Preface to Ephesians Chapter 6

​Mild irritation boiled just beneath my skin. The entire day held elements that pushed, poked, and prodded my patience and tongue! My daughter's sweet voice, which normally filled me with smiles, now grated in its whiny volume and tested the boundaries. Not a horrendous day, but not a great day either. Finding out that my original post for Ephesians Chapter 6 was riddled with necessary rewrites added insult to injury. By the time we hit dinner, my irritation bubbled over. “What do you mean?” I quizzed my husband, “that doesn’t add up!” I glowered at him across the room, “Something isn’t quite right!” ...

Later that night, I found myself lying exhausted on my daughter’s bedroom floor as she paid her last visit to the bathroom for the night. Both eyes sagged closed in weariness and one arm slung precariously over my forehead.

“What a day,” I mumbled to my hero husband, who lay in a similar position on the floor beside me. Mental and physical exhaustion weighed heavy on my body and my spirit. All I wanted to do was to put Sweet girl to bed and then crawl into my own. Little girl’s chirping and singing in the bathroom next door fell on deaf and numb ears.

​Then, piercing through the mental fog I heard, “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart! I will enter His gates with praise! I will say this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice for He has made me glad.”

Slowly, light started to penetrate my weighted heart. Is she really singing this? I wondered as my ears perked up to listen more carefully.

“He hath made me glad! He hath made me glad! I will rejoice, for He has made me gla-a-a-d!” Sweet girl sang in joy, exuberance, and pure childlike delight.
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Again and again she sang the chorus, her unmarred and untainted joy sparkled like fireworks lighting the black darkness of my weary mind. I lay on the floor, letting her joy and words wash over me like a waterfall, soothing as the sweetest of balms yet infectious in its purity of joy. “He hath made me glad,” I softly whispered along with Sweet one, “He hath made me glad, I will rejoice for He hath made me gla-a-ad,” my voice climbed upward, this time, not only in pitch but in volume. “He hath made me glad,” I sang with greater strength and conviction, “He hath made me glad! I will rejoice for He hath made me gla-a-ad!” I proclaimed with vibrancy and conviction.

​Sweet girl and I continued our chorus round together, she in the bathroom and me on her bedroom floor. Our voices united in song and our hearts united in joyful praise of our Heavenly Father. Weariness, mental fatigue, and heaviness of heart melted away in the wake of thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise of the Lord’s goodness. Thankful for the gift of the little girl in the bathroom who sings with joyful abandon to her Heavenly Father, gratitude for the song You placed in her heart that You then placed in my heart, and praise for the grace and mercies of which I lay so undeserving – yet You still love me so.

​Dear friends and family, these past few days have been unusually trying as I prepared to post Ephesians 6. Distractions, interruptions, and defiance warred against me. Last night, my brain just wanted to shut down and no longer function. I did not want to make the necessary alterations to my previously constructed blog post. All I wanted to do was zone out in front of the television and eat Doritos. But then I remembered – what am I writing about? To what is this scripture referring? What message am I communicating? Spiritual warfare for the souls of our children, a battle that wages thick with the enemy. A war we are daily ensconced in as we fight for the spiritual lives of our children. Parents, let us not go down without a fight. Let us use the weapons God has given us and the armor He has provided for us to fight. Let us wield prayer to mortally wound the enemy and take offensive action to win the war. As you read the next post concerning Ephesians 6, bear with it’s length and hold fast to how God’s holy armor will equip us to win the battle for our children’s souls.