Simple, Yet Profound

Last week, I suddenly found myself hurled into the midst of a spiritual battle-one that has left me holding up not only my shield of faith, but fighting on behalf of my husband as well, when he doesn't have the strength to defend himself. I didn't see this coming, and have been struggling occasionally with thoughts such as, "This is not fair, God! I didn't do anything to bring this upon myself. Yet, here I am having to fight for the both of us! I didn't get myself into this mess! I shouldn't be left trying to piece this back together! This isn't my responsibility." Yet, this really shouldn't catch me off guard. In the back of my mind, I knew that an attack was pending, and God in His faithfulness has been preparing me for a while now...everywhere I turned, the subject of the Armor of God was being thrust in my lap. I find it no coincedence either that we just finished "Believing God" by Beth Moore last week too! God's timing is nothing short of miraculous.

Then yesterday morning, while I was running around like a mad woman, trying to rush out the door for church on time, my nearly 11 year old daughter was taking her sweet time, getting dressed and ready for the day. She was pondering which piece of jewelry would best suit her outfit, and I suggested this necklace that my mom and dad gave her a few year's ago in honor of her baptism. So while she non chalantly walks off to brush her hair, I dashed back to my room for the necklace. All my necklaces are currently hanging on a clothes hanger since I don't own a nice jewelry box-and for now it does the job (However, if any of you reading this feel the need to mention to Paul the idea of buying me a jewelry box for Mother's Day, I'm sure it's really the voice of the Holy Spirit). ;) I attempted to slide the necklace around and off the others, but instead of coming off easily as they normally do, it got all tangled up. As I'm standing there fighting this physical battle with the necklace, some thoughts of my spiritual battle came to mind, and I began to wrestle them both at the same time. The necklace was just about to let loose, when the cord got caught on another chain, which snagged it pretty badly. Eventually, I got it off and inspected the damage. There wasn't anything I could do to hide the damage or to make it go away. I didn't have the time to attempt to make it better, and honestly, I felt it might just make the problem worse. I simply slid the cross pendant to the front so she could put it on, and the cross was hanging right over the mess! Right then, I heard these words, "The cross covers it all!"

I thought, "You're right Lord, the cross does cover it all!"