About the Book
When our children turn 18, we hope to happily launch them into the world to become the adults we've been preparing them to be. Their pathway seems clear: most will go to college, find a vocation and then a true love, and settle into a comfortable life while we parents keep in touch through occasional phone calls, family gatherings, and surprise trips home for Christmas. But now more than ever, these expectations fail to acknowledge the significant challenges faced by many young people, from a pandemic to racial unrest to a climate crisis that is setting the world on fire, figuratively and literally. While young people are consistently told they need to discern God's calling, in Finding Our Way Forward, Melanie Springer Mock draws on her decades as a college professor and mom to four adult children to explore how finding our way means developing a more expansive understanding of calling for ourselves and for the young adults we love, one that moves beyond vocation and capitalistic enterprises to what God really calls us to: Seeking justice. Loving mercy. Walking with humility. Loving others. Loving God. As we do so, our relationships can be transformed as together we find our way forward.
About the Author :
Melanie Springer Mock is a professor of English at George Fox University (Newberg, OR), an evangelical Friends institution, where she primarily teaches first-year writing, memoir, and journalism courses. She is author or coauthor of five books, including, most recently, Worthy: Finding Yourself in a World Expecting Someone Else (Herald Press, 2018). Her essays and reviews have appeared in Ms. Magazine, The Nation, Christian Feminism Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Runner's World, and Inside Higher Education, among other places, and she is a regular reviewer for Anabaptist World, Red Letter Christians, and Christiansfor Social Action. Melanie and her husband live in Dundee, Oregon, and have two 19-year-old sons. She is a stepmom to two adults and "Nani" to two grandsons. In her free time, Melanie enjoys running, swimming, biking, knitting, and watching reality television.
Review :
"Finding Our Way Forward is a gentle, challenging, and beautiful guide for parents in a vulnerable season of walking alongside their Gen Z young adults in a culture equally as fragile. As a professor of young adults and mom, Melanie Springer Mock provides a perspective and voice as a trusted friend who encourages you to love your child while also opening your hands to let them grow into the adult they are becoming. This book is a must-read for any parent of today's youth."
--BRENDA L. YODER, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, school counselor, and author of Fledge: Launching Your Kids without Losing Your Mind
"Finding Our Way Forward is indeed a most spacious book in terms of discerning God's calling. Melanie Springer Mock's words drip with wisdom that we all need, not just young adults. This book is full of reminders of the goodness and graciousness of God as we co-create a life together and a life lived on behalf of others, not just ourselves. God's desires for us correspond not with worldly empire, but with the kingdom. Mock's wisdom is refreshing in an age captured by the myth of progress and seemingly boundless material prosperity for some. We may have to unlearn some things we have been taught regarding discernment and calling in order to discern well--and in that, Mock is a spectacular teacher and guide."
--MARLENA GRAVES, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself
"For all the parents who worry and wonder and wait as their adolescents wander toward adulthood, this book is the guide to help you rest and trust. Melanie Springer Mock's hard-earned wisdom as a parent and educator is a gift to us all."
--AMY JULIA BECKER, author of To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope
"Melanie Springer Mock's book is a deeply personal, revealing, and heartfelt exploration of young adulthood from the perspective of a parent and teacher of young adults. It speaks to everyone who is a parent of young adults or who is looking ahead to young adulthood, and to all those who teach, mentor, and guide young adults. It is an invitation to accompany young adults in these challenging times--and in the process to learn more about ourselves on the journey of life. You will discover, as I did, the deep sense of hope that permeates Melanie's stories and insights as she relates the struggle and pain, the discovery and joy that are part of the young adult experience."
--JOHN ROBERTO, president of Lifelong Faith Associates and author of Lifelong Faith: Formation for All Ages and Generations
"Parenting doesn't screech to a halt when one's children become adults. In this book, Melanie Springer Mock offers an honest look at how parents can nurture faith and support spirituality in their young adult children. By weaving Christian theology with stories from her own life, she has created an engaging book that covers a wide spectrum of topics. You will laugh and cry as you join Mock in finding your way forward in a new phase of family life."
--DAVID M. CSINOS, associate professor of practical theology at Atlantic School of Theology and founder of Faith Forward
"Rare is the book that challenges, equips, and encourages the parents of emerging young adults. This is that book. In helping parents acknowledge, then release, their biases and self-informed opinions about who their children should be, Mock offers the invitation to love and celebrate children for who they are . . . image bearers entrusted to our care for a short time. This book is a must-read for any and all people relating to and interacting with late adolescents and young adults."
--DR. DOREEN DODGEN-MAGEE, psychologist, author, mom, and neighbor
"Timely and searingly honest, Finding Our Way Forward is a gift for those of us who have raised (or are otherwise in close relationship with) young adults. Mock tells her own 'emptying the nest' story, with all its attendant loneliness, grief, and uncertainty. While she admits that we are all out of our league as we walk alongside our grown children in these unprecedented times, the wisdom and spiritual insight she offers in this book deliver valuable comfort and support. What a powerhouse of a book!"
--JENNIFER GRANT, author of Dimming the Day and When Did Everybody Else Get So Old?
