... because they're just like me!! ( I wish I were kidding! Actually, I don't)
This blog is titled Life on King Arthur's Court because deep down in my heart, I really do want these young mad men-- and this week, Judah has been an angry man... there has been precious little sleeping around here as after sleeping through the night for nine months, he's decided that waking up from 10pm to 1am and screaming his head off for three hours is cool (we disagree)-- to grow up into gentlemanly, chivalrous, strong, ambitious young men with a heart for God. In a word, to steal a turn of phrase, 'modern-day knights.' Bar too high? I don't think so. I hope not.
But here's where I might disagree with some of my *listening* audience, and I'd be interested in hearing your side of the fence, if indeed it is different. I think that the way to get LJ and Judah started on that path is to pray for them (pretty damn important, if you ask me) and almost equally as important, to let them be wild, as opposed to tame.
Ask and ye shall receive, I hear the Queen saying ironically in the background. Maybe that's why she broke up the melee this afternoon where Judah would whack Elijah in the head for approaching 'his' TV (where he got the idea that the TV needed his defending is beyond me) and then got really upset when Elijah giggled instead of retreated. I think deep down he wanted Elijah to respect his manly fists. (Give it about six or seven years, Judah. He'll respect you yet.)
I think that's what most of we men (even little men like Judah) want to be... wild and respected. In that vein, if you happen to agree with me, I highly recommend a book by John Eldredge, Wild at Heart, that fleshes a lot of this out as to why we might think this way. No one wants to be domesticated... sometimes it just happens. But this I would submit. We (all of us, not just men) are warriors in some way. And when the time comes, I want my boys to be readyto fight for what is right and true, even if it takes a little wildness in their childhood to get them there. If they ended up as one of these guys here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5fgJVxbQQE, I'd be one of the world's happiest men. Not that they have to be Marines.... it's just that there's something in me that wants them to be heroes. And that's worth them mauling me with their little weapons now and then as they grow up.
(Yes.. that is Judah pushing Elijah around in the second picture -- mainly because they pretty much weigh the same so they are interchangeable on their 'fire truck') C.S. Lewis said it pretty well in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, referring to Aslan the great lion, "Of course He's good. But He's not safe. He's not a tame lion!" My crazy young men could do worse than emulate that.
That is one of my FAVORITE quotes from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about creativity (which I think is two sides of the same coin, actually). I don't like it when parents correct their children as they play, as if it actually matters what they're holding or what they think they're drawing (squiggles), etc. Why does everything have to be done the right way right now? There will be years of 'doing things the right way' and those years will be booooring. And how are you supposed to think for yourself or think outside that box everyone is always talking about if your whole young life you've been trained to think of the right way and wrong way of doing things?*
ReplyDelete*Obviously there is right and wrong as it pertains to morality, but I'm thinking of everything else but morality, if that makes any sense.
I think that you and I feel pretty similarly on this issue, probably (at least on my end) on being raised by parents that always wanted us to "read it for ourselves" and not take anyone else's word for things... even with morality, I think that you need to carefully examine what you've been told and taught (i.e. I believe in the absolute truth of the Bible, but I think that you should read it (or the Qur'an, if you're a Muslim, etc.) very carefully and act accordingly-- the whole "whispering's lying, and lying's a sin, when you try to get into heaven, God ain't gonna let you in" might be a good way to scare children into telling the truth, but it is an AWFUL way to represent the God of the universe.... all that to say that I think children should be allowed to get into and out of most of their own messes and creativities!
DeleteI think Judah and Hadassah must have had a talk when it comes to the not sleeping thing because she has decided that night time is not the time to sleep as well:(.
ReplyDelete