I was 13-years-old and loved having my own room. Finally. I had been sharing a room with my messy younger sister for years, and I finally convinced my mom to let me move into the smaller bedroom. I promised to always keep it clean, which she had a hard time believing because of the state of the current bedroom I partially occupied. “I promise. I’m not the messy one here. Just let me prove it to you.” She eventually relented, and I moved into my own bedroom for the first time ever!

I loved my litle sanctuary. I spent lots of time in my special place. And…yes…I did keep it clean. Being somewhat of a neat freak enabled that to be an easy promise to keep. Until one day…

I neglected to mention that it wasn’t just my sister and me. We had a brother that fell in between our ages. During those days, he was a bit of a…well, let’s say…bully! (Hard to believe he now pastor’s a thriving midwest church. See…God CAN do anything!) Anyway… as was his custom, he looked for ways to get to me and my sister…to make us angry or upset. He succeeded a lot with my sister. However, with me, he rarely succeeded, because I stayed tucked away in my sanctuary – out of his view quite often. This particular day, however, he went just a little too far. Out of sheer spite, he entered my room and with one swipe of his arm, he cleared everything off my desk – all my papers, books, and breakable trinkets. I was livid. Something welled up in me out of nowhere, and my brother must have noticed the look on my face was unlike anything he had ever seen from me. As a result, he took off…running as fast as he could…out of the house.

I had enough of his bullying. I didn’t chase after him. I simply did one thing. I locked the door behind him. He was locked out of the house…for hours. My mother was at work, and I knew he would get to spend the better of the day outside with no lunch, no water, no connection to my sister and I. It might sound a little harsh, but I’d had enough.

I thought back to this incident earlier today. I’m being bullied again. Actually, our whole family is being bullied. But not by my brother this time.

“For 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.” Ephesians 6:12 NIV

We are definitely under attack through my husband’s recent job crisis. There’s no doubt about it. We feel as if we’ve simply been blindsided throughout this whole ordeal. At the same time, we know that this battle is not ours. Satan simply has a target on us. He has a target on any family that lives to serve God. That’s this world, folks. It’s his for just a short time, and he knows it. The heat has been turned up, but we will not get burned. As we go through this fire, it will not overtake us. Job or no job at the end of this week, we’ll still praise the One who fights these battles on our behalf. We’ll still serve Him. We’ll still love Him.

As for our bully. The door is locked. He can’t get in. He has no place here, and we’ve had enough!

Good evening friends!

As I type this, I know many of you have been following the recent series of events that I mentioned over the last fews days dealing with my husband’s potential job loss. And…as a result, you have been praying for us. I can’t tell you how much that means to us. There are simply no words to express the kind of gratitude right now we feel for each of you. This has been, by far, one of the toughest weeks we’ve experienced in a very long time.

As of tonight, my husband is still employed but has been dealing with this mess, through interviews and reports, all afternoon and evening. It’s far from over, and now they hope to have an answer for him by the end of the week. So, this journey continues, and we are exhausted. Please continue to hold us up in your prayers.

Many years ago, Moses felt a similar exhaustion. As leader of the Israelites, he had to make a decision to issue a decree of war with the Amalekite people. In doing so, he instructed Joshua to go to battle with some of Israel’s able-bodied fighting men. And, this is what we learn in Exodus 17:

“So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

You are like Aaron and Hur to us. Right now, we feel like Moses in that we are simply exhausted and don’t feel like we can even keep our hands raised any longer. But, thankfully, you come alongside us with your prayers, which, in essence give us a stone to sit on and help to keep our hands raised so that the battle can continue, ultimately leading to victory. Now, victory for us would be my husband being fully restored to his original position with original pay. But, God may have different plans. We acknowledge that too. But, unless we’re told differently…we choose to believe full restoration is around the corner. Please don’t stop praying. You are the strength that we need to get through these exhausting days. You matter so much!