Jeff:

When I said Jesus wants us to defend ourselves & martial arts does that you said & so does a gun....well, but w/ a gun innocent people may get hurt. With martial arts you are merely DEFENDING yourself against your opponent. Innocent people are much much less likely to be hurt....plus it's cleaner. With a gun, you could have difficulty proving self-defense & the idea of spending my life in jail just doesn't appeal to me. Besides, what is more awesome than being able to share your story after being in a fight than saying, "....and I did it with my own bare hands....without a gun! Dude that rocks!" I mean really....come on, Jeff!

Daughter:

In a similar thread that was started by Jon that I wasn't aware of, you said, "I must admit, I wish I could be settled in my mind that it was okay, and carry on improving my katas etc... But I keep thinking, this was originally designed to injure others. I don't want to hurt folks."

Oh I can just hear my senseis right now saying a few things (to me)!
My instructor, sensei Tony would be saying to your comment: "I don't want to hurt folks," "HE'S TRYING TO KILL YOU!" He's right...did I just say that....scary!

Now, I'm not God (thank goodness for that or you'd all be in trouble!!!), but when I hear you say, "I wish I knew what God was telling me." in your other thread that Jon had originally started that I was unaware of (sorry, John)....well......don't wait until you've been raped, abused, had a gun to your head, pushed down a flight of stairs, punched in the face, had your back & head stomped on (literally) or whatever else to then say, "Now I know what God wanted me to do....defend myself." God does NOT want us to be someone's punching bag, doormat, sex toy, or anything else! He wants us to be thinking people & to use the brains he so graciously gave us!!!! He wants us to be able to stand up for ourselves because we flipping deserve it! We were created in His image, not to be used & abused all our lives! How could we EVER totally be sold out to Him, on fire for Him, living our lives without fear, guilt & shame if we're so stuck w/ garbage in our minds from being hurt 24/07? It's impossible except by His grace which is difficult to grasp if you've been through all that. Maybe instead of thinking God doesn't want us to do martial arts we should be grateful to have martial arts revealed to us. We were meant to use our minds, defend our lives, strengthen our bodies & defend the helpless not sit around reading our bibles 24/07, praying about whether we should do martial arts. Instead of praying about it, I'll assume God wants me to do martial arts or I wouldn't have received the opportunity & I'll go ahead w/ it until I can no longer. I'll consider it God's revelation that it's okay. There's some things that's good & some that's bad & there's others that it's okay as long as you are careful, don't do anything against His will or take advantage of it. I hate to say God doesn't care, but then again He's okay with some things as long as it doesn't bring others down or doesn't hurt us & I don't think martial arts hurts us. I think it teaches us how to take care of ourselves.

HOLY COW.....did I just say all that?!?! WHOA.....now that's scary!