Fiery Darts

 

I started to type that this is one of my most embarrassing stories but to be honest I have a whole list of times I have embarrassed myself.  This one still makes me blush a bit as I feel the confused looks of those around me.

We had just moved into a new ward.  I was sitting in Relief Society and we were discussing the blessings of putting on the whole armor of God and what that might look like for us individually.  As the teacher mentioned the shield of faith and asked what it made us think of, a favorite scripture popped into my mind. 

Only somehow, with being in a new congregation of people I didn't know, that scripture got a bit garbled on the way to my lips.  

And I declared with confidence, "A shield of faith will protect us from the direy farts of Satan."  Because, as you well know, we teach often about Satan's farts🤦‍♀️.

The teacher looked at me, not with any unkindness at all, but sheer confusion.  So did every other person in the room, even those suppressing giggles, and my immediate thought was that we would probably have to move.  Like we did after the skirt tucked in my pantyhose in testimony meeting incident.  

And at that moment I couldn't even remember what I meant to say or how to fix it.  But the teacher covered it kindly and moved on.  And George said we couldn't move.  So I came back the next week and no one ever mentioned it again.  I'm fairly confident they didn't even remember.  

From my perspective now, it not only wasn't a big deal, it's comical.  We all misspeak at times.  But I believe that one of those fiery darts of the adversary is to exaggerate our feelings of insecurity, our doubts and our worries. He sends in those flaming arrows to hit in the tiny chinks of our armor and start a blaze that can spread even behind all the righteous armor we have established. 

D&C 27:17 promises:

17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;

Ephesians 6:16 adds "above all" emphasizing the importance:

16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

1 Ne 15:24 gives another way to protect from the fiery darts of the adversary:

24And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

And D&C 3:7-8 further clarifies:

7For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God. Although men set at naught the counsels of God, and despise his words—

8Yet you should have been faithful; and he would have extended his arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary; and he would have been with you in every time of trouble.

Don't fear man more than God.  Hold onto the shield of faith.  Hold onto the iron rod and we can put out or deflect all of those lies that can get inside and burn and destroy us.  

Elder Neil A Maxwell cautioned,

"Real disciples absorb the fiery darts of the adversary by holding aloft the quenching shield of faith with one hand, while holding to the iron rod with the other.  There should be no mistaking; it will take both hands!"

So let go of whatever it is you need to, to free up your hands for your shield of faith and the iron rod.  And confidently defend against the  fiery darts, direy farts or anything else Satan throws your way!