The Devil uses fear to deceive us, he makes us think good things are not good. He can twist our perception to thinking families and children are burdens instead of blessings. He can make us think that money is limiting, or even worse that money is part of our worth. He can even make us fearful of committing to a loving God, and of accepting God’s Graces, love and mercy. Beware of the fears the devil uses to deceive you.

Family

Families are good! Ah how I wish everyone could experience families the way I have. We had such a fun childhood. My dad is one of 13 and my mom is one of 7, and I am the oldest of 5. If you can’t already imagine, we had fun! Birthday parties almost every weekend. Pool parties and beach days every other day all summer long! I LOVED being a part of a family! I loved our intimate family vacations. The most memorable one was just our family of 7 and we had so much fun together.

As I am preparing for marriage, I am excited to have time with my future husband when we get married, but I am also very excited for (God willing) our future family. If you haven’t experienced this yet, as you get older and have big life decisions such as the major you study in college, how long of an engagement you should have, starting a family and having children, you will hear A LOT of people’s opinions. It can be hard to take them for what they are, opinions. As I’ve heard many opinions and digested them, I’ve come to realize the devil uses fear to make people think that families are not always good. Some people talk about children as if they are such a burden on life, not to say that having children doesn’t also come with sacrifices, it does, but children are gifts from God, my family is one of the greatest gifts God has given me. The devil deceives us and makes us think that starting a family means we won’t have time with our spouses, or that we won’t have time to sleep, or that we won’t have our “me time.” Starting a family does come with sacrifices, but it doesn’t take these things away. You can still make time for all of these things (except maybe sleep with new-borns). Don’t let the devil deceive you, families are so good and children are incredible blessings!

Money

Money is a good thing. It is a tool that can be used for good in the world. It can be used to buy a house to raise a family in. It can be used to feed your family. It can be used to create memorable experiences on family vacations. Heck, it can even be used to buy you gas so you can get to work. However, the devil has a way of using it against us. He twists our perception, and makes us believe there will not be enough. When we are deceived by him, a few things can happen. We may start to cling to money, we no longer see it as a tool to be used, we see it as a thing we must hoard. Sometimes he makes us think our worth is tied to it, we start to compare ourselves to others, the things they have and we don’t. Beware of how the devil deceives you, money is a good thing, it is a tool.

Relationship with God

God’s grace, love, and mercy are good things! He is omnipotent! He can do ANYTHING!!! He loves us endlessly, He forgives us endlessly, He can grant us endless Graces. Yet so many people choose to turn away, or choose to stay agnostic. The devil can deceive us. He can make us fearful of the commitment to a loving God, he can trick us into thinking two very dangerous things: one, God can’t possibly love us because we are so unworthy and undeserving; two if God is so powerful He will love me when the time comes. The first thought is true, we are unworthy and undeserving, but God still loves us! He is so powerful and so merciful that He forgives us endlessly. He gave us His only Son to save us and to connect us to God, especially through suffering with Jesus on the cross. The second thought is very dangerous, it reminds me of when the people yelled at Jesus on the cross “if you’re so powerful save yourself.” When we take upon the second thought, we are testing God. Who are we to test God? Don’t let the devil deceive you, God’s Graces, love and mercy are so good.

There are so many good things in this world that we can become fearful of and perceive as bad. Don’t let the devil twist your perception into thinking, families and children, money, or especially God’s Grace, love and mercy are bad things. That perception would be so far from the truth. These are good things.