i love when they get it...

we have been going through the book of james in class on monday nights.

one of the sections in that book that i love is the part that says to resist the devil, and to draw near to God.

i love to picture things in my mind that help me in my every day decision-making.

i love the picture of me walking close to my Father, and satan running away from me.

i wanted to talk about this to the boys, and so to start our school day last tuesday, i opened the book of james.

aj was "God"

riley was "riley" (clever, huh?)

and i was "the devil"

the picture was this. riley is in the middle of us.

he has to make a decision. 

i am saying...come on. i'ts just a little lie. it's no big deal. just tell them you didn't do it.

aj is just standing there with his arms open towards riley.

riley takes one step towards aj (aka God - i hope you aren't thinking i am totally blasphemous here!)

although he is closer to "God" he can still hear "satan" pretty loud. encouraging him to do the wrong thing.

i might even take a small step towards him to make sure he hears me. 

but when we got to the point that riley was standing right in front of aj,

i ran out of the room.

here's the point. 

satan is powerful...

but he is NOTHING compared to God! 

he is terrified of God's power!

so the closer i am to God, the more and more afraid he becomes...of God's power.

i asked if aj might be nervous if a really big guy from his soccer team came over to beat him up.

he said yes.

i asked if then shaq (that was aj's pick!) came and stood right in front of aj to protect him, if he thought the kid would come any closer and even TRY to give aj a hard time.

he said no.

and that's the point. i can not try and fight these things on my own.

i need to run as close to God as i can, and let Him fight it for me.

so today, while aj was doing his math (um...me and him. ya, we don't really care for math.)

he was having a hard time with one of his problems, and was really getting down on himself.

i talked to him a little bit about it, then went downstairs to make lunch.

he came down a little bit later and said. 

"you know that thing we acted out last week?

i'm so glad we did that.

because after you left, i just kept saying to myself - 'get closer to God,

just get closer to God.' 

and satan had to run away!

it really helped!"

oh i just love when they get it!!

the next time you learn something really cool in your devotions, or in church or whatever.

try acting it out with your kids!

you never know when satan is going to be attacking, and when they might be able to use what you taught them!