Letting Satan Win

For Spring Break this year I have traveled to North Carolina and am staying with my aunt and uncle. Time with them and my two little cousins has provided me with a nice change of pace, but has also provided me with many learning opportunities. One of these opportunities is the topic of my blog today.

My almost-4-year-old cousin had a rough day on Monday. He pushed his friend, and didn't eat nicely, and generally speaking just did not obey. I imagine that little boys just have days like that. We all have days like that.

Anyway, half way through the day he and his momma had to have a heart to heart about his behavior. In this conversation, which I overheard, he told his mom that he had let Satan win that day, but that he was going to make good choices the rest of the day and not let Satan win anymore. Later, at dinner, he prayed to God that we would all do better about making good choices.

And that's what I want to talk about today. So many things about that are just right and good and should be emulated. To spell out the goodness of this situation more clearly for us, I'll make a list as I sometimes like to do. This list represents the chronological order of events in my cousin's day and will hopefully encourage us to make his choices our choices. Here we go:

1. He made choices that he knew were wrong. (This isn't something that we should do, but it happens to all of us.)
2. He recognized that these choices constituted a victory for Satan, but that he was the cause of them. "I let Satan win." (We miss this step in the process a lot, which causes us to continue sinning. This is also a trick of Satan--making us think that our sin isn't sin. Alternatively, when we do recognize our sin, we sometimes fall victim to the trap of thinking that Satan was the only cause and so absolve ourselves of responsibility. We shouldn't do this either. It's somewhat easier for the 4-year-old than for us because someone else is directly telling him that this or that thing is wrong and shouldn't be done. We have the bible for that, which may seem less direct, but it leaves us without excuse. We can still look at our actions, see that they do not align with God's will for us, and realize that through our choices, we let Satan win.)
3. He determined to not let Satan win anymore for the rest of the day. When he realized his error he took immediate action to make it better. (This is important, because he moved on. He felt bad about doing wrong, but that didn't stop him from doing better. Often, we do wrong and we wallow and moan and feel bad about ourselves instead of becoming better people who do better things. And it doesn't mean that we will never struggle and do bad again. I'm certain that my cousin will do the wrong thing again. But, we have to determine within ourselves that we are the types of people that will try to do better.)
4. He asked God to help him do better. (We certainly can't forget to do this. We can't justify ourselves, nor can we do good, without God's help. When we do bad, God is still there for us and is definitely willing to support us and strengthen us in our fight against Satan.)

Jesus encourages his followers to be like children (Mark 10:14-15) and I think from now on when I think of that principle, I will think of this example. I hope you are all encouraged by this and that you have an uplifting week of serving The Lord.