Conversation with a 7 year old.

Jacob was reading "Alfred Nobel and the Story of the Nobel Prize," - and in case you don't know (because I didn't) here is a brief overview: Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite (gun powder and nitroglycerin), which in turn has caused countless deaths, but also paved the way for modernization in the nineteenth century. The Nobel Prize was a way to redeem himself of those deaths and reward those who worked toward peace. So in reading the first chapter and then discussing Nobel's intent for dynamite and what it ended up being used for, the conversation turned to Iraq, Jacob's only reference point for war and blowing stuff up. He didn't understand what we were doing there. I carefully explained what happened in New York to the towers and said that that was one reason we went into Iraq among others. Jacob very confidently and quite passionately said "That is not what God would want, for us to hurt them because they hurt us." I was speechless, he was right. I asked him what he thought should have been done. He simply replied, "We should have talked to them and asked them to stop." I said "What if they didn't stop, then what?" Jacob said, "Then we should pray and ask God to make them stop." The conversation went on and I began to see things differently. I've never been an advocate for violence of any kind but had an understanding that at times and in certain situations action had to be taken, it was the kind of action I was wrong about. It was one of the most honest and pure conversations I've probably ever had. Jacob saw it very simply. God loves everyone and so should we, we don't hurt the people we love.

I wish I was seven.