This Means War…and Love

I have a new military strategy that I’m thinking of sharing with the Pentagon.

It’s like this: Whenever our country is in conflict with another, we unleash one hundred 18-month-old children into the enemy camp. Hear me out. This is biblical. God confused Israel’s enemies several times in history. We studied one in Exodus recently in LIFE group. God sent His terror ahead of the Israelites to throw the enemy into confusion and a swarm of hornets before the Israelite army and the enemy fled. The account of Gideon’s army and his leadership has a similar story and result.

So imagine the bedlam (the screaming, the flailing, the smell) of the toddler brigade. It would confound any enemy. Even more than hornets, I think. But if that didn’t work, the ability that most 18-month-olds have to turn on a dime and flash a big-eyed smile and wave congenially would seal the deal. I really believe it. Chaos, then charm to point of surrender.

Since now 20-month-old Crosby came to stay with us (with his parents and sister) I’m reacquainted with the mindset of a toddler. It’s all about me and what I want. Period. The good news is that Crosby is learning and will continue to learn about selflessness and sacrifice for the good of another. But we all know that selflessness goes against our grain and so it takes time to develop it.

 In my chase of Bimini (“quest for that perfect place” for those of you who just joined us) I’ve learned a lot about love. Not so much its basic definition but how to put it in practice.

The Bible talks a lot about love and in no better place than 1 Corinthians 13. Right in the middle of “The Love Chapter”, Paul puts a seemingly random statement. He says, and I quote from verse 11:

 “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

 I always wondered what that one verse had to do with the rest of the verses that are obviously about love. Then one Sunday morning our pastor, Gene Mims, said that the opposite of love isn’t hate. The opposite of love is selfishness. Love never acts like a toddler, craving its own way. It grows up and gives its time, effort, desires for true love of another and without resentment.

Okay, I don’t advocate the exposure of precious babies to hostile enemies, but it’s at least worthy of a fleeting thought.