Losing Innocence
Around the time of Luke's birth, we stayed at a guesthouse for missionaries. We realized (once again) that our faith that prompts us to work and promote peace and non-violence is not shared by all Christians.

When we arrived at the guesthouse some of the toys Nadia discovered were long plastic swords, about the same height as she. Various families with boys came through and she learned the purposes of swords and the inevitable phrases: "I'm gonna kill you!" and "You're killing me!" without understanding the meaning. Joel, in an effort to protect Nadia (a very social two year old who isn't afraid of joining whatever aged kids in their play) from being bonked on the head and limit her exposure to violent toys, hid the swords.

I'm not sure who lost their innocence more--Joel and I as parents or Nadia. I know that our belief that Jesus calls us to actively live out love to everyone, including our enemies, is not a common one and that when our children are older we will have to be very intentional to talk and demonstrate our beliefs that are so counter cultural. But I didn't expect it to happen when our daughter is two.