Tickles the Bear and Sticky Bear met up again at the park to talk about armor that God gives us to fight sin with.

As Sticky Bear ran up to Tickles, he was punching his arms in the air. He yelled out to Tickles, "Ok, Tickles, here I am! I'm ready to fight the fight against sin and the devil."

Tickles was chuckling to himself as he replied, " Uh-h-h....Tickles? You don't really look ready to me. You can't just act tough, you know. You need armor. Its dangerous out there!"

Sticky Bear looked confused, " Armor? What do you mean, armor?

Tickles replied, "You can't just fight the devil like that...with no armor. Remember last week when we were talking about the devil. He's pretty strong, and very sly. So, you need the things that God gives us to fight with, Sticky Bear."

Sticky Bear said, "Ok...you talked me into it. So, what armor do I need?"

"Well...Tickles explained, "If we look in our Bible, in Ephesians 6, it tells us what we need: (Read Ephesians 6:14).

Sticky Bear looked a little scared, "Belt? Bu-..bu-..but....my stomach sticks out. It HURTS to wear a belt."

Tickles sighed, "It doesn't have to be tight, silly. Just wear it loose. Wear it any way at all, but you still need to wear it."

Sticky Bear agreed, "Ok, ok. Give me the belt of Truth. But... tell me again why am I wearing it?"

Tickles patiently explained to Sticky Bear, "You need the truth to fight against the devil's lies. He tried to tell us all kinds of lies...Sometimes he tries to tell you that you are not strong enough to fight him (We know that is a lie because our Bible tells us that God is stronger, and He who is in us (which means God, if you are a Christian) is stronger than he who is in the world (which is the devil). Just like we learned last week. And, sometimes he tries to tell us the lie that God didn't forgive us. But, we know that's not true...because we know we can trust God's 'promises that, if we ask him to forgive us and admit our sin, he will forgive us. You see...when we believe the devil's lies, we start to feel bad, and stop trusting God. The devil tries to make us not trust God. So we have to fight him and his lies with the Truth!"

A big smile came over Sticky Bear's face. "Oh...now I see why I need my belt of Truth. I guess it is really important. He tugged at his belt to make it a little more snug. "There, that's better. Now it won't fall off.

Tickles replied, "Good idea. You never want to be without your Belt of Truth. There are so many lies the devil tries to tell us. He even tries to tell us mean things like we aren't worth much, or that nobody loves us. But, those lies are from the devil too. Because we know that everything in the Bible is true. And, God tells us loves us very, very much, and He tells us over and over again in the Bible. And, He tells us we are worth so much to him...too much to even measure!"

Sticky Bear added, "Too much for me to even think about it all! I guess you are right, Tickles. Sometimes I feel like nobody really cares about me. But, now I know that is just a lie from the devil. I shouldn't believe him. The truth is that I can totally trust in God's promise that he loves me and cares for me very, very much."

Tickles added, "Yep! and, that goes for everybody. Even everybody in this classroom! Now you're starting to understand. When you trust that God's promises, you will have the joy and peace he promises too.

Sticky Bear stuck out his stomach, he wanted to show off his Belt of Truth, "Look at me!....now I've got my belt. My Belt of Truth! I'm not going to believe any more of the devil's lies. I'm going to fight him with the TRUTH!"

Unfornately, Tickles had to clue him in, "Well....Sticky Bear, I hate to tell you this...but you're not quite ready yet...but we'll be learning about the other armor that you need to wear over the next few weeks. Let's pray though, and then we'll do some crafts!"

Sticky bear agreed, "Yeah! Crafts!, ok...you pray" (Say prayer below)