If you read my post yesterday, you will know what I’m about to write.

Well, did my oldest son trick me yesterday? No, he didn’t.

After 3pm, I was in a very tense and heightened mode that I was scared how I was going to react if something real happened to my son. But that didn’t deter me from being very, very suspicious of him.

As you can imagine, he had his own dramas at school and didn’t think about me until he saw my face. Well, I laughed at each of his “mini-dramas”. He read my Facebook post and said, “You know what Mom – – -” and left it there. I don’t have to ask him what he was about to say because, duh, I’ve been his mom for the last 15 years, for crying out loud. I know what he is up to, I mean, in the future. He doesn’t care whether the month is April or December. If he plans it, he carries it on. But who cares, I was still the winner of the day, – – –

Well, not so fast. The story had a twist at around 5pm. I was on my toe waiting for my son to act and forgot that I had two other “enemies” who were also ready to “attack” me. I have NO CLUE that my other kids were up to something.

My daughter got me really good. I was not ready for her. Who would have thought that she would be the one to catch me off guard! Well, she did. Since I had to drop my boys two different places within half an hour, I was not able to watch her soccer game. So when I picked her up, I said, with excitement, “How was it?”

She said, “Mom, you have to take me to Rita’s because we won the game four to nothing”.

I said, “What!” I mean, I love winning! Who wouldn’t it? Yeah, I love winning! I was driving and I turned around and gave her a fist bump and said, “Are you kidding, sure I will take you!”

And she was kind enough to say, with a low voice, “April Fool’s Day mom”, as if to say, “Can you just win one more time Mom?”

Yeah, “It was not that much of a big deal”, you may say. Well, for me though, it was a big deal. I was very focused on protecting myself from one side only; forgetting all the other alternatives, possibilities and sides “the enemy” may come to attack me.
And I was reminded of this verse:

“Unless the LORD builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.” Psalm 127:1

Yes, I was 100% dependent on my wits, intelligence, intuition and sobriety. But still I lost. I was toasted. I was thrown out of the field. Gone, the bell rang, the game is over!

You see, sometimes we think that we can close every door for the enemy to come into our lives. We depend on our tenacity to watch over ourselves so that we can be as pure as we can be; or too righteous as we can be, and before you know it, BOOM. The devil is already behind us, in the side we are sidetracked away from.

No, we can’t save ourselves, Beloved. The devil is too smart and too crafty and deceitful. We are not his matches. But, now and then, he pulls us to “the ring” showing us our spiritual muscle, how strong and firm it is. He convinces us of our competency to meet him inside “the ring”. Then within few seconds or minutes, we find ourselves on the ground, bleeding, trying to figure out if we were hit from left, or right, front or the back. We wonder if we were the ones who were praying for three hours or somebody else resembling us.

We find ourselves harboring in our soul the very sin we spoke against. Devil doesn’t want to “punch” us ten times. Precious, he wants to get us only once.

What am I saying today? I’m saying: Let’s depend only on Him, on Christ Jesus, the Cornerstone, because
“He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121:3-4

If we are okay today, alive and well, able to pray and read the Bible, eat and walk, and breathe, we are like that because He is watching over us. Million and billion cells have to be right for us to get up from bed, do you know that? And which one of these cells were we able to help so that it works? None! It is because of Him that they all work together. He watches over us, my dear. Let’s all give Him all the praises and honors He deserves to receive. Let’s not grieve Him by depending on us or somebody or something else. We lose really badly when we do that.

It is good to do what the LORD told us to do, pray, meditate His Words day and night and fellowship with others but when it comes to our safety, protection, peace and joy, we need to deep on Jesus 100%. ///