These two are on track to put me in an empty grave.

But man… what a life it will have been!

Last year, I attempted to write some thoughts to capture how I feel about my son, but I realized it’s just about impossible.

So this year, you get 7 minutes of Josiah telling you all about his favorite songs, shows, toys, sports…. oh, and the biggie: does he plan to get married.

This video is PURE Josiah.

Enjoy!

He said something along the lines of, “Growing up, somewhere between the picture books and flannel graphs, I got the impression that Jesus was a feminine hippie with a lot of hair product. One day, I realized: I don’t have respect for this guy because I could beat him up.”

He went on to point out that, even during Jesus’ first visit to Earth, he had many ‘manly’ characteristics. He was a carpenter, so likely strong and rough. He spent most of his time camping with His disciples, and the pharisees made Him so angry that he consistently mocked them to their face.

But, more to the point, when He comes again, there will be nothing soft or ‘hippie-ish’ about Him. He’s coming to start (and finish) a war.

Revelation 19:

Then I saw^(W) heaven opened, and behold,^(X) a white horse! The one sitting on it is called^(Y) Faithful and True, and^(Z) in righteousness he judges and makes war. ^12(AA) His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are^(AB) many diadems, and he has^(AC) a name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in^(AD) a robe dipped in^[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is^(AE) The Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven,^(AF) arrayed in fine linen, white and pure,^(AG) were following him on white horses. ^15(AH) From his mouth comes a sharp sword^(AI) with which to strike down the nations, and^(AJ) he will rule them with a rod of iron.^(AK) He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh^(AL) he has a name written,^(AM) King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, just a quick recap: A warrior on a horse with a sword coming out of His mouth, with a robe dipped in blood, a name tattooed on His leg, and itching for a fight with everything evil.

Add an announcer and you have a scene from WWF smack-down.

Put that on a flannelboard….

I’m writing this because I’ve been reminded of it lately as Josiah has grown up a little bit.

The other night, at the dinner table, Josiah looked up and said, “Dad, I love good people. But I don’t love bad people. I will KILL them!”

Now, clearly, we have some serious work to do. I need to teach him that there is no such thing as a good person, and that Jesus already died FOR the bad people.

But he explained himself. I asked him, “What kind of bad people?“. And he said, “Like Goliath“.

What my son was saying that day was, “Dad, I want to be brave and I want to stand up against the bad guys! I’m not afraid. I’m a warrior!”

It’s in his DNA as a little boy.

Just like Kharis gets all of her shoes out and tries them on even though nobody taught her to, Josiah beats up imaginary bad guys with invisible swords.

There’s some part of my parenting instinct that winces every time he does. I can see him at the playground getting carried away with “playing swords” with some kid who doesn’t understand the game and then trying to explain it to their parents.

But the last thing I want to do is try and suppress that natural desire that God gave him to be brave, strong, and to fight against “the bad guys”.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks…

Josiah and I were driving to the store and we were rocking my new favorite windows-down-and-radio-up song, The Lord Is A Warrior by Matt Papa.

In it, he simply celebrates how God is the ultimate warrior and the ultimate Savior – both by dying for our sins and then by promising to destroy all evil that rejects His reign. It’s basically the resurrection plus Revelation 19 put to music.

You can listen to it here:

(And once you realize that it’s awesome, you should go buy it.)

Anyways, back to the story:

Josiah asked me, “What’s he singing about?”

I said, “He is singing about how the Lord is a Warrior. Do you know what a warrior is?”

“No.”

“A warrior is like a strong fighter.”

“Jesus is a fighter?!!?!?!?”

“Yeah buddy. Jesus is the strongest fighter. He is the best hero ever.”

“YEAH! The best HERO! And whenever the bad guys want to hurt you, He will KILL THEM!”

We came home and Josiah ran in and told his mom, “Mom! Jesus is a fighter and he gets ALL the bad guys and He ALWAYS wins!”

Theologically, my son is learning (and very excited about) God’s sovereignty and justice.

Now we just have to figure out how to communicate about grace, sacrifice, and love….

But I think most of us could use a little more of that perspective.

When is the last time you went up against something scary (illness, difficult relationship, financial hardship, etc) and pictured Jesus the warrior riding in front of you to fight your battle?

Kind of makes me want to break out my action figures….

LOVE this kid.

That is all….

Every day he makes me smile.

Most days, he makes me laugh out loud.

When my dad gave a speech at my wedding, he said “I feel like I won the lottery.”

I think I will probably say the same thing every chance I get when it comes to both of my babies.

But Josiah recently entered a new stage…

I suppose we could call it the “I just realized that I can learn more about the world by asking questions” phase.

Or maybe IJRTICLMATWBAQ for short.

Here is the conversation we had over breakfast Saturday:

J: What’s that?!!?

Me: I don’t know. What is it?

J: It’s peanut butter!

Me: That’s right!

J: What kind?

Me: What kind of peanut butter?

J: Yeah! What kind?!?

Me: I don’t know. You tell me.

J: I don’t know either!

Me: It’s creamy peanut butter.

J: What kind?

Me: Um… it’s just creamy.

J: What kind?

Me: CREAMY! Creamy peanut butter. Made from peanuts.

J: Peanut butter is made from peanuts!

Me: Yep.

J: What kind….

If Stephanie or look totally exhausted next time you see us, it’s because we have 100 conversations like that every day.

It’s amazing to watch Josiah grow up right before our eyes and to see those little wheels in his head spinning as he pieces together his understanding of the universe.

But man…. the kid has a LOT of questions.

For our anniversary this year, Steph took me to see him perform live last week.  My jaws and my stomach were seriously hurting by the end of the night.

I was very impressed (and excited) that his WHOLE routine was brand new material that I had never heard before, but I was also excited that he came out and did an encore, taking requests from the audience.

He did about 20 minutes from his first ‘big’ CD, which is how I was introduced to him — so of course I’ve been watching his older stuff on youtube all week.

This is one of my favorites. The cartoon drawings are kind of silly, but this is the only video I could find with this skit in it.

Brian Regan on little league:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLUncbZKbs

Like any good ‘generation Y’ parents, we captured the moment.

Chewing on her bib.... we figured that since she tries to eat everything, then real food would be a breeze.

Already giving me a 'dad, put the camera away' look

First impression: What the!?!?

This is NOT milk!

Yep, spit it out.

Or, if you prefer these fancy new “motion” pictures:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJxJYZSp8M

Worry not though, friends. She’s eating like a champ now!

Or “Why I Usually Don’t Answer The Phone When I’m Home”

Or “Why I’m Happy To Work A 12-Hour Day Today”

You get the idea…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-WRn9keARE

I thought this was cute/clever.

Before he gets out of bed in the morning, you’re sure to hear him utter these words “hit ball!”

Sometimes he works himself into a little frenzy: “hit ball! hit ball! hit… hit… hit ball! hit ball bat!”

If he senses that he won’t be making it outside any time soon, he defaults to his backup: “bassssskball!”

When I work from home, in the garage, and have to come in to use the bathroom or get some coffee, he immediately runs to me: “Daddy! Bassssskball! Basssskball!”

I really don’t know how this kid got to loving sports so much…

Josiah was a champ in the hot sun and had a blast, even though he didn’t really understand most of what happened.

Kharis…

Well, I guess she had fun too…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-da7hR1iDtE

Look at that little double-chin…