boys

A couple of weekends ago we made a little road trip to visit some family and on that road trip Eric and I were able to do alot of talking. I will start out by saying that yes, I have issues when it comes to boys. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING! I don't know what is normal for boys and what crosses the line into potential serial killer, so let's just say that I am little sensitive when it comes to violent play with my children (them pretending to kill each other, etc.) After 3 hours in the car and my oldest is AGAIN making punching sounds and hitting himself in the head playfully (he does this because we don't allow them to hit each other--IT DRIVES ME CRAZY), I told Eric I can't handle this anymore. And he's like, "what are you talking about? they are just being boys."

Seeing that I don't have a male bone in my body and I am a girly girl--I do not deny it-- I was raised in a girls home and I was in shock my first year of marriage because I had no idea what it was like living with a man, needless to say I AM CLUELESS WHEN IT COMES TO BOYS! So I told Eric, "You have to teach me because I don't know what I am doing. I did all the baby stuff, but now they are in a different season and I don't know what is normal and what isn't. He agrees that he needs to take more of a lead with the boys in directing their play since he knows more what they should/shouldn't be doing.

So, fast forward to today.......for those of you who don't know my husband is a computer programmer and he works from home. He has teleconferences almost every day so usually I can't talk to him during that time, understandably so. While he was on his telecon today the boys start drawing pictures. Eli draws a wolf and then draws his heart bloody and says he died. I asked him if he is hunting and that is why the wolf is dead and he said yes. Well, that lead to the boys drawing all kinds of dead animals. I am feeling a little anxious about this and I finally go and write Eric a note about it and he says it is okay so I just drop it and let the boys draw.

The next thing I know Grant is drawing a skeleton head that he says is chopped off and he said that a boy from church taught him how to draw it! WHAT?!?! I don't say anything and I wait for Eric to come out because now the new issue is that they want to MAIL these pictures to their friends because they like them so much. Oh my goodness! When Eric comes out I inform him about the latest development and he starts talking to the boys about their pictures. With Eli it was easy because it was just a bunch of dead animals from hunting and Eric just said that those may be a little too scary to recieve in the mail.

Grant's was a different story. He wanted the person he was sending it to to think he was cool. Eric handled it beautifully. He started talking to him about what does God think is cool and what is more important pleasing God or pleasing his friend. Grant said the right things, but you could tell he was really struggling in his heart.

We dropped it and ran our errands and after dinner I started talking to the boys about how our family is set apart and how each of them are leaders in their own way. If they choose to walk the path of God people will follow them and get to go to heaven, but if they choose to walk a bad path then people will be led to hell (I don't usually talk hell and damnation talks to my children). Eric started talking about temptation and how even though we are tempted to do things we know don't glorify God, we can still always make a choice. The next thing I know, Grant gets up and gets his picture that he drew and throws it in trash and I asked him why he did that and he said, "I don't want to lead my friends to chop off people's heads."

Mission accomplished! My boys will not be leading others into temptation to chop off people's heads! So I am not raising serial killers.