I’ve been thinking on these verses quite a bit lately. It’s a pretty weird analogy, isn’t it? Children, considered to be sweet and innocent, are actually weapons – deadly weapons – <\/em>against enemies. But these arrows must be created, formed, and sharpened before they can be of any effective use. In addition to the making of these weapons, arrows can cause no damage if they have no bow to aim and let them loose against the enemy. And the instruments used to both fashion and implement these weapons are the parents. (No pressure!)<\/p>\n Our task as parents is to “fashion arrows,” to mold our children in such a way as to enable us to one day fire them at the enemy successfully. Some parents have let loose their children overseas to serve as missionaries. Some arrows have landed in the middle of the workforce to gently pierce their coworkers in neighboring cubicles. Still others stand behind the pulpit week after week, sharpening other arrows both young and old. Take a moment to imagine where your young arrows might one day pierce, and pierce definitively.<\/p>\n But some of our arrows are stronger than others though, aren\u2019t they? Depending on the ages and personalities of our children, some are more ready for battle. Their malleable hearts may be able to withstand a bit more heat and hammering than others. But there are some whom we fear to be broken, as I had feared my own son to be. Perhaps you fear the same for your own child.<\/p>\n My middle son, Samuel, has autism. He is nearly 7 years old. He was diagnosed as \u201cmoderate\/severe\u201d autistic at 27 months of age. We agonized over the hopeless feeling that our son was broken and there was nothing that could fix him. So we did what every other parent who experiences such brokenness does\u2013 we grieved. We did not grieve the son we had, rather, we grieved the son we thought we would have<\/i> and didn\u2019t. <\/i>
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