A friend of mine, in her college days, had a bumper sticker that offered this peaceful counsel: Don’t Buy War Toys. Once, she and a companion were stuck in a traffic jam on the highway, next to several young men in a pickup on their way home from deer hunting. The traffic was creeping along, one lane inching forward and coming to a halt, the next lane overtaking it momentarily before stopping a few yards ahead. Every time my friend’s car had to stop, the men in the pickup pulled alongside, windows cranked down, and held up various examples of the deer-rifle genre. They also hollered in tones of good-natured hilarity that became more good-natured and hilarious the lower my friend’s passenger cringed in her seat, “Hey, ladies! Don’t buy war toys? Like this?”
As it happens, in my family, with boys in the house, we do buy war toys””not nuclear missiles, of course, just the normal assortment of blasters and cork shooters and swords of various kinds, including an actual antique Indian scimitar in a moth-eaten velvet scabbard, which was the one thing our eleven-year-old wanted for his birthday.
We don’t buy toys of any kind often, mind you, relying as much as we can on nature to provide materials for hours of imaginative play. And what nature provides a lot of are war toys….
Wonderful piece. Boys’ attraction weapons and violence is as natural and healthy as can be. They simply need to be brought up to understand their proper application. In our state Historical Society’s museum, the very rare exhibit with a military theme invariably outdraws every other exhibit of the year (quilts, immigration, musical instruments, etc.) by a huge margin. Without fail.
this went on my Facebook page, what a great article to give us a better sense of perspective re: kids and guns.
As a father of two boys, 12 & 8, this hit all the buttons. GREAT stuff. Tweeted it too!
We raised three little boys during the first round of “don’t buy violent toys for your children” in the 1960’s. They then simply picked up sticks and used them as imaginary weapons. It is what little boys do. From there we simply began stressing the difference between good winning over evil. They are all fathers now. There are not prone to violence; in fact, they are wonderful and patient dads.
I have the best illustration of this. Many years ago, we were watching Beauty and the Beast (Disney animated) when our daughter was 5+ and our son was 2+. During the scene where Belle is attacked by wolves, our daughter cowered on the couch in horror, empathizing with Belle. Our son, on the other hand, grabbed a broom handle and started whacking the TV, demonstrating his natural protective instincts.
That essay gave me the best laugh of the afternoon. I’m enjoying a few quiet minutes before my 9 year old son comes home from archery practice! After homework he’ll probably run around the house blasting his nerf dart guns. Last night he was explaining to his dad the fine points of World War II aerial combat so dad will hopefully score better on the Blazing Angels game. Was I dozing in Military Studies class when they talked about aerial torpedos? How does my son know all about them?
The Spirit Of The Lord Came Upon Him
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The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The men of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?†“We have come to take Samson prisoner,†they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.†Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?†He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.†They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.†Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.†“Agreed,†they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.†So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.†(Judges 15:9–16)
A Sunday school story? Perhaps. Though I have never heard the lesson explained, “And this, children, is what happens when the Spirit of God comes upon a man.†Yet that is clearly the lesson of the passage. Samson becomes a great and terrible warrior when, and only when, the Spirit of God comes upon him. The rest of the time he’s just short of an idiot. What does this story tell us about the God who the Spirit is? And it’s not just Samson, my friends. “So the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon,†and Gideon went to war (Judges 6:34). “Now the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah,†and he went to war (Judges 11:29). “And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David,†and one of the first things he did was kill Goliath (1 Samuel 16:13). I repeat my question: What does that tell us about the God who the Spirit is?
(John Eldredge, Fathered by God)
USMA74…well done.
Here are a few more to consider:
The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name. ~ Exodus 15:3
Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. ~ Psalm 144:1
Last time I checked, God said that we are made in His image and He said that it was good.