Guard your heart...

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23


It is often not what we hear, but when we hear it that makes all the difference in the world.  Proverbs 4:23. This verse is a verse I have heard several times in my life. It is a verse that is frequently repeated by advice givers, mentioned in sermons, and written in different readings.  And over the course of my life I have heard it, and it has even been given to me as a piece of advice, yet I had never really taken it to heart. It wasn't until recently that hearing it brought on a whole new meaning.

I was listening to a podcast, and the pastor suggested that this verse could possibly be one of the most important verses in the bible. But why... So often in our society we are taught to monitor what we say, our thoughts, and how they are portrayed to others, however we are never really taught to monitor our heart- he suggested. We're not given the tools we need to stop and think about what is going on in our "heart". The figurative one that we all have, that emotion stems from.

And more-so than that, I think even if we do know what is going on in our hearts, we often ignore it.


It was after hearing that sermon, and simultaneously signing onto Facebook and seeing an incredibly interesting article that led me to really think about this verse.


The article stated that women are lead to believe, in our society, that we are crazy. That our emotions are crazy. Our feelings our crazy. What we do, say, think and feel... They're all crazy. They're unfounded. They're a dramatic reaction to a stimulus that needed no such reaction. And because we are taught to think that way about ourselves, in turn we learn to ignore what is really going on in our heart.


How sad. After digesting the information I had to sit back and take a deep breath. I had to mull over my thoughts, and really ask myself "What is going on in my heart? How is my heart?"


...And how is your heart doing today?... What is at the core of who you are? What makes you act and react, what drives your decisions or lack-there-of?... It's your heart. You deserve to keep it in the form it was given to you in- beautiful.