Tighten Your Belt

It is fall!  Yes!  Finally.  As of last Thursday.  According to the calendar, anyway.  On the first official day of fall, the temperature was still in the nineties, and—well, that just screams “summer.”  But, I truly, truly love fall, so I am sticking with the calendar version and will just ignore that lingering reality of heat and humidity.  I barely tolerate August—my least favorite month of the year—but when September hits, I start counting the days until it is officially  fall.  I love the colors of fall and the way the air begins to feel in the mornings.  I love tucking my flower beds in for the winter.  I love pumpkins, leaves changing colors, football, Holiday Market,  fall festivals, Oktoberfest, Thanksgiving, every fall decoration you can imagine, and baking. 

And, I love fall Bible studies.  We just finished our third session of Covenant by Kay Arthur.  How many times have you read the verses in Ephesians about putting on the full armor of God?  Did you ever really get it that its God’s armor.  As in, He is clothing us in His own armor so we will be ready to fight the battles with Satan that are surely, certainly, no-doubt-about-it, on the way.  It is all part of God’s covenant with us—for our benefit, not God’s—more of that “what’s mine is yours” thing.  Like:  Take my armor, use it, and don’t ever forget that I am fighting for you.  Forever.  I like that whole concept, really.  I’m not in this alone.  God is REALLY on my side!  And now, when I read about Jonathan giving David his armor, I really “get it.” 

Jonathan was pretty much saying—”Here, take all of this.  It was mine and now it is yours.  You are the same as me.  You get all the benefits I would get—you are the son of a king, too.”   Jonathan gave David his robe along with his armor that included a belt, a bow, and a sword.  A belt???  That is armor??  Yep.  Guess why.  The belt is what keeps all the other pieces of armor right where they need to be and ready for battle.  Kind of gives “tighten your belt” a whole new meaning.

My son has always made up words.  Not gibberish, but things that could be real words because I always knew what they meant.  One night it was time for bed and Matthew wanted to get up and do something (play).  So, I said no, it’s time for bed.  I told him he could do that tomorrow.  He reached up and very gently held my face in his little hands and whispered, “No. No. No.  Please, Mama.  To-now.”  From then on, we had a new word in our house.  We  already had “today” and “tomorrow.”  But, for those times when things just could not wait, we had “tonow.”  So, if you are hesitating about wading into a Bible study, and your head is saying, “No.  No.  No.  Maybe tomorrow.”  I would like to make you an offer.  Please . . . how about tonow?  It isn’t a word, but I know you know what it means.  Tighten your belt and join us . . .  tonow.