Bulletproof Paper Bracelets

Underoos and bulletproof paper bracelets….

Does anyone else remember Underoos? In the late 70s this was perhaps the most exciting clothing ensemble I ever hoped to own and wear. If you are too young to remember them, they were basically underwear with a character theme. Well… a character theme printed on the front anyway. The backside was totally blank and white.

All I needed was a few accessories to make my alter ego complete. Crayon and glitter decorated paper bracelets, a coiled up jump rope, Mom’s red leather boots, and BAM… I was Wonder Woman!

I remember playing in that get up very vividly. It was in those years that we also enjoyed watching the Wonder Woman TV show. She was amazing! Super strength, beautiful, and always defeating the bad guys. If I could just spin around enough times, I thought, maybe I could be like her.

It was also around this time that I remember my sister and I getting new slips to wear under our church dresses. Back then it was a given that you wore a slip under your dress. For little girls these slips were usually a white satin type fabric trimmed in lace and in the shape of a simple dress.

For anyone that knows the Wonder Woman storyline, you can imagine what happened next.

You guessed it… just like that, our imaginations made us Amazon princesses on Paradise Island! Unfortunately, when Mom caught us outside playing in those Sunday slips, much like the limited TV episodes, our time in this role was pretty short, but it was totally worth it!

It is truly amazing what our imaginations can do. When those creative juices start flowing, the outcomes are limitless.

But what happens when our adult minds run wild? When our thoughts become overwhelming? When we imagine and worry about what might be or what could happen? When our mind is at war?

When I wrestle with my thoughts, I am drawn to these verses.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 - For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

It is in my thought life that I battle the most. Notions of inadequacies, scripts that repeat a message of shame, anxious ideas that paralyze, and thoughts that bring overwhelming emotion.

Wonder Woman may have had a golden lasso and bulletproof bracelets, but we have something greater. We have a loving Savior who has already won every battle for us, including the battle of our minds. Our enemy has already been defeated.