born for battle

Read this journal entry by Andrew Peterson: Aedan and Jesse, Guns for Hire

Here’s something I wrote on his messageboard about it…

I don’t know why this is the case, but I just now read Andy’s latest journal. The one about his boys playing, that includes the same thoughts that seem to have inspired his song, Little Boy Heart Alive. It was good to read, as is typical with Andrew’s journals.

Then I thought about my house… When my girls play, there are no guns and swords and fighting.. it is dressup, and cooking and putting the dollie to sleep, or changing diapers. After contemplating the glory for a moment or two, my mind asked a few things.

I thought about why people would get upset about that… how my girls do girl things, and Andy’s boys do boy things. Why would that be something bad? The feminists/egalitarians in our world, that presently control so much cultural currency, would probably scream.

Not long ago my wife was browsing some book titles online, because the girls’ Grandma was going to join a book club for them. One book, Richard Scary’s What People Do All Day, prompted a feminista to comment, “It has good pictures, and my kids love it, but all the jobs have men working them, and all the women are wearing dresses!” She then made some comment about the human race having evolved passed that. My comment, though, was “We need to get that book”. And we did, and our girls love it.

But why is this the case? Why do people think it is wrong for women to wear dresses and be home-oriented? It’s because they have already assumed the inferiority of what is feminine. Feminist my foot… they are enemies of femininity. They say women can be liberated by being more like men. They are the ones downplaying the importance of a woman’s role. They assume that the traditionally masculine role is superior, and demand that women be allowed to play that role. But in doing this they belittle what is feminine. Women become equal with men, in their eyes, only when women become men.

I, on the other hand, hold to the biblical gender roles. I believe women are home-oriented and men and world-oriented. And I glory in that. I know that my wife does what she does around the house wonderfully, and she does it far better than I ever could. Because she is suited for it. In my view, her staying at home does not belittle her. She is not confined by it, in need of liberation.

A man is a man, and a woman is a woman. And they aren’t in competition. A man should do what is masculine, and a woman should do what is feminine.

What I really reeled about, after reading the jounal entry and thinking about Andy’s children compared to mine, is the work of the Kingdom they are preparing for. “I can’t help but think that it means that we were born for battle.” And my girls, with their dolls and play food, are training to do battle in the service of The King.

So. There ya go.