Armed for Battle, But Are We Fighting the Right Enemy?

Rachel Watkins shares a reminder to parents about the need to be careful about the ways we direct our negative energy.

One of the many benefits of our faith is the reminders that we are in a constant battle. We daily face the world, the flesh, and devil, as the adage goes. We have the admonition to put on the armor for the Lord in Ephesians 6:10-20. And despite Christ’s gift of peace during the Last Supper discourse (John 14:27) we know peace isn’t easy to find, even in our own families.

In my hallway bathroom, known fondly as the ‘Kids’ Bathroom” I have a reminder on a piece of white printer paper posted years ago. Now splotched with water and curled from shower humidity, it reminds us, “Every morning we arise fresh in Christ our Light. Ancient Christian writers warn against ‘morning demons,’ yesterday’s worries and grievances returning to poison a new day.”

While I don’t know the author, I put it up to encourage my family to strive to wake up in a good mood. Yesterday is in the past, and while we may have to attend to some details concerning it, we can’t let the demons win.

Don’t Let the Demons Steal Your Peace

I woke up recently in a decidedly bad mood. I was carrying an unresolved issue from the previous day and wasn’t going to let it go. I headed out to daily Mass ready to fight — anyone, everyone, God — as a result of holding on to this problem.

Imagine my red face when the homily that morning was about how easily we forgo the peace God has promised to cling to agitation. Thinking about it over a few days, I realized that allowing morning demons to dictate how my day was going to go was something I had struggled against my whole parenting life. More than once, I had let my morning mood affect, and infect, everyone else’s.

Another anonymous phrase that I have posted came from the creative hand of my mother. Now gone over five years, she had cut, embellished and decorated a card with the compliment, “You live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning: Satan shudders and says: 'Oh, crap, she’s awake!’” She signed it, “You are one of my heroes, Love, Mom.” Well, I wasn’t her hero that day, I have to say.

Putting On Emotional Armor Has Consequences

Finally, taking it to prayer I once again made a commitment to be the woman my mom saw and remember the promises of Jesus. I came to realize that I sometimes put on an emotional armor for perceived fights. I was not arming myself to fight the world, the flesh, or the devil but I was giving into the temptation to fight another child of God: my child or my spouse, maybe a friend.

We have to accept the responsibility that our mood, our tone, every word we say can either bless or burden those around us. Are we spreading the poison of those morning demons or are we waking up hoping Satan shudders?

The Importance of Beginning the Day with Positivity

Developing a quick morning prayer pattern will help to put yesterday’s grievances in their place. I remember well the very busy mornings of a nursing baby and a full house of older children, but we can still say something positive to God and ourselves even before our feet hit the floor.

Do you have a favorite spiritual phrase, an aspiration, you can send out? “Lord, give me the peace you promise.” “Holy Family, make us a Holy Family.” or just a sign of the Cross calling down the protection of the Trinity done before greeting your family helps. Maybe you want to decorate your own bathroom mirrors with gentle reminders and encouragements to be the loving, peaceful person you strive to be.

Chapter 6 of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians leads off with reminders to parents: “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). And that armor we are to wear is so we “may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) The devil. Not our husband, our children or anyone else; but the devil.

Let the armor of truth, peace, righteousness, faith, salvation, and the Spirit be used to lift up our family and everyone we encounter. Let us always remember to keep hold of and bring to others the peace Jesus has promised us.

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Copyright 2026 Rachel Watkins
Images: (top, center) Canva; (bottom) copyright 2026 Rachel Watkins, all rights reserved.