My oldest son has recently come to me and told me that he plans on joining the Army next year when he turns 18 in January. This breaks my heart. Not only because we live in a world that seems to be in constant war right now but because I know I did not raise my son to "kill" another human. The turmoil that this has caused me. I worry that if he does go to war and is involved in the killing of another person, where will his place in Heaven be. How, as a mother, do you accept this. He wants me to be proud of his decision but I just can not find it in myself. Please, if any one has gone through something similar or is in the Army themselves, please any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I am a simple man who tends to be forgetful of remembering scriptures readily ,so maybe this is not the place for me to respond ,but I will try to speak what is in my heart and as best as God leads me .I know there is many people out there who do not study things as well as others be it thru lack of education ,mental capacity or other ,and I know that there is many good points spoken here on both sides .I 'm not sure the best way to begin ,but let me start at the fact we are born into a broken world ,we are all sinners and we will keep on making mistakes ,but as far as choices are made ,we have the choice to believe in Jesus or not and noone should judge us for why we believe or not ,that is Gods job .With war and killing ,God knows exactly what is in our hearts and i think that whatever your choice you must pray to God about it ,before during and after,-;that He will forgive us our trespasses and wrong choices,as they come about . I know that if it ever came to the time and place that i had to kill someone for whatever reason ,I would not feel good about it and that God would look down on me and see the remorse I have for my actions,God knows that we are all going to sin ,but I think it is not the sin that He is so much concerned about but what we learn from it in ourselves and how we respond to Him about it.I look at war a bit like cancer ,you have to not only take out the cancer but because of the nature of it to do the job properly some good cells will have to be wiped out alongside the bad cells,but ultimately if (killing )the cancer cells means saving many more good cells ,you are actually preserving more life than what is being destroyed,but if you do not do anything arent you just as guilty of killing something? ,I pray that this will be of some use to you Rachell,and every one else reading ,blessings in Jesus ,from Andrew
As a father of three children I can only pray with you.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in your situation.
As I write this the evening news is on in the other room with news of 3 more Australian troops killed today in Afganistan.
3 more families without husbands, sons, brothers and fathers.
Whether it is right or wrong to go to war, only God knows.
I pray that The Lord keeps your son safe and returns him to you.
I have not read through all the replies here on your forum post, but sister I believe your convictions about this are correct. The best advice is to pray. I believe that your son's heart can be softened in magnificient ways once he is exposed to the horror of war. God can use this for His purposes just as He has always used war to accomplish His purposes. God does not condone it, but He uses it because quite often our depraved hearts do not know another way other than war. In this, God can reach your son.
To David, and anyone else on this forum who agrees with war and believes they have a biblical stance to support that, I would be interested in discussing it in a different forum post, but not this one. Let's be sympathetic for this sister in Christ who is heartbroken over her son and this delicate circumstance.
Thank you to everyone who has responded to this. It has given me strength and a prayer direction to follow. I do hope that my son changes his mind before he joins, I dont think that he has a grasp on the reality of war and just how brutal things are over in Afganistan and soon to be Korea. I will pray for God to keep my son safe and again I thank you all for taking the time to write back. God Bless you all.
No need to apologize. It is understandable that everyone on this site is very passionate about their beliefs and we all have a different take on some things and thats what being human is all about. Hence the request for advice in the first place, my son and I have different views on war. Thank you again for taking the time to respond.