YOUR FAMILY - Priscilla Shirer
My husband, Jerry, and I (we’d both readily admit) had terrible second year of marriage. We fought early and often, long and hard. Two people so young, with so little in the bank
of shared experiences with which to accumulate much ammunition. . . . Yet we still seemed to find plenty of it to go to battle with. And battle, we did. Against each other. All the time.
But we made it through by the skin of our gritted teeth. And the tough patches we endured, once we settled back down, only seemed to make us better. Closer. More committed. More complete. Fourteen years later, three kids later, we seemed to be fully hitting our stride as a family of five. We still had stuff to deal with, of course, like everybody does. But for the most part? All good. Happy.
Then came last year.
With my family’s blessing I had accepted, much to even my own surprise, a part in a major faith-based film. I was shocked to be invited to participate, shocked that I was willing to risk saying yes, and shocked even more, after the directors saw my acting abilities, that they still wanted me to take the role. Took me about as far out of my comfort zone as this girl had been in a long, long time, maybe ever. The movie, as you probably know by now, is on the theme of prayer—the power of strategic prayer, the kind of prayer power God can activate in His people, and specifically the kind of prayer that can rescue a family before it careens off a cliff of near certain destruction. The directors of the film wrote me a long e-mail before shooting began, filling me in on details to help me prepare for what was ahead. And among their many notes was a warning.
They wanted to make me aware of Satan’s penchant for targeting the people who’d been involved in their previous films and how he’d taken aim at the areas of their personal lives that were connected to the message of that movie. Since this particular project was on the theme of prayer and family, they encouraged me to be vigilant about praying for my own family, praying against any assignments the enemy may have trained against us.
Soon summer arrived. We packed our bags and moved to another state to begin a couple months of filming. I was the novice on set—didn’t know what to expect as far as all the acting and directing and moviemaking were involved. But even having been forewarned, I didn’t fully realize how that summer of on-site shooting would affect some of the dynamics in my family. Gosh, we were just having fun in our new surroundings soaking up the fresh adventure of it, not really thinking about the unique set of stressors placed on all of us—being away from home, out of our element, out of our usual rhythms. But pretty soon the slightest things would set off a disagreement, a misunderstanding. Hot feelings. Short fuses. By the time we made it through our final wrap on the film set, we were exhausted, not just physically but relationally.
OK, freeze here. Get this picture of what was happening in our family at the time and how it contrasted with the message of the movie we were involved in portraying. Can’t you see the
enemy’s strategy at work? Of course he would want to turn up the background noise to try complicating the work we were doing in expressing God’s truth for a global audience. Of course he would want, if possible, to water down this important message by dismantling the relationships of the people participating in it—just as we’d been told to expect.
So since we knew who was behind the tension, we made the deliberate choice to stop fighting with each other and to fight instead with that doggoned enemy. We vigilantly asked God to make our marriage and family (and the families of all those involved in the film) bulletproof against these incessant attacks Too much was at stake. It was a big deal.
But you know what? It’s always a big deal. All of our marriages and families are a huge deal. Yours and mine. They’re all that big of a deal . . . because each one is a billboard for the eternal, unchangeable love story between God and humankind.
Each of their successes or failures is of great importance, both in God’s eyes and, therefore, in our enemy’s eyes.
So he targets them. All of them. He targets our role as wives, targets our husbands, and targets our children. He brings dissension, infuses tension, unravels our sense of peace with disunity. Because ultimately he wants to destroy our families—all of our families—so that the billboard message they’re designed to project to the world is a picture that is, at best, laughable.
Now if you’re a single woman, thinking you might just flip ahead to the next chapter since this one doesn’t apply to you,think again. There’s more that pertains to you on this subject matter than you may realize. We’re all a part of it, married or not, or just not married yet. We need everybody praying—even for a marriage and family like yours that may be still to come in the future.
My husband, Jerry, and I (we’d both readily admit) had terrible second year of marriage. We fought early and often, long and hard. Two people so young, with so little in the bank
of shared experiences with which to accumulate much ammunition. . . . Yet we still seemed to find plenty of it to go to battle with. And battle, we did. Against each other. All the time.
But we made it through by the skin of our gritted teeth. And the tough patches we endured, once we settled back down, only seemed to make us better. Closer. More committed. More complete. Fourteen years later, three kids later, we seemed to be fully hitting our stride as a family of five. We still had stuff to deal with, of course, like everybody does. But for the most part? All good. Happy.
Then came last year.
With my family’s blessing I had accepted, much to even my own surprise, a part in a major faith-based film. I was shocked to be invited to participate, shocked that I was willing to risk saying yes, and shocked even more, after the directors saw my acting abilities, that they still wanted me to take the role. Took me about as far out of my comfort zone as this girl had been in a long, long time, maybe ever. The movie, as you probably know by now, is on the theme of prayer—the power of strategic prayer, the kind of prayer power God can activate in His people, and specifically the kind of prayer that can rescue a family before it careens off a cliff of near certain destruction. The directors of the film wrote me a long e-mail before shooting began, filling me in on details to help me prepare for what was ahead. And among their many notes was a warning.
They wanted to make me aware of Satan’s penchant for targeting the people who’d been involved in their previous films and how he’d taken aim at the areas of their personal lives that were connected to the message of that movie. Since this particular project was on the theme of prayer and family, they encouraged me to be vigilant about praying for my own family, praying against any assignments the enemy may have trained against us.
Soon summer arrived. We packed our bags and moved to another state to begin a couple months of filming. I was the novice on set—didn’t know what to expect as far as all the acting and directing and moviemaking were involved. But even having been forewarned, I didn’t fully realize how that summer of on-site shooting would affect some of the dynamics in my family. Gosh, we were just having fun in our new surroundings soaking up the fresh adventure of it, not really thinking about the unique set of stressors placed on all of us—being away from home, out of our element, out of our usual rhythms. But pretty soon the slightest things would set off a disagreement, a misunderstanding. Hot feelings. Short fuses. By the time we made it through our final wrap on the film set, we were exhausted, not just physically but relationally.
OK, freeze here. Get this picture of what was happening in our family at the time and how it contrasted with the message of the movie we were involved in portraying. Can’t you see the
enemy’s strategy at work? Of course he would want to turn up the background noise to try complicating the work we were doing in expressing God’s truth for a global audience. Of course he would want, if possible, to water down this important message by dismantling the relationships of the people participating in it—just as we’d been told to expect.
So since we knew who was behind the tension, we made the deliberate choice to stop fighting with each other and to fight instead with that doggoned enemy. We vigilantly asked God to make our marriage and family (and the families of all those involved in the film) bulletproof against these incessant attacks Too much was at stake. It was a big deal.
But you know what? It’s always a big deal. All of our marriages and families are a huge deal. Yours and mine. They’re all that big of a deal . . . because each one is a billboard for the eternal, unchangeable love story between God and humankind.
Each of their successes or failures is of great importance, both in God’s eyes and, therefore, in our enemy’s eyes.
So he targets them. All of them. He targets our role as wives, targets our husbands, and targets our children. He brings dissension, infuses tension, unravels our sense of peace with disunity. Because ultimately he wants to destroy our families—all of our families—so that the billboard message they’re designed to project to the world is a picture that is, at best, laughable.
Now if you’re a single woman, thinking you might just flip ahead to the next chapter since this one doesn’t apply to you,think again. There’s more that pertains to you on this subject matter than you may realize. We’re all a part of it, married or not, or just not married yet. We need everybody praying—even for a marriage and family like yours that may be still to come in the future.
YOUR FAMILY - Priscilla Shirer
My husband, Jerry, and I (we’d both readily admit) had terrible second year of marriage. We fought early and often, long and hard. Two people so young, with so little in the bank
of shared experiences with which to accumulate much ammunition. . . . Yet we still seemed to find plenty of it to go to battle with. And battle, we did. Against each other. All the time.
But we made it through by the skin of our gritted teeth. And the tough patches we endured, once we settled back down, only seemed to make us better. Closer. More committed. More complete. Fourteen years later, three kids later, we seemed to be fully hitting our stride as a family of five. We still had stuff to deal with, of course, like everybody does. But for the most part? All good. Happy.
Then came last year.
With my family’s blessing I had accepted, much to even my own surprise, a part in a major faith-based film. I was shocked to be invited to participate, shocked that I was willing to risk saying yes, and shocked even more, after the directors saw my acting abilities, that they still wanted me to take the role. Took me about as far out of my comfort zone as this girl had been in a long, long time, maybe ever. The movie, as you probably know by now, is on the theme of prayer—the power of strategic prayer, the kind of prayer power God can activate in His people, and specifically the kind of prayer that can rescue a family before it careens off a cliff of near certain destruction. The directors of the film wrote me a long e-mail before shooting began, filling me in on details to help me prepare for what was ahead. And among their many notes was a warning.
They wanted to make me aware of Satan’s penchant for targeting the people who’d been involved in their previous films and how he’d taken aim at the areas of their personal lives that were connected to the message of that movie. Since this particular project was on the theme of prayer and family, they encouraged me to be vigilant about praying for my own family, praying against any assignments the enemy may have trained against us.
Soon summer arrived. We packed our bags and moved to another state to begin a couple months of filming. I was the novice on set—didn’t know what to expect as far as all the acting and directing and moviemaking were involved. But even having been forewarned, I didn’t fully realize how that summer of on-site shooting would affect some of the dynamics in my family. Gosh, we were just having fun in our new surroundings soaking up the fresh adventure of it, not really thinking about the unique set of stressors placed on all of us—being away from home, out of our element, out of our usual rhythms. But pretty soon the slightest things would set off a disagreement, a misunderstanding. Hot feelings. Short fuses. By the time we made it through our final wrap on the film set, we were exhausted, not just physically but relationally.
OK, freeze here. Get this picture of what was happening in our family at the time and how it contrasted with the message of the movie we were involved in portraying. Can’t you see the
enemy’s strategy at work? Of course he would want to turn up the background noise to try complicating the work we were doing in expressing God’s truth for a global audience. Of course he would want, if possible, to water down this important message by dismantling the relationships of the people participating in it—just as we’d been told to expect.
So since we knew who was behind the tension, we made the deliberate choice to stop fighting with each other and to fight instead with that doggoned enemy. We vigilantly asked God to make our marriage and family (and the families of all those involved in the film) bulletproof against these incessant attacks Too much was at stake. It was a big deal.
But you know what? It’s always a big deal. All of our marriages and families are a huge deal. Yours and mine. They’re all that big of a deal . . . because each one is a billboard for the eternal, unchangeable love story between God and humankind.
Each of their successes or failures is of great importance, both in God’s eyes and, therefore, in our enemy’s eyes.
So he targets them. All of them. He targets our role as wives, targets our husbands, and targets our children. He brings dissension, infuses tension, unravels our sense of peace with disunity. Because ultimately he wants to destroy our families—all of our families—so that the billboard message they’re designed to project to the world is a picture that is, at best, laughable.
Now if you’re a single woman, thinking you might just flip ahead to the next chapter since this one doesn’t apply to you,think again. There’s more that pertains to you on this subject matter than you may realize. We’re all a part of it, married or not, or just not married yet. We need everybody praying—even for a marriage and family like yours that may be still to come in the future.
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