5-Week Sword Drill Challenge

Early on in my education, I was enrolled at a Christian school.  Despite its humble size, it still carries a power-punch of childhood memories for me.  

One such memory was the Sword Drills we use to have.  We'd hold our Bibles up above our heads, waiting for the teacher to shout out a Bible verse, then we'd race to see who could find the passage the fastest.

To say I loved those drills would be putting it mildly, and while I'm pretty sure the teacher explained why it was called "Sword Drill" in the first place, the reasoning behind it all never really clicked until I was grown..

Ephesians 4:6-12 tells us to 

"...be strong in The Lord and his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  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.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, 

you may be able to stand your ground, 

and after you have done everything, 

to stand.

* emphasis mine

I don't know about you guys, but I want that armor on me ALL-THE-TIME!!!
... I want to be able to stand...

...to remember that, when I'm at odds with my husband or anyone else for that matter, 

there's something deeper going on here...

My struggle isn't with him or whoever else, it's with Satan...and he's trying his best to get in and divide and conquer...

Well I, for one, am tired of it! 

 I'm tired of forgetting who the fight is really between...
                                     ...I'm tired of forgetting I'm wearing that armor. 

I mean man, think about it...if we really looked more through those truthful eyes of knowledge and saw, in the midst of these moments, that we were actually battling against the spiritual forces of evil and not our loved ones, how many of us would do a little less crafting of witty comebacks and defending of selfish pride and a little more diving (with gratitude) into that suit of armor?!   

So, without further ado, the Scripture I'm looking to memorize this week:

Ephesians 6:14-17

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."  

* emphasis mine

Ahhh, there it is the "sword of the Spirit"...that connection back to Sword Drills in school. The deeper our knowledge of His word, the more powerful and effective our sword...and the stronger a soldier we can each be for Christ. 

I gotta tell you, I'm extremely excited to be starting up this series!!  I know that Scripture up there is looking a little long, but I really believe that God will do great things with our efforts...!

Here's how I plan to do this:

One Scripture to memorize each week..
  

Every Sunday will be the Scripture intro (usually late night once the kids are in bed & I'm happily sitting down!).  

The remainder of the week will be devoted to memorization strategies and techniques that I'm trying and how they are working out for me.  
I would really love to hear from you..let me know if you have any tips to share, input on the next weeks' verses, etc etc.... 

'Til tomorrow, Soldiers!