My daughter told me about this anime show where the guy can only hold a shield when he’s fighting. Apparently, if he picked up any other kind of weapon in battle, he could die. The gal in the show became his sword. The song based in the show says, “you be the shield and I’ll be your sword.”

Yeah. Did you see the correlation to the married couple? I spent a bit of time while we were driving pondering who would be the sword and who would be the shield in the marriage…would the man be the sword because he’s fighting for his family’s survival or the woman because she’s fighting to keep the family together? But the alternate could be true. Truth is, we all battle with the spiritual forces.

And then it came to me.

We EACH must alternately be the sword and the shield while trading responsibilities. Sometimes, we must be on our knees praying as the shield while the other is at battle and sometimes we are the ones at battle and the other is praying as the shield.

The great picture here is as we are alternating between the shield and the sword, we need to understand that each role is equally important and both are our jobs.

Lastly, can you picture how much more effective we would be in our battles if we were both protecting our marriages by reading our Bibles and talking to God constantly, praying for our spouse and the battles they are fighting each day. We don’t know the specific battles our spouses will face forcing the day but God does. Therefore, today, I will choose to be the shield for my husband and, not only that, I will choose to be the shield for my children as well..