Your Favorite SuperHero

Joy, Lora and I are learning more and more about the life of the male species as we watch Ian and Luke grow. Right now (and prob for several years to come) the boys are most excited by superheroes. As reward for great performances at the family wedding last week, Dad and Mom bought each boy a new transformer (or toy that looks like one thing but can be "transformed" into another -- I just "watch", don't want to break the toy).

Ian loves STARSCREAM. I may google the name to learn more about him. I HAVE learned (from watching a show with Ian yesterday) that Starscream is a character in intergalatic rivalry. Watch out for Starscream! What impresses Ian with this character?!

Sunday morning, a few hours after the wedding and prizes awarded, Dad (Jer) was trying to focus Luke and Ian's minds on getting ready for church. Shoe searches, sock reversals, wipe the applesauce or finish the pancake. "So who do you guys want to hear about today in Sunday School? Do you want to hear about Joshua (the battle hero who toppled city walls with a VERY small army in their Jericho dvd)? Or Samson (who Ian calls "Deli-ah", after Samson's girlfriend--another dvd) who was also strong?! Or maybe David who killed a giant with a little stone!"

Strength and power grab these little guys attention. WOW! Imagine how peer pressure could affect them even now! Just one person who seems to have more "power" than another!

Ian's reply: "I like Jesus. He's the most powerful." Kind of stops you dead in your tracks. Not because he's seen Jesus knock somebody across the galaxy, for sure. Why didn't he choose a hero that he's seen exhibit great power in a video or even book?

I think it was because of the words of Mom and Dad. Kids will believe anything that Mom or Dad say, thus the importance of parents, their consistency, and their nurturing relationship with children. Why did Ian believe Jesus is the most powerful? Because Mom and Dad say that he is! In a few years Ian will want more proof, and he will have accumulated more stories and experiences to back up the "power" idea, (and hopefully someday "know" Jesus himself). What kind of power will the boys look for? Well, what kind of power impresses the rest of us? Wealth, control, strength, influence are all "powers" we see exhibited. But we grown-ups tire of people trying to control others with wealth, influence, or physical strength.

I read somewhere that "there is nothing so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength." And I think this appropriately describes the Creator of all. What superhero maintains his position by accepting, forgiving, loving, encouraging?! What superhero holds back the forces of nature to let a bird or baby walk across a road? And what holds back the Mighty Columbia or the lofty Cascades to let the bold and the restless float or climb to the most daring pinacles! Nothing but a gentle power that delights in OUR pleasure at HIS Power.

Perhaps the favorite superheroes right now are really Mom and Dad, and eventually other heroes will fit the values Ian and Luke will have chosen. Kids WANT to learn, they want reactions, they want to know boundaries, they want our attention, they want to know we are keeping them safe! We can give choices and still give influence. We can give options without controling their futures. We can allow consequences in preparation for their introduction to the messy world.

I'd like to be a superhero, but even more, I want them to know where I get my superpower -- it's not my own!