Run Little Red Riding Hood!

The election is over.  Obama was re-elected.  I will pray for him and i will pray for our country.  As I stepped on my treadmill this morning I decided it would be OK for me to walk instead of run.  I felt I deserved the rest after the long election process.  As I walked, my body urged me forward.  Something inside of me needed to run, with strength.  I ran for my whole 15 minutes.  Yes, this is a mere pittance of what I used to run each morning.  But I ran faster than I have run in a long time.  It felt good.

As I ran this thought echoed through my brain, it was written by a friend on my facebook yesterday.  She said, “But, everyone should make their own choice - and believe in what is best for them, and not what someone else [says] they should choose.”  I agree with her.  Choice is what this life is all about.  Choice is a fundamental principle of my gospel and my understanding of God's plan.  But this isn't about limiting choices, man can not take away another's agency.  Agency is intrinsic.

This past year has opened my eyes to social issues that concern me.  I'm surprised at how strongly i FEEL these issue in my soul.  I don't want to worry about these things, but I can't escape their influence.  I am worried about our nation.  Yes, I'm worried about our fiscal debt, our international relationships, Israel, ... but I am more worried about our moral decline.  I feel now, more than ever, a need to stand for what is right and good.  I feel the need to teach correct principles.  We are at war.  We are not fighting against people, we are fighting against EVIL principles.  The crumbling of our moral foundations and the concentrated effort to thwart correct teaching is CREATING a society of confused and sad people.  It scares me.  Our children are at risk.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a warning to me.  Little Red Riding Hood had a mother that seemed to have good intentions but she did not TEACH her child.  She did not protect her child.  She may have sewn her a cute red cape, and showed her how to serve her grandmother as she packed a sweet lunch.  She was home at the transition times of her daughter’s life, and she taught her child to be kind and good.  She warned her not to talk to strangers and to hurry on her way.  This was NOT enough.  SHE DID NOT TEACH HER DAUGHTER ABOUT THE WOLVES!!

Our life is NOT a life where everyone is just walking on their way.  You can say, “Just walk your path and let me walk my path.”  You can say, “You choose for yourself and let me choose for my self.”  BUT YOU ARE NAÏVE.  Because, there are WOLVES that are real and they are trying to KILL you and your children.  I am like that mother.  I am comfortable in my home, curled up by the fire reading a book.  Why do i care what you do in your part of the forest?  I like little red hoods more than i like shields and swords.

So WHY do i need to change?  BECAUSE THE WOLVES WILL EAT MY CHILDREN IF I DON'T PROTECT THEM.  The wolves will eat your children too.

I want to SHOUT to Little Red Riding Hood—BEWARE!  They seem nice.  They are telling you to pick flowers for your grandmother.  They are appealing to your sense of kindness and goodness and distracting you.  BECAUSE THEY WANT TO KILL YOU.  THEY ARE WOLVES!  THEY WILL KILL YOUR GRANDMOTHERS, THEY WILL KILL YOU, and THEY WILL KILL YOUR CHILDREN.

IT IS TIME FOR MOTHER’S TO HOLD AXES.  IT IS TIME FOR US TO DEFEND OUR CHILDREN AND THE RISING GENERATIONS.  We can not sit at home fixing dinner while we send our children out into the woods alone.  We need to arm them with shields and swords and the armor of God.  We need to stand beside them and teach them how to battle the wolves along the way.  BECAUSE THERE ARE WOLVES THAT WANT TO DESTROY THEM.

I have talked much on this blog about my belief in God.  I do not doubt that God exists.  I know Him.  He talks to me, He teaches me, He is real and true and living.  But, I know almost more surely that there is a devil.  That he is waging a war against goodness.  He wants me.  He wants my children.  He is REAL.  I know Him and I have felt his power.  He is trying to make us miserable.  He is winning some battles, but he will not win the war. 

Today I feel strong.  I am glad to be a mother who is teaching.  I feel glad to have my little blog to share with you the dangers I see on the path ahead.  Today I want to RUN.  I want to teach.  I want my children to know what is good and right and I want to teach them these principles.  As they choose goodness it will be a shield and a protection to them against the EVIL that is in this world. 

My grandmother died of lung cancer well before her time.  That wolf of addiction got her—but it will not get my children if I can teach them principles that will save them and help them defend against it.  I will not tell my children to walk their own path and try not to talk to strangers.  I will not tell them to do what feels good to them.  I will teach them that smoking will KILL them.  I will fight to keep smoking propaganda out of my schools.  I will turn off television programs that suggest smoking is glamorous or educated.  I will vote for laws that limit advertising and availability of cigarettes.  Because cigarettes are just as harmful for your children as they are for mine.  EVERY smoker will tell you that.  The BITE of that wolf is REAL.  No-- I will not teach them to hate smokers.  But, I will teach them to beware of the WOLF of addiction- because that wolf has killed one too many of the people i love.  Cigarettes are far from the worst evil lurking in our woods.

I will tell my children that people will come to them offering things that LOOK good but are evil.  We are wasting our time being afraid of Woodsmen and ignoring the wolves.  I will tell them NOT to be deceived by wolves in glasses.  I will tell them that if they SENSE eyes that are too big, or ears that are too big, or teeth that are too big, THEY SHOULD RUN.  I will NOT tell my middle school children to DEFINE themselves by every primal thought that runs through their head.  I will tell them to CHOOSE goodness and flee from evil.  I will teach them to listen to that voice inside them, the FEELING they have that something is not right.

I want to yell to her, “RUN!!! Run Little Red Riding Hood!”  KNOW WHAT A WOLF LOOKS LIKE AND RUN THE MINUTE YOU SEE HIM!  That is what I will teach my children.  I will not take away their choice.  I CAN NOT take away their choices.  I can not protect them from their life journey, but I can ARM them.  I will teach them to CHOOSE SAFETY AND PEACE.  I would teach your children that too, if I could.

I know these wolves.  They are ADDICTION, PROMISCUITY, SEXUAL PERVERSION, GREED, SELFISHNESS, ABORTION, HATE, CONTENTION, DEPRESSION, GLUTTONY, LAZINESS, VIOLENCE, IGNORANCE, PRIDE, ... and so much more.  Poverty is not a wolf, it is a path, a hill that some must climb.  Homosexuals are not the wolves-- but immorality is a wolf that deceives many.  Obama is not the wolf.  We are fighting evil principles not our wounded friends who are or who have been deceived.  You know them.  You who have been down this path before.  You have been hurt or you have seen those you love suffering as they war against these evil wolves in sheep's clothing. You can deny their existence but you can not help but see their ravaging scars.

Along my path are many wounded friends.  We have ALL been bit by these wolves or seen those we love writhing from pain.  We are wounded, but not defeated.  We CAN NOT stand by and let the wolves rule the forests.  They are not picking flowers, they are not just trying to make everyone’s journey fair—they are waiting to destroy your children.  OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING!

There is a path that is free from pain.  Those that are wounded doubt this path even exists!  You must CHOOSE, but you do always have a choice. More people need to know that there IS a way to walk through the woods unharmed.  There is a path, a plan of happiness and it is available to all.  There is a way to heal from wounds and there is a way to AVOID these wounds.  There are millions of people around the world who don't drink, don't do drugs, wait to have sex till after they are married, choose to live a monogamous life, seek after that which is honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous and in doing good to all man.  Many who believe in God and cast out evil.  Goodness is always stronger than evil.  The wolves are real, but so is the Woodcutter.

The only hero in that story is the woodcutter.  Because he saw the wolf for what it really was and KILLED IT.  The woodcutter knew that INSIDE the wolf he would find our suffering grandparents and our suffering children. 

We are not taking casual walks through life.  If we were, Little Red Riding Hood would have been fine.  

There are wolves.

And, we MUST prepare our children.
We must teach them and protect them.
Our Grandmothers knew it, the woodsmen know it, and WE know it.
They will still meet wolves.  They will still have to choose.
But, my children will KNOW what big eyes he has, they will know what big ears he has, they will know what a big nose he has.
THEY WILL NOT BE DECEIVED.
My children will SEE his teeth and know that he intends to eat them.
I hope they run!!
Oh, how I hope they know him and RUN far away!!
But if not, I trust the Woodcutter.
And i trust that we can all live happily ever after.
the end.

NOTES--
1.  This is NOT a blog about FEAR.  It is a blog about the importance of being AWARE.  The story of Little Red Riding Hood is not a scary story, because it ends well.  Knowledge does not promote fear, it promotes wisdom and preparedness. 
2.  The wolves that I advocate fighting against ARE NOT PEOPLE, or even people who believe differently than me.  These symbolic wolves are PRINCIPLES- like promiscuity and addiction, that I view as harmful for our society.  I include ignorance in my list of wolves.  I also include hate, anger and violence.
3.  When I say mothers need to hold axes, I am NOT advocating violence.  I am advocating powerful teaching.  Mothers must be prepared to fight against current PRINCIPLES and TEACHINGS that I feel harm our children.

EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL TODAY AS IT WAS YESTERDAY.  As we teach our children NOT to HATE and to beware of the pull of peer pressure or enticing addictions, WE ARE NOT TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO BE UNKIND TO OTHERS.  We are teaching them to be SAFE and WISE.  You can be educated and still kind to fellow travelers.

I am VERY clear about WHAT the evil lurking in the woods is and what it is not.  Yes, I believe that there truly are right and wrong ideas and principles.  I do not believe that there are right and wrong people.  We are ALL travelers along life's path.  We all need to love and embrace one another in our differences.  If you want to read HATE in my words-- be sure you are reading HATE for evil principles NOT for people.  If you want to read FEAR in my words- be sure you read FEAR of ignorance, not fear of people or life.  Education is ESSENTIAL.    

Please read this follow-up blog.-- You can LOVE, tolerate and teach.