The Enemy...

Becasuse God knew that
these trials would come, He
 prepared my heart by prompting 
me to commit to this reading and 
have accountably in doing so,
just days before the news that 
would forever change our family
 broke. This book has been 
HUGE  in my journey thus far.

"We don't become victors by defeating the enemy.  We become victors through surrender to Christ.  We don't become victors by being independent of our enemy.  We become victors through being dependent on Christ."  ~Beth Moore

In life as humans we have absolutely no control over the enemy or his desire to creep, ever so craftily, into our minds and lives.  We do, however, know the One who does reign over everything-including our tendencies to be susceptible and the enemy who wants to overcome.  If I had to sit down and share what I believe is the most important lesson learned this far I would say that it is to cover every aspect of our lives in prayers of protection from the enemy.   The trick in this is that we must surrender to what Christ is calling us to, first.  It sounds simple, really it does.  Pray that our hearts wouldn't be distracted from the greatness of all that God has for us.  Pray that our children's hearts would be protected from the enemy's desire to take them places we would never want them to go.  Pray that our husbands wouldn't fall prey to the enemy's desire to distract them from a focus on family.  Yada, yada, yada...  I'm really not trying to make light of anything here but I think we, or more specifically, I, just pray these prayers and move on, thinking that we can check the mark in the box and call it good.  The reality is that God wants more than this.  What if we closed our computers and looked up scripture about God's supreme power over the enemy and soaked those in.  What if we prayed those same scriptures over our children as they sleep instead of browsing Pintrest?  What if I put as much effort into thinking about how I will instill a love for reading God's Word into my own boys as I put into my lesson planning for school each week?  How would this change things for me and my family?  The prayers I've prayed to this point, are not wasted words.  Our Heavenly Father is too great to have ignored those prayers, I assure you.  However, what if those prayers had come with surrender?  Surrender to give up the time I "waste" doing other things with no eternal value in order to study so that I can understand all of the miraculous ways in which history proves that evil will be overcome by the greatness of our God?  What if I invested in getting to know the families of the kids in Cooper's class at school so that I can pour into their lives, being an example for my little man to follow?  Wouldn't this more specifically give me hope that he would be surrounded by friends with whom he can share Christ, but that I don't have to worry will potentially cause him to wander astray more so than just a prayer asking God to provide my little man with Godly friends?  What if...

So, while I realize that I've given no update on my family here...I must go.  I must close my computer and call out to the power that lives within me, to bring me closer to surrender.  And then pray those words given to me by the Holy Spirit, the Great Counselor, over my family as they sleep.  This is just a first step in knowing that I'm doing what is required of me, to protect my family from the ever-present enemy.  A first of many steps, that is.

{The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.  I come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.}  John 10:10