Cody and I hung out together yesterday. We went to church together. We ate lunch together. We went to the UAM baseball game together. (By the way, just to let you know, UAM defeated the University of North Alabama yesterday. North Alabama was ranked 6th or 13th, depending on the poll you follow, in the nation in NCAA division II. Go weevils.) I had meetings at 3pm and 4pm and 5pm and church at 6pm and a meeting at 8pm and he and I made all of them. I went to the meetings and he played in the church house with Ethan Graves or whomever else he could find. He had a blast.

We played catch at the baseball game. He found a tennis ball and we learned to throw. He wanted to play catch with everybody. He has no fear. He’ll invite anyone into the game or invite himself into anyone else’s game. Two junior high girls became reluctant participants because Cody wouldn’t let them rest until they played with us. They thought he was cute. He’s going to be a lady killer.

Anyway, while I was enriching the life of my young companion he asked me a question; “Hey Rob, you want me to tell you about satan?” Now, coming from Cody, that’s a little scary but I took the bate. “Sure, tell me about him.” “Well, he tries to get you to do bad stuff all the time. When you hear his little voice in your head you need to say ‘get away from me’ and he’ll leave you alone.” I asked him if that worked for him. He said, “Not all the time. I get tempted a lot, you know. But I just keep tellin him to get away from me and most of the time he does. But never very far away.”

Satan is never very far away. From the mouths of babes. As a matter of fact, he’s probably closer than we could imagine. Our very nature tempts us to make errors in judgement every time we turn around. The scripture says that if we “resist the devil, he will flee from us.” I don’t do so good resisting all the time. How about you?

So, today, take a cue from Cody. When you hear that little voice in your head telling you to do something that you know is wrong just say “get away from me, satan”. And keep saying it until that temptation leaves you. But know this, he is never going very far away.