A stripling is an adjective not used much anymore. It refers to a boy about to pass from boyhood into manhood. Today we'd call them pre-teens. In the Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ - there is an account of a group of people who became converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These people were so astonished by its teachings they buried their weapons of war deep in the earth. They promised God they would never take up the sword against another man. Well, as you can imagine, this made them vulnerable to being attacked by other warring tribes. When threatened with annihilation, they were about to take up their weapons, and break their oath to God, when their young men stepped forward. They told their parents, they didn't make this promise, and they would protect their people. Impressed, a general agreed to take these young men and use them in his army. There were about 2,000 of them. They became known as Helaman's 2000 Stripling Warriors. (Helaman was the general's name.) They went to battle and not a single one of these young men were killed. Helaman attributed this to their courage and faith in God. He said he had never seen men fight with so much courage. This digital painting, which started with several AI images, which I then took in and painted it using various elements that inspired me from the Ai images, shows one of those young boys in prayer before going in to battle. The story is very inspiring and shows that it is a noble cause to protect one's family, home and beliefs. For them, all three were at stake.