So a little story about this weekend...

Most of you know that the previous owners of our house left quite a bit of junk behind. Along with their toys, clothes, furniture and trash they also left behind clues of their many... extra circular activities. Back in December, I found several issues of a very well known magazine. I know they only collected them for the articles! While I am sure that the reading is very intellectual, I chose to file these particular magazines in the circular filing cabinet. Then I took the trash out myself, in order to avoid any chance of young minds being scarred.

Since then, we have set the children to working on the demo of the upstairs. Originally I looked at this as a way to get them out of our hair while we did actual work on the main floor. Surprisingly enough, the kids have taken on this task with great enthusiasm! They have most of the walls upstairs completely demolished and have been very good about bagging up their mess.

Fast forward to this past Saturday...

John and I left all of the kids at Shannon's in order to get some things moved into the house. While we were at the house John was upstairs and he notice a stack of these same magazines in a contractor trash bag... Uh OH!

He says, "Honey, I thought you threw away all the naughty magazines."

I say, "Yeah... weeks ago...Why?"

He says, "Well there are a bunch more upstairs in the trash."

Needless to say someone found more. So much for protecting innocent minds... (sigh)

Later, when we got home we asked out oldest girls if they had been the ones to find them. Secretly I was hoping it was them. Why? Because they are 12 and they know about the birds and the bees. .. and I trust their discernment. Anyway, it wasn't them.

So john asks the boys... They looked at him with blank faces. Not lying faces. Just "I have no idea what you're talking about" faces. Malachi did say that Hannah had found some magazines but he didn't see them.

Being that is was night time and Hannah was already asleep we closed the conversation for the night. Of course I couldn't sleep, not knowing that my baby girl had seen such horrible stuff. I sat awake wondering how her little mind had processed those images.

Keep in mind, this is my little girl that likes to pull her night gown off of her shoulder so that she can be "pretty". She is also the one that loves that show "Toddler's in Tiaras" and wants to be on a runway when she grows up. So no, I didn't sleep most of the night. When I did, my dreams were whacked out and crazy dreams of my daughter becoming a "bunny" in her young adult years.

So Sunday morning John asks Hannah about the situation.

"Hannah, did you find some magazines upstairs in the new house?"

"Yes"

"Were there pictures of ladies in them."

"YES!... and they were NOT being MODEST... and I didn't want the BOYS to see THEM so I just THREW THEM IN THE TRASH!"

I was so happy I wanted to cry. Instead of all the horrible fears I had conjured up in my head about my daughter being sucked into a life of vanity and lust, she showed me that she has the fortitude to withstand such temptations. She was so repulsed that her face was all crinkled up for the rest of the conversation.

The moral here? Even if your child is only 5, they are capable of taking a stand against immorality. You don't have to have had the "sex talk" yet. If you teach your children about right and wrong, when they are faced with something unexpected they will know to listen to that still small voice. Hannah had no idea what she was looking at. I had never talked to her about pornography but she had the wherewithal to know that it was something she should not look at, and to protect her brothers from it.