Fight the Good Fight of Faith

I have not posted in a long time. A month, actually. I apologize. My energies have turned from making a spiritual and loving Christmas season for my family to preparations for having a new baby boy come to us and make us whole. We've dealt with sicknesses and overtime hours as well and that has been a challenge to my accomplishing the many tasks a mother feels are necessary before her baby comes.

I have had moments of quiet comfort from the Spirit of the Lord and reassurance come to me. I have been uplifted and strengthened. Yet I have not felt able to write a post because I have spiritually been hanging on by the skin of my teeth as far as keeping it together. Part of this is because I was so much more prepared for the birth of my daughter than I have been for this one. I spent so much time reflecting and visualizing and praying over her birth, mentally preparing myself for all I may have to face. This time, I have barely been able to keep up with normal life, much less prepare myself mentally.

Last week was a low point for me. I was frantically trying to accomplish all that I could while still physically capable. A good friend asked how I was doing and I admitted to feeling overwhelmed and ready for this pregnancy to be over. In her reply, she wisely counseled me “not to let the Adversary steal away any of the spiritual aspects of this experience for you.”

Her comment pierced my soul and I realized this is exactly what I was allowing Satan to do. I've been so distracted from spiritual things that I have not spent adequate time reflecting on the joyous moment this is for our family. From that moment, I began to recover from my “woe is me” attitude and focus on what truly matters.

Then I read 1 Timothy 6:12, where we are counseled to “fight the good fight of faith.” I realized that I had allowed so much doubt and negativity to enter my mind and heart that I was unable to exercise my faith. Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same heart at the same time. True faith will chase away doubt.

But many times, It - Is - A - Fight.

We are at war here on this earth. Good and evil are the opposing forces. Evil fights every chance it gets to try to own our hearts and minds. We must fight the good fight of faith and defeat it, choosing the good over the evil. That is why we are here.

I refer to this as fighting to regain the fullness of my faith. The fight is choosing to kneel in prayer, choosing to study His Word, choosing to act kindly, choosing to listen to and sing uplifting songs, choosing to repent of wrongdoing, choosing to spend time with family, choosing to discard negative thoughts and think more virtuous ones.

The Lord has blessed me with these last couple of weeks. I think He knew I would need them to finish up the necessary preparations, let go of the unnecessary ones and be motivated to go through whatever I need to go through to bring one of his precious sons into the world. He knew I would need the time to receive and bear witness to my daughter that bringing a child into this world is one of the most sacred experiences we can have and that it should be reverenced. He knew I would need the time to fight the good fight. I am so thankful He knows what I need.