What is your armor for the season this year? What have you done to prep for the summer months? What have you done to take stock of your past year—fiscally, academically, and more, during a slower season? Will your armor be new running clothes? Will you take that armor and strengthen your heart and body by running? Is the armor a reliable car that takes deliveries to the local food bank? Will you use it to strengthen your sense of responsibility to others and your sense of community? Will your armor be a journal or prayer book? Will you use that armor to stay close to God and to enhance your spirituality? Whatever accessories you choose to add to your full Armor of God, I hope you maintain them as valuable additions.

I’ve mentioned before that, when the seasons change, a lot of dynamics change.  Sometimes our family gets more demanding. Sometimes we don’t have as much work or financial resources as we want or need. Other times, people feel a renewed sense of self with the advent of more sunshine or a renewed feeling of hope for the rest of the year, regardless of the events of the first six months. We all need to be mindful of our goals for the year. Often, this is the time of year to handle such things. When the sun is shining, the nice weather can provide us ample opportunities for home improvement, travel, connecting with others, and getting ourselves in shape, to name a few initiatives. We can use this marked change in many of our environments to make a big change in ourselves. We can relish the sense of renewal we may feel and maintain whatever new sense of self, strength, or spirituality we may be experiencing.

However, from time to time, what we need to remind ourselves of is the tendency to rest too much can cause us to become complacent. We must be careful not to allow the entire summer to pass us by without making a single improvement. I am going to challenge you to create a simple list of initiatives. I want us all to pick FIVE things that we need to improve or do more frequently and FIVE things that we need to begin scaling back or stopping in our behaviors and daily activities. For example, we might add big initiatives to the list, such as reaching out to estranged family or looking into finishing a college degree. Or we might add smaller things to the list, such as going to the dentist more often or beginning to eat healthier foods. It should be interesting to see how the lists correlate or cross in some ways. Take the challenge and check back to see what awaits in the next post. It is a new season, and it is time to live stronger every day.