Windows Defender

Since I am new to blogging and just starting out in facebook world too, I have a lot to learn. My son-in-law, Billy, told me yesterday to get with it because he had emailed me (friended me) and I still had not been online to reply. He told me that facebooking manners included checking in with your friends more than once in a blue moon! I think he was only sort of kidding.

So here I am this morning sitting in my pretty, little living room with coffee in hand, sun shinning in the picture window, Hallmark CD called Amazing Grace playing in the background, ready to get serious about online community responsibility. I have taken my laptop from it's drawer, plugged it in and powered up. I am ready to upload, download, email, blog or whatever else is required to get up to speed, mind my online manners and connect.

Ready, set and ARRGGHH! Windows Defender is running its full scan on my computer to keep me safe and protected from online evil! When I go several days between power-ups, the Windows Defender doesn't get to do its daily thing. So, when I do power up, the software does what it is supposed to and goes into full scan mode to protect the system.

The problem is that when I decide to power up, I want full power and full use of my computer. I don't want to sit around waiting on Windows Defender to scan, correct, clean-up or update. I want to get going with MY stuff minus delays or slow downs. However, I still want to be protected, thank you very much.

Sometimes I stop Windows Defender while it's in progress. I go around the very safeguards built into the system, ignoring the program so I can do what I want to do. Warn me later. Update me later. I've got things to do right now! Sometimes I forget to go back and allow the scan to run. I finish my desired tasks, put the computer back in the drawer and go on with my plans never giving the ignored Defender another thought until next time. That's what happened today.

One of the things I love about being a Christian is when those little "hello my child" tap-on-the-shoulder moments come from the Lord to sweetly teach me something. It happened this morning when I went ARRGGHH over Windows Defender. Without any effort on my part the entire incident dropped clearly into view as an analogy for my sometimes less than perfect spiritual life. Here is this little one minute tap-on-the-shoulder lesson.

The Lord is my Defender. He is the "program" that provides warning, protection and correction so I am safe from the evils of the world, the flesh and the devil. If I hurriedly power-up, but don't take time to listen to His wisdom, I'm putting my whole system in danger. If I insist on putting my Bible "in the drawer" or have my prayer time on the fly several days in a row, pulling these things out only briefly for the fastest possible update, then bad things can happen that just don't have to happen.

When I do then finally settle down and share with the Lord the time He so wants to spend with me, it takes longer to have the "scans" run! I know it sounds silly, but it is true. It takes longer for the corrections to be made because there are more of them. It takes longer for the warnings to be issued and understood. It takes longer to download the updates to my spiritual file so that everything is cleaned up and running in the best and safest mode for my life.

If I would power up every day and take time for my Defender to work with me before I dash into my life then everything about my system (my life) would run more smoothly.

Isn't this a great little lesson. I am always touched and amazed by how God will use whatever is important to us to draw us toward him rather than allowing it to draw us away from Him. He is so awesome.