a story that brought a smile to my face...then a tear to my eye

next weekend bryan and i are taking a marriage and family class taught by the man himself, dr. danny akin. as part of the class, i have to read dr. akin's book, God on Sex: The Creator's Ideas About Love, Intimacy, and Marriage. This book has been amazing thus far and i highly recommend it for married and about-to-be-married couples. in one part of the book, dr. akin is discussing the natural, God-given differences between men and women. as he writes about these differences in the area of parenting, he shares the following story:

"several years ago i was doing a family life conference in south florida. i had talked about the fact that a mother really does become something of a bear protecting her cub whenever her children are in trouble. after the conference a man came up to me and said, 'what you said this morning is absolutely the truth. let me tell you what happened down here recently.' he then relayed to me the story of a family that was in their backyard down in the everglades. while they were out playing and doing things, an alligator came up out of the bush and grabbed their small child and began to run back in to the bush toward the water. the father and mother both saw what was happening. the father, being the typical male, quickly looked for something that he might grab as a weapon to go and attack the alligator. the mother, however, looked for nothing. she immediately went into a sprint, leaped upon the alligator, and began to bite it, hit it, kick it, and scream at it. finally, bruised and battered, the alligator let go of the small child and made its way quickly back into the safety of the water! the mother stood up, realized what she had just done, and immediately passed out there in the backyard!"

dr. akin goes on to say that he believes the mother acted this way, not because she loved her child more than the father, but because women act from the heart first and then use their heads whereas men use their heads first and then their heart. 

my initial reaction to this story was to smile and think "that poor, sweet, crazy mama literally bit an alligator to save her baby. and it worked!" 

and then about .032 seconds later, tears sprung up in my eyes because i thought, "i would've done the EXACT same thing had it been asher or nate. i would've made that alligator bleed. he would've paid for messing with my baby. after it was over, right before i passed out, i would've yelled something like 'that's right! run away! and if i EVER catch you around here again, i will do more than bite, sir! i will personally skin you with my teeth and take your nasty hide and make me a nice pair of alligator skin boots! and then every time i walk in those things i will laugh at your feeble attempt to come between a mama and her babies! booyah!' 

i would be that poor, sweet, crazy, alligator-biting mama. and i am SO ok with that. 

p.s. i will post a sunday confession later today that was inspired by another story from this same book. i don't have time to get it all out now, but stay tuned!