Lions and Tigers and BEARS, OH MY!!!

True story.  Last Saturday late afternoon my stepson and his friend were playing video games in the basement when they looked out the window and saw a huge black bear walking past heading for my bird feeders.  Being a teenagers dream come true, they chased him away.  It made their day for sure.  LB told me about the bear and said that it was big.  In my mind I thought for sure he was exaggerating, you know, sort of like a fish story.  

4 days later I was heading to my office, which is about 20 feet from the house, and I saw what I assume was the same bear in my bird garden and he WAS huge.  My girls were outside playing in the same area about 30 minutes before this....so I was not happy.  I turned all Mama grizzly on big blacky.  I started waving my one arm that I COULD flap like crazy and started yelling at him to get out of my yard.  He lumbered off to the side of the yard and stopped.   That was not good enough for me.  I wanted him gone, so what was I to do? I chased him of course.  He must have decided not to mess with the one armed crazy lady with the big mouth, because he ran off into the woods.  

Yesterday I was enjoying a cup of coffee watching my little birds.  Knowing that there is a big bear eyeing my feeders wasn't going to keep me from my favorite spot....but I had my cane by my side, you know, just in case.  

Believe it or not, having that cane within arms reach somehow made me feel a little safer out there.  How crazy is that?  Was a cane REALLY going to protect me from a 400 pound bear if he had his mind made up to cause me harm? Um....no.  

Do you REALLY think that that bear was "frightened" by a crazy lady yelling and waving an arm?  Ha, well...maybe.  Kidding.  That bear simply didn't want to deal with me.  He just wanted a snack and wasn't looking for any trouble. If he wanted to harm me all he had to do was turn around towards me instead of into the woods and I would have been a scooby snack.  I wouldn't have stood a chance.  I was defenseless.  I'm weak...I only have one arm working and he wouldn't have to be a bear to be faster than me.  

I chased a bear out of my yard.  Yes.  That is true...but I know that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.  I don't suddenly believe I have the ability to stand up to bears.

Being the thinky mom that I can be, this got me to thinking.  You know....Satan can be a lot like that bear.  Sometimes he will "give" us a few victories so that we are under the illusion that we have the strength to fight against him alone.  He deceives us into thinking we can handle things on our own without reinforcements.  Know what he does then?  Instead of running into the woods he runs toward us and we are toast.  Yup.  On our own we don't stand a chance.  

Satan is sneaky and he knows our weaknesses.  He studies us and knows exactly where and when to strike.  The great thing is that we NEVER have to go into battle alone.  We have the full armor of God available to us at all times, 24/7. Satan might be brave enough to fight a one armed crazy lady with a big mouth, but even he knows better than to mess with the Almighty.  

If you are going up against a bear, don't take a cane.  If you are going up against Satan, take the LORD and let him go to battle for you.


"Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
Ephesians 6:11 

"Who is this King of glory?  The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle."
Psalm 24:8