Weekly Devo: Awareness Month

John13:3

“Jesus, knowing fully aware that the Father had put everything into His hands, and that He had come from God and was now returning to God”

October is a beautiful colorful autumn month and it is also the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There isn’t anyone today that hasn’t known someone who fought or is fighting the battle against cancer. The pink ribbon campaign has been a successful and effective symbol that has made a great impact on our world. Some of the slogans are very catchy; Pink is our passion, Hope for a cure, Think Pink and many more.

I noticed in Scripture that many of the verses use battle terminology when giving us instructions for life. The Bible refers to Christians as being in a spiritual battle as a soldier and it encourages us to be prepared and ready. Just like the cancer patient, all of us must choose to fight the enemy “cancer” or whatever enemy you are facing in life.

One of the regular “going out the door” morning statements before school we would recite with our children daily was Ephesians 6:13-17. This is where Paul writes and encourages Christians to put on the Armor of God. (Grab your Bible and read the entire chapter of Ephesians 6. It is a great encouraging Chapter) We knew how tough school could be whether on the Elementary playground recess time, in Middle School during lunchtime or High School Peer pressures.

When I’d reflect on my School years, I knew I wanted to help my kids be prepared for the daily battles and temptations ahead. In today’s world, our children have more battles to fight than the past generations have ever had.

So to help our kids with their battles we memorized each piece of God’s armor and its purpose and placed it on (in our imagination or with hand motions) before school.

Picture us saying out loud as they would grab their lunch bag and backpack to get into the car, we’d say:

“Put on the Belt of Truth, Breastplate of Righteousness, Shoes of Peace, Helmet of Salvation, Sword of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith.”

I would try to make it as fun and silly as possible to help them remember and to keep them engaged with the Word of God.

You can try it and maybe your children or grandchildren (the parents too)will memorize this Scripture for life as well.

Daily Scripture Application:

Day 1: Memorize “Belt of Truth” and tell only the truth no matter what. Wear a belt today and make it snug to remind you of this assignment. Say it to yourself at least 3-4 times all day.

Day 2: Add the “Breastplate of Righteousness” to Day 1. This time add the hand motion of both palms of your hands neck level facing your chest and thumbs up, lower hands from neck line passing down to your stomach. As you memorize this Breastplate portion remember to pray for the Breast cancer patients and their families.

Day 3: Today add (after the belt and the breastplate) the Shoes of Peace and point down to your shoes. This is easy!!

Day 4: YOU ARE DOING GREAT! So after the Belt, Breastplate, and shoes now you add “Helmet of Salvation” and pretend to put on a helmet. This is a very important part to your Armor dear soldier. We must protect our heart and our head.

Day 5: Now is the time to shout it out: “Belt of Truth”, “Breastplate of Righteousness”, ”Shoes of Peace”, “Helmet of Salvation” and add today’s piece the Shield of Faith. You can make a motion of a shield in your left hand.

Day 6: The last piece of the armor of God is the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God. This motion was a sword in the Right hand.

Now you have them all memorized and you are ready for battle.

Day 7: Recite the Eph 6:13-17 Armor of God to your family and friends and share with them what you are learned and experienced this week through this memorizing process.