Fighting

A little boy who will grow up

One teenager entered my house, followed by eight young boys, aged 7-10. They had a happy energy as they swarmed the table and requested water. 

"We heard there was a fight after the soccer game, so we went to go beat up some people from M-town."

"See my weapon? I was trying to hit the other boys with it." One eight year-old grinned as he hefted the solid metal bar in his hand.

I told him to give the weapon to me, setting it outside the door and informing him he could retrieve it when he left.

Lemur!

But then I wanted to talk with the boys about it a bit. I first addressed the weapon-wielder: "Look at your heart, my friend. You want to hit people with an iron bar because of a soccer game? If you hate other people, how can you say that you love God, who made them? Be careful, hating is easy, but Jesus says to love our enemies, not just our friends."

He looked a little abashed. His friends giggled a little that he was on the spot. But then I turned to them. "And all of you, right now you're small, but you'll grow up. And some day you might need help from one of those boys you wanted to beat up. Hate is a seed that you plant in the ground, and it grows up. Love is too. If you want love later, you have to plant love now. If you want wars in the future, then go ahead and plant hate now."

They squirmed a little. We changed the subject, and soon a dance party broke out. Little boys are little boys after all.