August 21, 2000
DOWN HOME:
Now we know how dragonslayers started
___"Daddy, come up here right away!" Lindsay hollered from her bedroom the other night. "There's a big spider, and you need to kill it before it gets away."
___To understand our family, you must realize that "big," when it comes to bugs, is anything larger than an invisible-to-the-naked-eye dust mite.
___So, when Lindsay or Molly, or even Joanna for that matter, yells, "There's a big spider,and you need to kill it ...," I no longer see visions of tarantulas the size of chihuahuas. In fact, I often wonder if I'll be able to find the poor critter by the time I arrive to send it to that Great Web in the Sky.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Lindsay and Molly come by their bug phobia naturally.
___When Jo and I were first married, we lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. One afternoon after work, I was in the bedroom changing clothes, and she was in the kitchen starting dinner.
___"Yeeeeeeee!!!!" she screamed violently, and I came running. As I stumbled out of the bedroom, I expected to encounter a vicious bandit, carrying twin revolvers with a knife between his teeth and a bullwhip slung over his shoulder. Instead, I looked down on a wood roach--impressive in size, but harmless in demeanor.
___So, in 21 years of marriage and more than 16 years of daddyhood, I've slayed my share of grasshoppers, squished my share of spiders and slung my share of Junebugs out the back door.
___As you might imagine, I sometimes get exasperated when Lindsay or Molly hollers that I need to come dispatch some bug.
___But then I remember, "Hey, they think I can do this brave deed." And I fondly recall those days when little girls thought daddy could perform any physical feat.
___That's probably how the legend of dragons got started: A Medieval daddy killed a lizard and his daughter told the neighbors he slew a fire-breathing, two-headed beast.
___So, it's no wonder I've reveled in being the daddy of daughters. For most of their lives, I've been their bug-slayer and doer of mighty deeds.
___Of course, I always knew I wasn't as valiant as they believed. And of course, they now know it too. But sometimes they pretend otherwise, especially when they want me to kill spiders in their bedrooms.
___As they have grown, their assurance in and dependence upon my physical strength and bravery has diminished. That's as it should be. The more I shrink to scale, the larger and stronger they grow.
___Along the way, they also have come to depend upon our heavenly Father for all the real protection they need. And that's as it should be too.
___
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
