The Armor of God and the Atonement

Oops, I forgot that today is Friday.

Since I remembered, I have been going through my thoughts trying to come up with something Pioneer Day related and am basically drawing a blank on that. However, I would like to share something I learned recently.

I had the beautiful opportunity to go to the Special Needs Mutual and learn from them. While there a man was speaking and said "We were given two ears and one mouth. Probably so we could listen more and talk less."

As I pondered over this, I realized that when I pray I sometimes get caught up with doing all the talking and really, I can learn a lot more from my Father than He can learn from me. So I shut my mouth that night during my prayers and had one of the best conversations with Him I have ever had! After, I lay down to sleep, but my mind was ablaze. I learned a lot just from quiet reflection. I was taught about the Atonement and the power of the Armor of God.

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In the armor of God our feet are shod with Preparation, loins girt about with Truth, breastplate of Righteousness, Helmet of Salvation, Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit. My thoughts mainly went to the helmet of Salvation. I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting when I was a youth, and I really didn't have much to say. I thought on that topic for a little bit, and this is what I learned.

Salvation breaks down to the word: Save. Who saves us? The Savior. How? Through the Atonement. Why is it the Helmet of Salvation? Because we need to keep our thoughts focused on the Atonement in order to be saved. We need to control our thoughts so they are always good and clean and uplifting so we can take part in the Atonement. Obviously we aren't perfect and need all facets of the Atonement, especially including repentance. I would go as far as to say that Repentance should be a part of the Armor of God. Maybe it is the "healing potion" or the "medic's bag" or something along those lines. Regardless of what it is, without repentance we have fallen down into a hole and we can't climb back out. Basically we need to keep our thoughts clean because all actions are born with a thought. If the thoughts reflect on the Atonement, then so will our actions.

I learned that our feet are shod with preparation, because preparation will take us places. If we have the appropriate foot wear, we can get a lot more accomplished than if we don't.

If our hearts are focused on righteousness like a breastplate we are less likely to do something wrong.

If we have the shield of faith, it wont matter what anyone else says, their negative words will be deflected because we have that strong faith.

With the sword of the Spirit we can cut evil asunder. The Spirit can pierce the heart like nothing else can.

The only one I don't really understand is loins girt about with truth. That is something I am going to have to study and learn more of. If any of you have insight on that I would love to hear it.

So basically I gained a better comprehension of the importance of the Armor of God, and I appreciate how it really is armor in a way that I have never understood before. I hope I can always listen more and talk less when it comes to communicating with our Heavenly Father... or any one for that matter.