Aposematism: The Wrong Armor

Some tough women resemble certain animals in the wild:  they call attention to themselves with strange colors and designs -- purple hair stripes, endless tatoos, tongue, eye, and lip piercings --  not to attract, but to warn anyone coming near them that there may be a deeper danger lurking.
Tough women don't trust themselves not to let others get too close, so they put out every signal to keep them away.  In science, this  strategy is known as "aposematism"  -- the skunk's white tail, the strange odor from insects, the blowfish, twice its actual size -- all act as warnings.  Stay away from me, or you could really get hurt.

It gives the enemy time to pause and rethink its strategy, and gives the tough woman time to run in the opposite direction, to escape a potentially heart-breaking encounter.

Like the blowfish, we have been known to puff ourselves up dramatically -- full of sarcasm, hurtful words, biting jokes, gossiping, threats, betrayals -- anything to make us look fearless and foreboding.

Tough women need a tough armor.

But what I have come to understand is this:  Our armor is all wrong!  We think these methods of keeping others at bay will protect us from harm.  What God tells me is that His armor is so much better.

We must transfer the armor!

In Ephesians 4, we are told to put off those old, aposematic defenses -- anger, clamor, slander, filthy language --- these are techniques that let people know where we stand, who we are, and not to mess with us.  The trouble is, it's corrupt, it's decaying.  It doesn't hold up over time.  We are full of holes and easy targets.  Our emotions spill out all over everything, and we are not able so save ourselves.

Here's the armor that God gives us:  the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit, the shoes of peace.  He tells us to put on kindness, tender-heartedness, forgiveness,  joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  There is not one hole left where we can be hurt.  This Redemption Love that He pours all over us seals us against any enemy who wants to attack.

We are covered with His oily, impenetrable Love armor.

But beware:  if you try to put on His armor over your old, corrupted, decaying armor the results will be something like what you found in your lunch box on Monday after you left it over the weekend.  You can't seal something like that.

You must put off the old stuff -- take off that slimy, worthless armor that has never given you anything but more stress and pain, and put on the new armor that God has designed just for you.  Designer Armor, if you will. This armor protects your tender heart.  It keeps the enemy from whispering those lies into your ear --
"You're not good enough."  "You're not smart enough."  "You're not able to keep this up. You're getting tired." 

God wants to teach us a whole new way to fight --

Tough women need a tough God.

Put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light -- Romans 13:12