It all started with a book...

I love books and I have passed my love of books on to my girls.  So every time the school has a book fair the girls are all excited to buy new books.  Well this year I left it up to them to buy their own books.  Sweet girl decided she would buy herself a new book and one for BBQ.  BBQ told her she wanted the Silveralicious book. 

Well when I picked up the girls from school, I was surprised by the tears they had on their faces as they got into the car.  Sweet Girl was crying because she had left her lunch box with her new book in it on the playground.  When she realized she had left it and when back to get it, it was gone.  BBQ was in tears and filled with anger because her sister had bought the wrong book.  She then went on to explain that Sweet girl bought her Pinkalicious because they had sold out of Silveralicious.  BBQ already has the Pinkalicious book so that seem to have made it worse.

I was very upset to hear that BBQ had not even thanked her sister who had bought her a book out of her own money.  And then complaining about how she had bought the wrong book.  So I told BBQ how disappointed I was in her and told her she would pay her sister back for the book.

After we got home, BBQ was still pouting and mad.  She was upset not only with Sweet Girl but with me as well.  She only had $4 and she had to give her sister $3 and in her mind it was going to take forever to save up her allowance to buy the Silveralicious book she wanted.  At this point I knew the punishment had fit the crime but I was so upset with the selfishness that had taken over.  So I sat down to talk to BBQ about why she was punished and how she needed to learn to be thankful.  So her sweet little face looked up at me with tears rolling down her face and said, " I do not know what happened Mom, I put on the Armor of God before I went to school today".  Yes, I melted and that led to a whole other talk about making mistakes and learning from them.

Ephesians 6:10-20 (New International Version, ©2011)

The Armor of God

 ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.