The last week has been one of those weeks in parenting for me where I feel I am going toe to toe with the enemy. Sometimes when things are going good with the kids, I have a tendency to want to recline my chair, put my hands on the back of my head, and relax. Parenting is hard work after all, and everyone needs a rest. The problem is that if I am relaxing, I can be sure that Satan is not.
Within one hour I came across the following quotes this past week. One was from Bob Marley after he had been shot two days earlier. He said, “The people who are trying to make the world worse…are not taking a day off. How can I?” Another was from a book I am reading right now called Anonymous by Alicia Britt Chole. She was talking about when Jesus went out to the desert and was tempted by Satan. She says, “We have little information regarding what transpired before day forty-one of Jesus’ stay in the desert, but we do know that Jesus was not eating and we can guess that Satan was not sleeping.”
I think it is easy day after day to forget that we need to “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) In Job, there is an encounter between God and Satan where God asks Satan where he has been. Satan says, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” (Job 1:7) There is more at stake here than disobedience or being rude or not coming home on time. Satan is fighting for our kids souls, and I better be alert enough to take on the challenge. I surely can’t do it without Christ, and I surely wouldn’t want to either.
As I said before, this was a hard week. I was in tears more times that I could count. The worst part was probably when I got on my knees and cried out to God that He would not allow Satan to sift my children like wheat. I cried out to Him to not mention the name of my children in the presence of Satan before His throne as He did with his servant Job. I know God knows exactly just how I feel. He had to deal with a stick-necked person or two along the way, right?
God was so faithful to me this week as I continued in my struggle. As I was having my quiet time during the end of the week, I came across a chapter in Experiencing God by Blackably and King. In it was the verse from Psalm 126:6 which says, “Though one goes along weeping, carrying the bag of seed, he will surely come back with shouts of joy, carrying his sheaves.” I cried and read this verse over and over again.
I felt like God was saying to me, “I see you, and I hear you. I know you are weary. I know that you are planting seeds everyday with no guarantee that you will ever see the fruit. I am here to tell you that surely you will see the seeds you are planting today become the fruit of tomorrow.” Wow, I could not have felt more blessed or cared for in those precious moments with my Lord.
Yes, I am weary, and I can bet I am not alone. I think it is all too easy to put on a smiling face on Facebook or tell people we are doing fine at church when inside sometimes we feel we are falling apart. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that Satan is up to no good, but Christ is more powerful than Satan. He, my friends, has overcome the world. (John 16:33)
