Are You Sleeping on Duty?

Some of you might not know but I am a military brat. My father was a career sailor, doing twenty-two years in the United States Navy. Having a parent deployed on a regular basis helped me to be more aware of the outside world as a child than I think is common for civilian children. One thing I have noticed as I have gotten older is that that military influence has definitely shaped how I see certain things in my life.

One example of this came during my scripture studies this week. I've been studying St Luke and something really stood out to me when I read Luke 22:45-46.

45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,

46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

In these verses, the Savior is kind of chastising the Apostles who fell asleep when they were supposed to be guarding as He prayed in the Garden. It really struck me that He found them "sleeping for sorrow". That phrase got the wheels turning in my brain. It made me realize that when we are allowing ourselves to be lulled, it saddens Heavenly Father.  He knows how vigorously and persistently the adversary attacks His children and it must make Him sad to see us dropping our guard.

I've long cherished the idea of my home as a castle, a fortified sanctuary from the world, but this week I've come to realize that I need to also view myself as a soldier living in enemy territory. I need to be doing the things that help keep me armored against the insidious attacks of the enemy. Armor that is neglected becomes rusty, ineffective and eventually incapable of stopping enemy assaults. The beautiful thing is that even if we have allowed our armor to degrade, the Lord has given us the tools to get it back to like-new status if we are but willing to use those tools to restore our damaged armor. Any blacksmith can tell you that fixing damaged armor is not easy but isn't the protection it gives worth the work? What are some things you do to help restore your armor when you discover that you have allowed it to get tarnished or rusty?