Learning Mentorship From Job

We are all probably familiar with the story of Job who endured many troubles and still remained faithful to God.
There is, however, more to the story of Job than just that. There are details in the narrative about Job that we can learn from, and apply to our lives today.

The scriptures record that Job’s sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
What can we glean from this short paragraph?

There is more to raising kids, and mentoring family and friends than simply being a welcoming family. Sure, that goes a long way but there is more. Being hospitable, celebrating life and accepting family quirks is just the beginning for us. Each of us no matter how young or old is called upon to mentor someone.  For us as Catholics that mentorship has to include our faith.

If we look at the story of Job, we see that once the celebrating ended he made sure to pray for his kids. We also notice that he was busy passing on his belief by his actions. The scriptures record that he made arrangements for them to be purified after the partying ended.
He was very concerned about their belief in God and that attitude affected everything in his life. I can almost hear Job’s prayer because most of us do the same thing. “Lord, please help my children to know you as I know you. They love to have fun and are so passionate about life but in the process of their celebrating please don’t let them forget the things I’ve taught them about you.”
One of Jobs worries might also have been his concern, that perhaps, he did not do a good enough job at sharing his faith. This is often a concern faith-filled parents have.

Celebrating life is a great thing. Easter will soon be here and all of us will probably gather for dinner with family. At my home it is very loud when everyone arrives. There are grandchildren running around and lots of chaos as each of my children arrive. During the year there are family vacations, and many dinners, and cookouts.
Like Job we need to be ever present in our faith and remember that family celebrations are wonderful things but as parents and mentors we need to make sure we are working hard at passing on our faith to those we love.

We can do that in many different ways. We should always be saying family grace at meals. We should talk about our relationship with God and why it is important to us. We must show passion. If our families cannot see our passion, why would they be interested in our faith? If we lack passion we need to ask why? 
The scriptures talk about us sharing our faith in subtle ways by our speech and our action. For the young ones in the family we should be reading nighttime stories about the saints or stories from scripture. Our older children can be mentored over dinner or in a quiet walk along a beach or while doing something they enjoy.  Job made his faith known. There was no ambiguity. 

This much we can glean from the chapter about Job. He was concerned about his kids wellbeing. A large part of that was their faith.
The book of Deuteronomy tells us to teach the truth of God to our children, talking about that when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

So this Easter while the chocolate candy is eaten and the Easter Bunny hops around make sure you also talk about the real meaning of the holiday, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and through his sacrificial death offers eternal life to those that grasp his hand and walk with Him.