I went swimming yesterday. It was fantastic. 2 1/2 hours in the water. 3 at the pool. It was nice. I got a little burnt. But it doesn't really hurt. I am sore though, from swimming for two and a half hours. That's a long time. I definitely got my exercise for the day!
After we went swimming (the Karen girls were over) we all came home... I took a shower... Then we packed it up and I went with mom to take the girls home. Then I came home and read for a little bit. And then ate dinner. And watched A Cinderella Story (Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game)(<-- that's my favorite quote :) or maybe the "it's the botox. I can't show emotion for another hour and a half" one... or maybe it's the "wanna cookie? they're so moist" one. All hilarious) Then I hung out with/talked to Paige... and then Katie to some extent. Then Paige and I went to Starbucks. I got tea. It was good.
I'm tired this morning. But it's time for NIPTO.
HELLOOOOOOO. I'm horrible. But wonderful at procrastination! It did turn out to be a hot day.
Just so you know. And I drove MOM to Shaffer's annnd I didn't do badly ;) and... lets see... we went to Target and got a bunch of stuff... annnnd then came home and watched the USA vs Ghana game. USA lost :( Ate dinner/read Safely Home (FANTASTIC book!) annnnnd then went to Tarbucks with Kaytee... walked around Target... ran into Alex... stood in the toy aisles forEVER (so much fun) annd then we walked out to Kaytee's car and stood and talked there forever and then Meg came and joined us... and we stood there for a little longer... then we went back to Target after it started raining... walked around there... stood in the book aisle forever... and then walked out to our cars and came home. It was a FUNTASTIC evening. So many funny things :D I love Kaytee :)
I guess I'll do NIPTO NOW. And I might eat something. I'm hungry.
Okay. Car pulled out of the garage (by myself): check. Food: Check. NIPTO: coming up next.
Ephesians 6:10-20
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
We have the power of GOD. Uhm. That's only a little fantastic! So we should use that to be strong. (HA! Let's get down to business. To do defeat. The Huns. Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? ... gotta love Mulan;)
11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
The armor. To protect us. Against the devil and his schemes. Muwahaha.
12For 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.
This basically sums it up. We're not battling the things we can see. We're fighting against the "dark powers" of the world. It sounds like something from a book or a movie, but it's real. Crazy, I know. "Spiritual forces" sounds all... fantasy-y. But it isn't. It's real. Sooo. We put on the armor of God. Ready to find out what those things are?
13Therefore 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.
Okay, not quite. We put on the armor of God so that we can stand up against what comes our way. So that we can stand.
14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Okay. So here we stand with the belt of truth. We should always be immersing ourselves in truth. Constantly. That's what NIPTO is. It's washing (nipto) ourselves in truth daily. It's cool. And we should be wearing the breastplate of righteousness. To me, a breastplate might be one of the first things you see. Our righteousness should be out there.
And our feet should be ready. Ready with the readiness that comes from the gospel.
16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
In addition to all of this, we need to carry our shield of faith. Shields block things. We can block/extinguish the arrows that are hurled our way. Those things shouldn't penetrate us. We should be able to block them.
17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And don't forget your helmet. Helmets protect your head. Your head is important. It should be protected. And if you think about it, the helmet of salvation should block impurities that might try to penetrate our minds. The armor of God is about protecting ourselves spiritually and mentally/physically.
And, of course, don't forget the sword. That's important. Our sword isn't made out of metal. It might not even have substance. But it's the word of God. And that's more powerful than anything we can conjure up for/by ourselves.
18And 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 saints.
And pray for all kinds of things. All prayers and requests. ALL. Even the littlest things that seem stupid. God wants to hear them.
Keep the armor of God in mind. And be alert. And keep praying. Pray for the saints. Pray for those who are being persecuted. Pray for those that are comfortable. As a Christian, being comfortable is the most dangerous place to be. Comfort, in some ways, leads to apathy. There's no room for apathy in a true relationship with Christ.
19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Dude. This is awesome. We should pray this for each other. We should pray that, when we open our mouths, we are given words so that we can fearlessly and clearly make known the mystery of the gospel. Even as Paul was in chains he was praying for courage. And he wasn't praying for courage on his own. He was asking other people to pray that he would have fearlessness, even while he was in prison. Amazing.
Sorry about all of the italics. I was just in a mood :)
Well. I guess I'll go to bed now... (The word "bed" looks like a bed. Fantastic, I know :)
I'm not going to NIPTO tomorrow because I'm babysitting. And I'm not sure that we'd have NIPTO anyways since we're not having youth group at the church... but we might do a mini NIPTO on Wednesday? I'll have to ask Brandon about it. So I'm just cutting my Ephesians readings even shorter ;) I'm fantastic. I know. Wow. I just said "Fantastic. I know" twice in the same paragraph. That makes 3 times. That's not fantastic. Or, as Captain Awesome would say "not awesome!" hah!
I'm going to go to sleep now. Good... night!
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