Gird Up!

So, I just realized this week that I never blogged about our new theme for the school year.  After giving it a lot of thought and prayer, Scott and I decided on the idea of girding up our loins.  Which we also decided sounded a little awkward for a family cheer at the end of every family prayer.  Hahahaha.  So we shortened it to the simple (yet still effective) Gird Up!

All laughs aside, though, the more I studied this concept of girding up, the more I loved the idea!  (Especially when pairing it with the extension of putting on the whole armor of God.)  And since I also love the dictionary, it was one of the first places I went to really try and understand what it means to gird up one's loins:

gird (up) (one's) loinsTo prepare oneself to face or contend with something. 

gird up one's loins
Fig. to get ready, especially for hard work; to prepare oneself (for something).

gird your loins or gird up your loins JOURNALISM, LITERARY
If someone girds their loins or girds up their loins, they prepare themselves mentally to deal with a difficult situation. 

gird (up) your loins:  prepare and strengthen yourself for what is to come. 

gird (up) your loins (literary or humorous) -- prepare yourself for action, hard work, etc. In the Bible, to gird your loins meant to pick up your robe and tie it about your waist so that you could run or move much more quickly. 

gird (up) (one's) loins
To summon up one's inner resources in preparation for action.

I don't know about you, but I had never really thought of this phrase in those specific ways!  I think in my mind I just imagined girding up to be more of a metaphor for going into battle.  But I really like the idea that to gird up one's loins can also refer to any kind of preparation we might undertake to steel ourselves for ANY form of difficult things to come.  {And that's the last time I'm going to use the word "loins" in this post.  Hahahahaha.  If it's quoted from a scripture, though, it doesn't count.  Haha.}

Our first Scripture Time verse for the new year and new theme was from Doctrine & Covenants 27:15 and we were all struck by how often some of these phrases were quoted during General Conference last month:

Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.

The message is clear -- we need to gird up; prepare ourselves for whatever may be thrown our way in these last days!  A quote from Sister Joy D. Jones (the General Primary President) has stuck with me over the last few years and I think it really helps to get at the HOW of girding up and putting on the whole armor of God.  From her Conference address in April of 2017, she taught that, "Our children don spiritual armor as they establish patterns of personal daily discipleship."

THAT is what we are going to be working on this year to help us in our efforts to Gird Up -- our patterns of personal (as well as family) DAILY discipleship.  It's easy to write them off as the standard "Sunday school answers," but reading the scriptures -- especially the Book of Mormon, praying, and attending our church meetings are the very things that will protect us from the fiery darts of the adversary.  I've come to realize over the last few months that it's never too late and you're never too old to begin working on these habits (or recommitting to them, as the case may be).  And that's a beautiful thing.  :)