Spiritual warfare...

I have all these ideas for a blog about spiritual warfare, and the way the enemy creeps his ugly face into our daily lives and thoughts. I have sat down (this is the 3rd time) swimming in ideas only to feel totally scatter brained when I am ready to type. I just prayed a simple prayer for God to guide my thoughts on the subject, here it goes.

We are living in a world that is full of sin and distractions and confusion. We are doing Twisting the Truth, a study by Andy Stanley in our Friday night couple's bible study that is shedding light on the ways that Satan can twist your environment and way of thinking in a way that will cloud your judgement so much that when you are in the middle of a situation you think you are making the right decisions, but once you step out of it you realize you had to have been temporarily insane. Our society has created a picture of satan in our heads that is cartoonish, the little red guy with horns and a trident. He lives down below in a big hot pit with all the bad people and shoves pineapples up Hitler's butt each day (yes that was a Little Nicky reference). When you stop and think about the fact that he really is after us, and after our kids it can be really terrifying, which is why I have spent a lot of time not thinking about him. He is trying his best each day to make you stumble. That little thought that enters your mind that maybe your husband thinks that girl at work is cute, or that your kids are ignoring what you asked of them out of spite or just to irritate you. Those little thoughts can be like cancer, and they are certainly not of the Lord. The devil uses these thoughts to pit you against yourself.

I am asking each of you to think of your life as a battle ground each day and you are  one of the troops, and your Commander in Chief is the Lord. Each day His orders for you are to further
His kingdom, show your family love, and make the right decisions for Him. Each day we are called to battle for Good vs. Evil. So, okay now we are all solders and we are in battle and this is really overwhelming because now we have to fight for God?! YES! It is overwhelming if you let it be. But the good news is that the Lord is there to help. Jesus has been exactly where you are at, he knows what it is like to battle the evil of this world. We can and should ask for their help! God knows you cannot do it alone and believe me he wants to help you.

We do not need to pray only for strength in battle, because most of the time it is not a physical battle, it is emotional, spiritual. Make sure you are praying for discernment, so you can figure out when the enemy is attacking and you can battle with your best weapon...prayer.

Okay so now that I got all of the lessons Justin and I have been learning out and into the blog I hope it is a message that helps.

A little example from the life of a sleep deprived Mommy...

Madison has been sick the last few days, on top of cutting teeth. Needless to say sleep is never consistent. I am exhausted, and my husband sleeps like a rock. Not that he could help Madison in the middle of the night since I am nursing. Well....last night the enemy struck, and his battle came in fierce around 2 am. I have also been feeling crummy, and really wanted to sleep. I finally got Madison down for good around 11pm, and I was not far behind her. She was zonked and I was confident that we would get at least 5 hours of sleep. Well....2am I hear the whine-y middle of the night cry that could wake me from even the deepest of slumbers come over on the monitor. I immediately felt irritated, and on the brink of angry tears. Why do I always have to get up? Can't I just sleep? How does he not hear that? Why won't she just sleep? Isn't she too old to still wake up in the middle of the night?

Since we just started this study on spiritual warfare I recognized the attack. I immediately prayed for patience and that she would simply nurse and go right back to sleep. I prayed, but I was not happy to be awake, let me make that clear. I was still grumpy. So I scooped her up out of her crib and groggily settled in to the rocking chair to feed her. She made it very clear that we would not be going back to sleep anytime soon. I changed her diaper and we went downstairs to watch some tv until she was ready to go back to sleep. I snuggled up on the couch with my little bug and we watched some cooking show on the food network, she was very sweet and cuddly and I really did enjoy our time in the middle of the night last night. Around 4:20am she was ready to go back to her crib, and I was pretty much asleep on the couch. We went back upstairs, I tucked her in her crib and went back to my room to crawl back into my bed and play tug of war over the blanket with Justin, and he rolled over and hugged me. Had I not prayed my prayer for patience I would not have been able to slow my thinking down enough to simply snuggle with my baby and enjoy the moment with her in the quiet of the middle of the night. I would have grumped over the fact that she wouldn't go back down and the situation would have been totally different.

Guard your heart, your homes, your thinking, your words, and your actions. The enemy is real, and he is after Christians, he already has everyone else!

Tricky treating!

Halloween with the Major girls! Bethany was a super scary vampire, I was a army girl, and Madi was a lil ladybug!

Her daytime halloween attire!

Mommy and Bug at the campfire

Bethany and her super cute BFF, Abbey the fairy!

Crazy!!

you SHOULD be scared!

The Loot!!

Now that we are embracing our lives as Virginians, holidays like Halloween are WAY more fun. Last year we didn't really know where to go, so we went to a random neighborhood and Bethany timidly knocked on doors with only me and her Dad by her side. This year was a lot different! We stormed our friends' neighborhood with about 15 kids! It was a blast! The moms took the kids around to knock on doors and trick or treat, and the Dads stayed at our friends' house with the bonfire and candy bowl and handed out candy to the little ones. Madison stayed behind to keep warm by the fire, as it was about 40 outside when we were trick or treating. Justin's mom is visiting so she went with us and played her role as the paparazzi! (which is a good thing or we wouldn't have these photos!) Luckily the ladybug costume Madison was rocking was much warmer than Justin's old army uniform that I decided to wear. We all got in on the fun, I dressed up as an army girl, Justin was a Son's of Anarchy guy with his beanie and hoodie, Bethany was a spooky Vampire, and Madison was an adorable little lady bug! Now we begin our month of being thankful!!

Today I am thankful for my family! I love being a Wife and Mommy! Best job ever! I asked Bethany this morning what she was thankful for today...today she is thankful for God!