Putting the Armor on

In this house, there are many battle scenes going on at any given time. Sometimes (on good days) it is 3 brothers fighting as a team against their imaginary enemy; sometimes it's one of those brothers against another (on a not so good day). And still other times it's this weary mama, trying to fight those spiritual battles of my flesh that try to creep in and destroy my day.

I have been giving much thought to this putting on armor thing, especially now that my husband decided to make the boys some all-out swords and shields (from duct tape, no less!), and it seems they are constantly running around in a battle. Their focus has been mainly on getting the bad guy. Sometimes, they are even talking to each other about "fighting Satan." Thankfully they don't fully understand what that means yet (do any of us?) but it is real to their little minds, and they always have him beat.

I, on the other hand, often feel like I am in a losing battle in this world. I'm tired of living in defeat. I spend many moments lingering over failures and feeling shame or guilt over one mess-up or another. I spend many moments trying to be better, or if I am really honest, am I trying to earn grace? Maybe I just need to stop trying. I was recently confronted with the concept of "imputed righteousness." I say confronted, because I believe I sort of knew what the concept meant, it was packed away somewhere deep inside when I first came to know the Lord, but I needed it to hit me smack in the face once again, so that maybe I could really get it this time.

Imputed righteousness is the righteousness of Christ that is completely placed on us through faith. That is, we can do nothing to earn it or to make ourselves "more righteous" than we already are. We can do NOTHING! Not even fight those battles. They are not ours to fight. God looks at a child who has declared him Lord and sees only righteousness, not every sin laid bare, not every failure or mistake. He sees the blood of Jesus, clothing us with a robe of righteousness.

"I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness." ~Isaiah 61:10

I am trying to change my view of how I wear this armor. Starting my day with the battle in mind, but coming before the Lord with a surrendered heart first. Fixing my eyes not on the enemy, but on the One who is my hope in victory, over anything that threatens. Literally, I'm trying to picture in my mind that robe of pure white that adorns me, as His mercies fall new with the start of each day. That I am lifting up myself, and He is the one adorning me with his armor, preparing me for the day's battles, and fighting them for me as I keep my eyes fixed on Him. When my eyes tarry--and they certainly will, as I am prone to wander--I can simply call on His strength to turn them back, to lift my shield of faith for me, to give me the sword of the spirit, which is the Word. David never defeated Goliath on his own, with the Lord as his back-up. No, those stones flew in the name of the Lord God Almighty. They were His stones. And that is why Goliath was defeated.

I pray for our boys that they may have a right view of who they are in Christ. Somehow may we impart on them how He sees them, how He is for them. And may they yield their weapons to Him, that they may never try to fight their battles on their own.

"This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s." ~2 Chronicles 20:15

God is surely alive

I've been meaning for a little while now to write a blog post on prayer. We've had many ups & downs in trying to teach our boys how to pray. Some days frustrated, feeling like nothing is getting through to them (as they do somersaults and jump around the room while we're trying to pray before bed)...and then other days being floored by the maturity of how they pray. Lately it's been more the latter, thankfully. It's amazing to see their little hearts. Jack & David often pray thankful prayers, listing off many things and people that they are thankful to God for. And Luke almost always prays like this before bed, "God, thank you for this day. Help me to do what is right and serve you and praise you every day. Amen." :)

The thing that prompted me tonight to write this post is the crazy day we've had, and the amazing proof of how faithful and incredibly alive God really is. We started off with church, then coming home to the boys going crazy as usual when they get unleashed from the car and are waiting for us to fix lunch. They were on the back porch playing, and we're not exactly sure what happened, but Luke started running toward the door into the house, tripped and fell face-first into the brick stairs. Ouch! He came in bleeding, his nose literally looking smashed in between his eyes (sorry for graphics). Next thing we knew we were in the ER...

The thing I wanted to share, so that we do not forget, is the power of prayer and God's faithfulness today. As we were waiting for my mom to come over, Luke was crying on my lap (screaming, actually) and Tom had already called the other boys over and prayed over him. Luke then calmed for a moment and then the pain hit again and he screamed again. I told him that it might hurt a little bit more as it heals, but God was with him and would heal him. That's when he decided to yell at me to pray for him. He wanted me to pray that it wouldn't hurt while it heals. So I prayed. And apparently I wasn't getting to the point fast enough because he yelled at me again as I prayed, "No, mommy, you're not praying for what I wanted." So I did. I prayed specifically that God would help it not to hurt him as the injury healed.

On the way to the ER, he continued to cry and complain about pain and discomfort because his nose was swelling more and more by the second. Then he just zonked out and fell asleep for about 10 minutes. When he woke up, I am not kidding you, he was a different kid. He did not complain one bit. He told everyone at the hospital all about his 3 brothers, their names and ages. He was polite. He was compliant. He was not in pain. It was amazing. And though Tom & I both saw with our own eyes how his bone was crushed right after the injury, the doctors found no deviation in his nasal septum when they checked him out. Meaning that it might not even be badly broken. Insane!

As I asked Tom whether he thought we should give more pain medicine to Luke before bed, it started to sink in. He's not in pain while he's healing. His specific prayer was answered. This could have gone so differently today. But God...

I don't know why we were supposed to have this kind of day. It may seem small to some, but maybe we just needed to "feel" God in some way. Maybe Luke needed a specific incident early in his life to remember when God had faithfully answered his prayer in such a tangible way. 

I don't know. But I do know this. Our God is surely alive. And is always working on our behalf.

I won't go into the rest of our day after coming home from the hospital...just that it involved taking care of 6 kids under age 6, trying to keep up with the playing and appetites of these little ones all while trying to keep Luke somewhat calm (which, if you know him, is a joke!). Again, God was faithful. And now we are tired :)