On the way to the beach, we made a pit stop at a Chevron station outside Elba. Outside the gas station was a chest approximately the size of a baby bed filled with crickets. Obviously, the owner of the filling station was selling the crickets to local fishermen. The interesting thing about this chest of crickets was the four posts holding it off the ground. The four metal posts holding up the cricket chest were sitting in buckets of water. Asking one of the locals what the buckets of water were for, he explained that it wasn’t water but oil. The buckets of oil were to keep ants from climbing up the posts. I found that to be quite ingenious. Did you know that God gave Christians a tool we are to use to deflect unwanted things? It is part of our spiritual armor, and it is called the shield of faith. When someone says something harmful, unkind, calls you an ugly name, or gossips about you, you are to put up your shield of faith, and it will quench the fiery arrows coming toward you. The shield of faith deflects unwanted thoughts from hitting your heart. Your shield of faith is to be raised when you hit the tough times and you will be unshakeable if you hold tight to the promises of God that say you are saved, loved, secure, forgiven, and have a home in heaven.
– Dr. Tim Thompson