and 8, we propose that through the concept of adulting, we can encourage our kids to be agents in their relationships and vocations. Their journey of adulting will challenge and bless our parenting. We must be prepared for both as we remain committed to growing with them.
A prayer:
Jesus, our kids’ adulting will lead them toward new opportunities and challenges with their relationships and vocations. They will feel the weight of their decisions, and so will we. Grant us the ability to encourage their agency, strength to endure life’s joys and pains, and commitment to stick with them even when their trajectories diverge from ours. Grant them vision to see and utilize their unique gifts, while protecting them from a self-centeredness that misses the ways those gifts are given for the sake of the world and the life of the church. We trust your calling on their lives, just as you have called us. May their adulting journeys bless our families and our world.