Maybe Kids are Just Plugged In More Securely

So, the angelbaby is having her week-long religious education blitzkrieg at church this week. I don't know if I am a big fan of this format, especially since she just got out of regular school for summer vacation last Thursday and now she is back in a classroom form 9 till 3 every day for a week. As a Religious Educator I wonder if this is the best way to impart faith to children, as I parent I wish this weren't the only choice my parish offered, and as a former DRE I know that it isn't supposed to be the only choice, but in our case it is.

Each day I drive the angelbaby and two other kids from our neighborhood across town to church (because their parents work and can't do the transportation thing each morning and afternoon).

Anyway, today the topic was "talking to God". The angelbaby got into the car for the drive home and announced to me that she had talked to God today about what she should be when she grows up and God told her she should be a Dr.

I wonder if this was her mind working overtime or if this was reinforced in some way by the catechist in her classroom. I am all for teaching my child to "talk to God every day". I am also not averse to teaching her to begin to do some vocational discernment. My big problem comes when she feels so confident that God answered her so specifically.

It did give us a chance to talk about vocations and what it would take to begin to prepare for a medical career. (The angelbaby will be in fourth grade in the fall, so there is plenty of time if God has truly called her to this career path.) I would never tell her that God didn't call her to this, but I do want her to understand that if that is true she has to be willing and able to do the hard work to get her self ready to live in the vocation to which God has called her.

When she got home her big sister told her that to talk to God was normal, if God talked back, that was just crazy.

Who knows, maybe she did get that specific an answer from God. I have been struggling with vocational discernment for over a year now, and in fact will be going to a workshop in August to help me decide what it is that God wants me to do next with the gifts He has given me. Maybe He is telling me, and I am just not as securely plugged into Him as my angelbaby is.

Who knows.

Pax