Holverson style.
When my boys were little, (they were little once weren't they?) they were featured on the front page of the newspaper, packing guns. Our first snow of the year had arrived in October and the boys began building a fort the second they jumped out of bed. From behind their icy walls they hunted Indians, burglars and deer with play rifles. A newspaper reporter saw them and couldn't resist.... The feedback it created was mixed. While at the grocery store the clerk recognized our name on my check and told them how cute they were, another asked if they hit what they were shooting at (of course).
One teacher, however, took their picture to her class room and used it as an example of irresponsible parenting... "What parent would allow their children to play like they were killing ANYTHING???" Of course, because I am so meek.... eh-hem..... I gently ( kinda) explained to her that the reason she was allowed to teach on this blessed soil was because of men who knew how to handle guns and IF our homeland were ever to be invaded ~ she'd be thankful they knew how to use one.
My children are taught from the time their limbs are strong enough to lift a gun, how it is they should use one. they are trained and drilled and drilled and trained until they not only know how to safely handle a gun but also how to hit a target with deadly accuracy. I pity anything that stands in their cross hairs.
However, the teacher and I may have more in common than she ever realized, I am not training killers. I hope and pray that the day will never come that one of my own would have to take the life of another soul. God's law tells us to love our enemies, but it also tells us to love God, our neighbor and our families. It's a matter of the strong protecting the weak, a matter of saving a life that causes us to train our children for battle.
Causes us to teach them to fight the good fight, both with their soul and their bodies. To live lives that produce a clear conscious before God, so that in the end there will be no regrets. They are trained to use guns to provide life for those in their care, be it food or protection....
Lord willing, the world will never have to worry about one of the Shane Holverson clan using a gun in crimes against society, but neither will you find one of us dialing 911 asking someone else to protect us.
That is in the training.
