Consider the story in the Old Testament and the Israelites and Philistines engaged in battle. One one end of the great field are the armies of the Israelites, and on the other side the armies of the Philistines. Often, they sent their champions to do battle one on one with the opposing army. The Philistines' champion was a man named Goliath. You may have heard about him. :) He stood 9 feet tall and his armour weighed reportedly over a hundred pounds. Consider Goliath as all the earth's evils that exist today; lying, dishonesty, lovers of our own selves over The Lord, and every immoral and impure act which is contrary to the Lord's commandments. Such a formidible force to reckon with! Actually Goliath could represent all of these evils present in the world, while the hosts of the Philistines could represent the hosts of Satan; living and dead. Taunting us, telling us we cannot win against such formidible evils.

The Israelites can see this Goliath and shrink away in fear. They are afraid of the impending and certain death that would come to them at the sword of the Giant Goliath. No one dares to step forward to face Goliath - except one. David was a sheepherder, and probably too young to be even considered to be a soldier in the armies of the Isaelites. He tended sheep. He didn't have worldly distractions such as smartphones, ipods, etc. Just himself out there to tend sheep - which he did well. But he also kept himself occupied by honing a skill using a simple leather sling and stones. He was so good with this weapon that he killed a lion and a bear with his sling which was trying to attack the flock. This young shepherd boy, who saw the huge Goliath, and who also saw his fellow Israelites shudder with fear; he stepped forward and offered to be the champion  for the Israelites. After convincing the King, he went forward - with no sword or shield. Just his sling.

When Goliath saw the very small David step forward, he swore in the name of The Lord against David and the host of Israel. He remarked, "Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?"He was probably saying to the host of Israel, "This is your champion? Is this the best you can do?". Imagine the host of the Philistines look when the young david stepped forward. We all can be Davids. We can hone our spiritual weapons daily. Our weapons include the scriptures, the words of the prophets, and for the youth - the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet.  Those are indeed weapons to arm us with against the host of evil.

David, undeterred by Goliath's tauntings and swearing stepped forward and declared to Goliath, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of The Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled. This day will The Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee..." Powerful words from a young shepherd boy. BUT, one that has the confidence of The Lord to declare His words. We can be Davids through our words which we declare. We can be His emmissary of the gospel. We can be His example in our actions; online and in person.

David stood a ways off and took one of the smooth river pebbles that he brought with him. And with a couple swings, the rock propelled directly into Goliath, killing him. The key point to think about here is that David knew his craft. He knew how to use his weapon. He also knew that his weapon has greater effect from a distance. He knew that if he got close to Goliath, he could be instantly killed by the sword, spear, or even crushed by the shield. So he stood his distance. What a lesson for all of us. Many of us are not fully aware or comfortable with our spiritual weapons. Some of us think we can alone conquer the evils of the world today. We are personally endangering our spiritual future by such a stance. But if we stay far enough away from the evils of the world, we can stay safe. Our accuracy may not be as accurate as David's, but we can still stay our distance and propel our spiritual weapons, which will stun and amaze the evils. 

The youth of today are our champions for the future. They have been reserved to come forth in this day and age because they were of the most valiant of spirits. Our Heavenly Father reserved them to do the final battles with the modern-day Goliaths and Philistines. They have been given the needed slings and stones to battle with. Some of the youth recognize and are already honing their spiritual weapons; Seminary, Missions, and of course scripture study. Some do not recognize those weapons, and it is up to us, and parents, teachers, and leaders to make them aware of those God-given weapons. Satan and his hosts are also very much aware of those weapons, especially the hidden or weak weapons. He will use everything he can possibly do to derail us - espeically the youth.

How great will be the day that when our modern-day Davids step forward and declare to everything evil "In the name of The Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of His children, whom thou hast defiled. This day will The Lord deliver thee into our hands" We, as the armies of Israel will gather our strength and courage shown by the noble youth of the birthright, and join in the final battle, where Satan is bound, and Jesus Christ, our Master will reign perosnally upon the earth.