A BURGLAR

We came home from a vacation one time to discover someone jimmied the back door to the basement of our bi-level home.

Nevertheless, they were unable to get inside, for which we were thankful.

For the first time in my married life, I was thankful my husband had an obsession with locking doors. My parents never locked the door when I lived at home. Most of the time, we'd even go on vacation with our doors unlocked. If Dad did lock the door, he used a skeleton key and every family in town probably had one. Might as well leave the door open.

For the first 10 years of our marriage, I told Les I was the only person he locked out. I'd go out one of the doors into the yard and couldn't get back in. I'd go to the car before he did, and had to stand outside until he decided to come. Since I'm a redhead, sparks flew and I'd give him some heated words about the senseless act of locking everything.

But that changed when we discovered someone tried to get in our home. After that, I started locking everything with a lock on it, just as he did. One day without thinking I even locked our teenage children in the backyard while they were tanning.

The more I think about locking things, I remember a prowler lurks that hopes to steal our most precious possession--our salvation. Jesus said, "The Thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10).

Satan uses many different methods to break in. He uses people, he uses techology, he uses our own lusts of the flesh, lust of the eye and the pride of life.

But scripture tells us when the Enemy comes in like a flood the Lord will raise up a standard against him. I would assume that's because we asked God to help us guard our hearts and minds. We're also told if we have the Holy Spirit with us, greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

Satan can't ravage our lives without our permission. We can keep God's Word and power locked up in our hearts and the Enemy can't slide a tool or a credit card across our hearts and get in.

When Jesus warned that Satan comes to steal and destroy, He added, "I have come so they (we) can have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way."

Yes, it makes sense to prepare for burglars, and enjoy the wonderful gifts we possess because of the love of God.