Wild at Heart Boys!

I have been thinking a lot about my wild at heart boys, Jerome included :)

Last week I went to the drive thru car wash by our house. The boys love it when we go! One sits in my lap and pretends to drive. The other two pretend that bad guys are trying to get us and they have to take cover.

(Everything is an adventure to them).

After we drive thru I always pick a vacuum by the window where they can watch the cars drive thru. They were "spying" on cars and chasing each other up and down the side walk when Silas accidentally knocked Asher over. He cried...I held him for 15 seconds and then he was off playing again. As I was vacuuming out the van I noticed a man who worked there walk over to the boys. He told them that he didn't mean to ruin their fun but that the car wash wasn't a play ground and if they kept running on the concrete they might get hurt. I didn't have a very good mommy moment. I told the boys we would respect what he said, but then I looked at him and told him they were just boys having fun. He DID want to ruin their fun. They weren't being disrespectful or damaging property...they were just running and yelling and having a good time being boys. I thought surely this MAN understood them...after all he was a boy once wasn't he?

The next day I met a friend at McDonald's. By the time I ordered my food and was walking back to the playplace. My 3 year old had climbed on top of the trash can. Then when we were in the play area a concerned mom told me my 8 year old was climbing on top of a tall storage cabinet. She didn't want him to get hurt. When I told Micah not to climb up there he said that daddy lets him do it when they come together. Of course he does...he also plays in the big play thing with him :)

The next afternoon I had not been able to stop thinking about my wild boys. We don't leave the house much so when we do I REALLY notice their adventurous, rowdy boyness. The world is their playground! When we are at home I don't notice it as much even though they are just as wild. I began asking the Lord what it was that bothered me. This is what I feel he showed me...

He brought to mind one of the chapters in Deuteronomy I had read that morning. The children of Israel were being instructed on how to go to war once they entered the promised land. God was not only giving it to them but commanding that they take it by force. In the first 8 verses of chapter 20 they were told twice not to be faint hearted or afraid two different times. Men were created to be wild. It is built on the inside of them by their Maker for many purposes. They are created to protect, defend and to be wild about God.

The reason I notice (and am even bothered at times by) my boys need to be loud...to explore...to climb...to spy...to be wild when we are in public is because it is simply not acceptable in our society. Is it acceptable by God is the question.

I pictured the children of Israel being told not to run too fast when they went into battle because they might pull a muscle and get hurt :)

I shared my thoughts with Jerome. He said that even he gets embarrassed sometimes at their wild behavior in public but he chooses to not let that control him. If they are not being destructive or disrespectful then he lets them be loud and rowdy...the way God created them to be.

I am married to a man that is aggressive and passionate in everything....most of all his relationship with God. He is teaching our boys to be the same way. I know this pleases the Lord so it should please me too.

I am choosing to embrace my boys' energy and passion. They are wild at heart and someday they will change the world because of it!