Did You Forget Your Umbrella?

     The alarm goes off and you smack it grumpily and drag yourself from the warmth of your bed.  After your shower, you pick out your outfit, go about fixing your hair, and put on your make-up with an occasional glance at the clock to make sure you're not making yourself late.  You gather everything you'll need for your busy day of activities and then rush about grabbing something for a quick breakfast or even a hot beverage.  The buzzer on the microwave as you heat your water for tea reminds you of the time and you hurriedly put everything together and run for your car keys.  In the hustle and bustle of the morning you feel certain you forgot something, but what?  Once at the door, you fumble for the handle and throw the door open.  By the time you're in the car and heading to your destination you hear the thunder rumble as some lightening flashes across the sky.  Rain!  The weatherman lied to you yet again.  You reach the parking lot and quickly glance in your backseat to get your umbrella, but it's not there!  In your race to get out the door you had neglected to pick it up from the hall table.

     I'm sure we've all found ourselves in that same predicament more than once.  It's always frustrating when the rain rolls in and your umbrella is not on your person at that moment.  Especially when it's pouring and you had decided to park in Lot Z that morning for a nice walk from the car to work.  Yeah, smooth.  But in all seriousness, forgetting to grab your umbrella is a physical lesson we can relate our spiritual walk to.  The morning got so busy and rushed that you used your time to take care of other things and it totally slipped your mind to grab the umbrella.  Same in our Christian lives.  We get so caught up with life and how busy we are that we forget to grab our spiritual "umbrella."  I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but a day without devotions is classified by many as "miserable."  When we don't take that moment to spend time with our Creator and ask Him for strength to take on the day we find ourselves floundering, crabby, and soaked at the end of the day; spiritually and emotional exhausted!

     The Devil finds every-which-way to pound us and without taking the time to put on our protection we are powerless to hold out for long.  Any monkey can see that when you're running through the rain you can't keep yourself dry.  You're going to get wet.  "But I can run really fast and still be mostly dry!", you may argue. "True," I reply, "but there is still rain soaking into your clothes and affecting you."  No matter how fast you can run, the places rain hits you will be wet and will cause you to get the chills from those tiny spots.  One tiny drop will affect much more.  Same with how the Devil attacks us.  One little hit and he can mess with the rest of you or your day.  We MUST not forget our "umbrellas" each morning or we'll find ourselves at the end of the day so much more tired and ready to throw in the towel than before.  Or even worse, farther along in life and see we're no longer the person we used to be; we're walking apart from God.  Without centering our focus correctly each morning we can also ruin testimonies and friendships!  Life can get very busy -- I can attest to that -- but we still must make time for our daily growth.  Don't let the Devil get a tiny foothold in your life.  Don't get caught in the middle of a rainstorm without your umbrella.

     Did you forget your umbrella today? :)

Emily