"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even into death.
If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt, kind-hearted but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder, then your soldiers must be likened to spoiled children; they are useless for any practical purpose. "
-Art of War, Sun Tzu
Likewise, regard your children as soldiers, for they will need to follow you into the deepest of valleys. They will need to stay the course until death.
My Battalion Commander, LtCol Robeson, assigned a book for the Lts to read: This Kind of War, by T.R. Fehrenbach - A comprehensive history of the Korean War. I am thoroughly enjoying it. One key piece I have already taken away is that society aims to make us soft, they do not understand what it is that needs to be done or what kind of men are required to do it. "For he who desires peace must prepare for war. " Task Force Smith is a prime example. The first US Troops (Army) engaged to stop the advance of the North Koreans. They only lasted about 7 hours.
The reality sunk in that deteriorating our efforts in training and equipping in times of peace is not a recipe for success in times of war. And times of war will undoubtably arise.
the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war and you rise only to your level of preparedness. we begin by fighting for our children, continue by fighting along side them and end by fighting through them, assuming you've trained them in discipline and instruction as the Bible commands fathers to do (Eph 6:4) turns out this advice can be applied to any discipleship-type scenario. it's as though God knows what He's talking about when it comes to raising up and rearing warriors.
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