I will never let my kids...

Tonight we are all sitting around celebrating the 4th of July at a house out in the country. I bring the location up only because it provided opportunity for one of the Bailey's nephews to bring his soft air gun. This is sort of like a BB gun, but it shoots little plastic pellets and apparently, does not shoot as hard as a BB gun. Perhaps it also does not put an eye out, I didn't check to see.

This was Luke's first time around a gun that shoots something besides pretend things and watching him wander around with the nephew asking to shoot it made me a little nervous. OK, it made me a lot nervous. As much as anything, I wanted him to be safe and I knew he had no training on responsible handling of guns. (I kept thinking back: OK, what would Uncle Arthur do in this situation?)

A couple of us began discussing the BB gun wars we had as children (Ooops, was that publish I just hit?), which led to discussions about bottle rocket wars (Yep, I hit publish, all right. Maybe I can quickly change the blog to non-parent invitation only!). The topic came up in almost a bragging sort of way ... "Soft air gun? Why, when I was your age, we used to get out the 30-06 and play army men with it. Well, that is, when we couldn't find the hand grenades." As I think back, however, I think "Why would anyone in their right mind think that was a fun thing to do?" To think I participated in such foolish behavior! (At the risk of exposing you to public ridicule on the vastness of the world wide web, Mom and Dad, what in the world were you thinking?!) Why, I'll never let my kid...

I can almost guarantee, however, that in 30 years, Luke will be discussing all of the things he did that he hopes his son never finds out about.

Shooting a BB gun may seem like such a benign topic, but it is in many ways just a precursor to so many other choices that Luke and Grace will be faced with as they grow older. It highlights the tension between wanting my children to be normal and discover the things they enjoy doing (Like hunting, which was such a part of my Labor Days growing up, but I cannot even imagine taking Luke out to do.) and the incredible pull to lock them up and make sure nothing happens to them or they are not faced with challenges.

Tonight on the way home Luke wanted to know what a step-brother was. I don't want to have to tell him that. I realize he will meet hundreds of children in his lifetime who are step-somethings or other, but I really don't want to have to explain the two ways you can get a step brother. He's just a kid. I want everybody to come from nuclear families and for guns to be made of pointing fingers and odd shaped sandwiches. I want him to believe the world is a perfect place, even though it isn't. I won't lie to him about it, but I sure wish he wasn't faced with the fact that the world we live in is steeped in sin. That's not surprising -- I wish I didn't have to see the face of sin as it rears it's ugly head day in and day out in my own life, why would I want anyone else to see it too?

I am grateful I still have such a large amount of influence on him and pray earnestly that I do a good job showing both of my children the grace of God and His love for them. I pray that I show them more than just the right things to do or not to do, but will be able to show them how to determine which is which and help them find the strength to follow through on the right choice. Even more importantly, I pray that God protects Luke, Grace, Jana and me both individually and as a family.