Raising Kids While Adventuring (And Showing Brotherly Love)

Let’s strive to show love to someone—other than our significant other—this Valentine’s Day.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Since my devotional is so close to this holiday, I knew I needed to take the opportunity to write about love. However, I wanted to focus on true, godly love, not the world’s idea of love, which often relies on unreliable feelings.

Raising Kids While Adventuring does a wonderful job of focusing on the kind of love worth celebration. I stumbled across it when it was first airing, and it’s become one of my favorite isekai series. It’s super wholesome, pretty clean, and a truly fun watch. But one of the biggest reasons Raising Kids While Adventuring is so good is the relationship the main character, Takumi, has with Alan and Elena.

Alan and Elena are young twins who were abandoned in the woods. Takumi, newly isekaied to this world, stumbles across them. He could have helped them by simply dropping them off at the next town, and no one would have faulted him for it; it would be up to someone else to take responsibility to rear Alan and Elena. Instead, he adopts them, donning the title of “brother.” He cares for their needs, teaches them about family, and provides safety and security for the previously abandoned children. Takumi made a truly selfless choice to adopt the twins. He lives out Proverbs 17:17: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (ESV).

Although the anime is mostly light and wholesome, things aren’t perfect. There is plenty of adversity in the anime. The twins may be extremely capable and overpowered when it comes to fighting, but they can’t fully take care of themselves—they need their brother when things get rough (spoilers ahead).

The anime highlights the moment when Alan and Elena come face-to-face with the person who abandoned them. This vile person is actually a slaver, and he used them as bait, leaving them for dead to save himself and the other slaves. The slaver, seeing his “merchandise” unharmed, demands the twins back, but Takumi refuses to hand them over. He loves them. Not only is he their brother, but he is their friend, too, and he cares for their well-being.

Although we probably won’t adopt overpowered, blue-haired children we’ve stumbled across after they’ve been abandoned in the woods, we can still come up with ways to show this same type of love to others. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be—and shouldn’t be—just about the romantic love we have for our significant others (although it is special, too). It should branch out to showing love to our friends, family, and even that sibling you don’t get along with very well, too.

Weekly Mission: Can you send chocolate to someone who may not get it otherwise? Do you have an elderly neighbor or friend who may be alone on Valentine’s Day, and may appreciate a card, a call, or a sweet gesture to remind them that they are loved?

Memory Verse: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” ~ Proverbs 17:17

Photo source: A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring | OFFICIAL TRAILER

BtT in Review

In Episode 3 of Something Genuine, Twwk sits down with actor Isabella Crovetti—known for her live action roles but now also for her work in anime, including voicing Sei in A Star Brighter Than the Sun—for a fun and candid conversation.

On today’s special Valentine’s Day episode, Mike digs into relationships, and he looks to the gold standard, Dragon Ball Z, to do so! Wait…are the marriages in DBZ even worth emulating? Here’s a sample from the episode:

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Twwk has recently started a series called Grace Notes, where he offers insight, reflection, and Biblical wisdom. His most recent reflection is about how grace is shown, but not fully, in the Secrets of the Silent Witch manga.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we have a slew of romantic manga and light novels to share with you on Reader’s Corner, from a burgeoning love triangle in the latest volume of Dandadan to a new harem series about a reborn adventurer, and from the Barrier Mage’s quest to marry his beloved to the final volume of Your And I Are Polar Opposites!

This past Friday, we had the opportunity to feature two fantastic pieces of fan art—of Sagiri from Hell’s Paradise and Maka from Soul Eater.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends. We’ll see you next week!