Protect Yourself from Becoming Infected

As I type this, I feel awful.  My 2 year old, Jaxon, woke up sneezing Saturday morning.  Since he and his older brother have allergies, I assumed a dose of allergy medicine would suit him just fine.  I even gave my oldest son Joey a just-in-case dose, because my husband and I had a day of outdoors fun planned for the kids, and I didn't want puffy eyes and itchy throats to put a damper on our family day.

As the day progressed, I noticed that a runny nose had accompanied his sneezing.  Then a little while after that, coughing joined in.  "Uh oh" I thought.  "He's got a cold."  I had misdiagnosed his symptoms earlier that morning, and treated the wrong problem.  Now the problem that he really had had been left untreated.  Because I assumed it was only allergies, I had no objections to him sharing kisses with me or his baby brother. I had no idea that with every sneeze, he was spreading germs that would plague half of my house.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a stuffy nose, body aches, and sneezing.  And worst of all, I noticed that my newborn had been affected by the kisses of his infected big brother.  My poor little pumpkin had gotten a stuffy nose. 

I doctored on them all day yesterday, and all throughout the night.  I am beat.  There was one important thing I failed to do before becoming mommy-nurse - I did not take any precautions to protect myself from getting my infected little guy's cold.

Now, the one who started the whole cold plague is feeling better, and my newborn and I are experiencing the worst of it.  Had I recognized Jaxon's sickness in the beginning, I could have protected the rest of us from becoming sick while helping him to get better.  He's running around the house all free and full of energy, going about his merry little way, while the baby and I are struggling to breathe. *rolling my eyes at him* LOL!!

I wonder how often does this happen in our daily lives.  We reach out and help someone who is sick...sin-sick, broken, hurting, struggling...and after we've helped them to get better, and prayed them through, we find ourselves feeling under the weather.  They are free, while you're feeling heavy.

Through personal experience, I have found that when I fail to protect myself through prayer before going into spiritual warfare for someone else, I become affected by the thing that infected them. Their headache literally becomes my headache, and I'm left trying to fight off something that wasn't even supposed to be my problem.  And then I have to fast, pray, and plead the blood so the spirit of heaviness will unattach itself from me.

Let me add that this is not to discourage you from helping or interceding for others...I encourage that.  Had it not been for others going to God on my behalf, I probably wouldn't be here today. And I believe in paying it forward.  I'm all about helping my sisters and brothers. Galatians 6:2 tells us to bear one another's burdens; however, I don't believe that was meant to be carried out literally.  I believe we should use wisdom in all things, and wisdom tells us that we should be prayed up so that when we help others, we don't become a victim.

This is why a consistent prayer life is so imperative.  Prayer protects us. 

So the next time you try to help someone get well, make sure you are dressed in your spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-18). While those you and I set out to help may not intentionally spread their germs, some sicknesses simply have the spirit of transfer.

 Protect yourself from becoming infected.

Thanks for reading,
Keisha