How soon we forget.

Yesterday was a nice Sunday. Actually, for some, it was a great Sunday. For others, it was probably not their best day.

Last night we were trying to do our family scripture study. Violet kept trying to turn on the tv. It was quite annoying. Before we could turn it off yet again we saw the headline "Osama Bin Laden Dead".

That got the attention of Curtis and I. One of the girls got up to turn the tv off. "Wait!" we both said. That is unprecendeted in our house. Our kids knew it had to be big to keep the tv turned on on a Sunday. As we watched in stunned silence, one of the kids asked "Who is Osama Bin Laden?"

Shocked, I asked, "You've never heard his name?" "No," was the reply. So I went around the room, with the same answer all around. One of the older girls said his name sounded mildly familiar.

Mildly familiar?!?!?

We asked them if they ever spoke about him in school. They said not really. I said, "What about Al-Qaeda?"

"Yeah, we've heard of that a little".

Now we consider ourselves up-to date when it comes to world news. We discuss world events freely with our kids. We want them to be globally minded. We don't shield them from watching the news, so why didn't they know about Osama Bin Laden? We quickly gave our kids a short history of terrorists in our day, and how terrorism ties into the prophesies in the scriptures pertaining to the last days.

Today we see all the celebrating all over the country at the news that Public Enemy #1 is dead. But I don't feel happy about it. I told Hallie last night that someone will step in to Bin Laden's shoes. In fact, he is now a martyr for their cause and they will come back stronger and more determined.

Seriously, I don't know how this post took such a depressing turn. Really, I was just shocked that my kids hadn't heard of him. But I guess it shouldn't be surprising when there is so much that has happened since 9/11. There are so many bad guys. There are so many battles being fought. When it comes down to it, I'm glad the military never forgot. I'm glad Bin Laden is now waiting in the next life for his judgement day. But I'm sad there was ever a need for us to go after him in the first place.

I'm grateful for the knowledge of the gospel, and our role on Earth and the life yet to come, and as long as our children have that knowledge, I'll sleep easy.