What's in your jammies?

Today is Palm Sunday and while we are still out of town, I wanted to take a quick moment and put this up for anyone who might be interested today. Another borrowed piece from my friend Shelley. Please let me know if you visited her site! I am sure she would want to know as well. I love this one....it's like God created this situation so that we could have a visual of what it means to be armed in the Lord.

This is something visual especially for boys. I think about how my oldest Nick is very in tune with visuals concerning weapons and fighting. You see, a part of him thinks he wants to follow in Kevin's footsteps and join the USMC after highschool. Gulp...can't think of that right now. Anyway, what I am saying is that we need to remind our kids daily that their struggle is not one they can win on their own. It is not a fight they can win with weapons. This fight can only be won by His spirit. Are we teaching our kids how to be armed? The armor of the Lord - maybe it's time to bring out that scripture again. When was the last time you read that to your kids?

April 10, 2007
Fight the Good Fight!

It’s Easter morning and my 2 year old son is padding down the hall in his footed pajamas… so cute and sweet and quiet. Until I hear this clunking sound. It’s not the cats, it’s not the gerbils, it’s coming from my son’s pjs.

I quickly stop and kneel down to his level, “what are on earth is going on?” I wonder outloud. More clunking. As he walks there is this noise with every step he makes. I immediately unzip the footed pajamas… he exclaims, “My weapons!” All this stuff falls out. I mean, a BUNCH of stuff. He had slept all night with random household stuff shoved in his pjs, as he stated, his weapons from whatever bedtime game had been going on 12 hours earlier.

At this point, I am just cracking up. He was so serious. How uncomfortable had that child been as he slumbered? How did I put him to bed with all this stuff in his pjs? Crazy. Just absolutely crazy! As I thought about this and continued laughing about it (honestly, his expression was INTENSE when it came to these “weapons”) another thought occurred to me. What weapons do us grown ups have stashed in our footed pjs… the uncomfortable ones that we tolerate because they seem to offer a great deal of therapy to our hurting souls? Alright, we all know the Sunday School answers here… gossip, backstabbing, drugs, sex and rock and roll. But really, what else are we toting around, ready to use to our advantage when the opportunity presents itself? Many people see the way they were raised, their life circumstances, or their emotions as being just too big to overcome. These “things” quickly become weapons, fighting off any good that might come from these situations. They are classified as strongholds that keep us in a gridlock, anticipating the battle but never allowing it to be fought.

I believe spiritual battles are fought over random household stuff we stuff in our jammies. They are only won when God unzips us and offers freedom a fighting chance.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4