A Dangerous Reality

I guess that last week, the smallest horse on record was born. It was of the line of miniatures, of course, but stood at maybe fourteen inches and weighed only 6 pounds when born. Many people commented on the article I read saying things like,"Oh, he's so cute!" or "Can you housebreak him?" or "So great for children! Now they don't have to have a horse that they're afraid of."

Do you see how dangerous this attitude can be? This horse, though small, is still very much a horse with all the natural bent toward biting, kicking, bucking, rearing, etc. that needs to be trained out of a horse. People are often adamant about training large horses because of the danger they pose to you. Nobody wants to be kicked by a 1200 pound animal with hard hooves! But would you really want little Johnny to get kicked by something that was even maybe 120 lbs? Come on! Little Johnny might escape his childhood with nary an incident with his little pony, but what if it gave him a false sense of security that he would be safe around horses?

This might seem outlandish to you, but I'm a parent with this strong on my heart. I've removed all toys from my kids that emulate something dangerous in the adult world. My son wants to shoot a gun, so his toy guns are gone. He needs to learn how dangerous they are and how to safely handle one. If he were to walk around with that false security from only playing with toy guns, he'd have no idea how to properly handle a real gun. I'd rather him respect firearms in general. For example, my kids had a toy kitchen set complete with flimsy plastic knives. One day, I came into the kitchen to find my kids playing with real butcher knives and slicing each other's hands!!! They had no idea how dangerous real knives were. Toy knives are gone because they need to respect sharp things.

I might sound like a hypocrite because my children have a miniature horse, but I'm not. This miniature is still a full four hundred pounds and is a feisty mare. She's broke and gentle, but she will not tolerate being treated like a toy. My son took to beating her butt with a stick to make her go forward, and she responding by tossing him. He's learning how to respect her. After getting a kick from her by running at her and yelling, he's now very careful about running and yelling at all around the full size horses and has a healthy respect of their large and swift legs! She's more dangerous than a plastic knife or toy gun and is a fantastic training tool to my kids!

When I think about how people handle dangerous things flippantly, I think about the tongue. Speaking something is like taking the mediation of our heart and putting feet on it and sending it off to run the fields and multiply. I was about to quote some verses here about the tongue, but that's a waste of time. Just read the book of James. It's short, but very packed with verses about it. However, I'll share with you something that is almost like a mantra to me throughout every day of my life. It's from the Psalmist, David: "O Lord, set a guard over the door of my mouth and let no iniquity into my heart."

What's that in your mouth? It's not a foam sword, or plastic knife, or toy gun. It's not a my little pony or plastic jewelry. In your mouth is the real deal: It's a sharpened steel sword; it's a jagged knife; it's a powerful firearm; it's a muscular beast and it's a king's booty.