Something I've been thinking about for a long time...
Some time ago as I rode along with a friend, she mentioned that she wasn't sure if she was going to allow her kids to play with this other group of kids anymore. I wasn't really in the mood to talk about it because I think I could tell where it was going, but I went ahead and asked why...I mean, these kids were in fact her good friend's kids.
The response - well, those kids are allowed to participate in martial arts, and this other lady, herself, wasn't maybe the most 'spiritually mature.'Oh, and the most important part - she didn't want her kids damaged or tainted by associating with those kinds of children. (Susy rolls eyes.)
So I ask the obvious before she continued, "Wait. What's wrong with martial arts?" And I opened up the can.
Apparently there are churches and religious groups now openly preaching against it because it's a form of violence. According to them, it doesn't promote brotherly love...that when we're supposed to be loving our neighbor, in turn we're walking around thinking, "I can take him. I can take him down...etc." Oh, and martial arts has an Asian spiritual undertone, and Christians should NOT have anything to do with that. LOL
I didn't know where to begin with that because I was so annoyed with it.
Okay, so about the martial arts thing - it's evil, and so we shouldn't participate in it? Wow. This sounds more like someone has a personal problem, and whoever it is needs to deal with it.
Yes, there are forms of martial arts that have spiritual undertones. So that now means we shouldn't participate in it? What about Halloween, which Christian people say is pagan and rooted in evil? Most churches don't condone it. In fact they preach against it, yet offer 'alternative' events and/or activities. So why not with the martial arts or anything else? It's a total contradiction, and I'd love to write more about my opinion, but I really don't feel like taking the time to do it right now.
Moving on.
Okay so about her friend not being 'spiritually mature.' What does that mean anyway? How is she judging that maturity? Will she now ignore anyone who doesn't meet her standards? Give me a break.
So a comment she made was that she wanted to protect her children from being 'contaminated' by these other kids...because they're in martial arts and who knows what else. Our children are given to us by God to raise, and that is one of the greatest responsibilities we will ever have. Part of being a parent is protecting our children, right? Sure. But I believe there's only so much of that we can do. We can stress ourselves out by trying to protect them from all the evils in this world, and we will never succeed. We can only do so much, and the rest is up to the One who gave them to us.
Sure, there are hoodlums I wouldn't want my kids hanging around on their turf. HOWEVER, what happened to raising kids so that THEY are the influence on their peers? We can never raise perfect kids who will have perfect friends who will do perfect things. But what about doing our best possible to train them in the right way so that they know the difference between good/bad, right/wrong so that they can be the ones who speak up and make a difference in the lives of the people around them? What about that?
I understand wanting to be separate from the 'world,' but I don't think it has anything to do with disassociating ourselves with people. I think it has to do with actions, separating ourselves from certain actions.
I'm sure that there are kids I wouldn't want my kids to hang out with in their environments, but hopefully I can provide a place where any and everybody can come. Not just that but a place where people want to be because we welcome with open arms no matter what. We love.
I only HOPE to be that way. I can't say for certain that I will be and that I'll do what I say and how I imagine it. Things never turn out that way. But again, it comes down to how we love people.
There's so much more I could say and write about this, but I'm actually trying to to watch 24 and maybe cook something at the same time so I'm pretty much distracted. I will leave with something a friend wrote that goes so perfectly with my thoughts. She was visiting some dear friends and realized why she missed them so:
"These people loved me when I was slightly unlovable. We were a little rough around the edges when we first met them, and some conservative families would have pushed us away, for fear of 'contaminating' their children. These folks pulled us in and helped smooth us out, confident that the love of Jesus would far outweigh any negative effects we might have on their kids. And it did. We didn't have much in common, and we still don't! It's a diverse group of people, all loving each other right through their hang ups."
Can't we just do that?
1 comment:
I get what you're saying. Personally, I want my children to be able to interact with other people who aren't christians (or believers who aren't as "spiritually mature")and I try to do the same. Of course as a parent you have to know your kids, their age, maturity level and all that and decide accordingly what situations and duration is appropriate for this type of contact so that they can be a light in the darkness but still be appropriately protected. All that I think is a personal call but I agree that if, in general, we were more open to the idea of loving without judgement there would be a lot more interaction between believers and unbelievers that would be much more effective at sharing Christ's love than isolating ourselves in fear and judgement.
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