God Your Heart

Today is Valentine’s Day. Yesterday I had to stop at the store and I saw a guy coming out as I went in with a big box of chocolates under his arm. Then I saw another perusing the red nighties and flowers looking for something his loved one might like. Big pink and red hearts are everywhere and usually filled with chocolate. That’s my kind of heart.

Well, not really. My blog and website are called Helping Hearts. If you look under the title on my website, there’s a passage from the bible. Proverb 4:23. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

It’s packed in a wisdom-giving part of the bible just before admonitions to

Keep your mouth free of perversity;  

    keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
²⁵ Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
²⁶ Give careful thought to the^[c] paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.
²⁷ Do not turn to the right or the left;
    keep your foot from evil.

That’s some good advice, but it was led by the charge to guard your heart and was emphasized with the moniker “Above all else.” I like to think of it as “Godding your heart.” 

You see God loved us before we knew Him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. 1 John 4:7

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Boy that guy John sure knew about love, didn’t he? Love puts others first and yourself second. It’s something God believes in.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-8

That’s what helping others is about, an overflow of the heart. This is random acts of kindness week and I was reading about some acts of kindness earlier in the week. One simple one touched me and I cried a little. It doesn’t take too much to get me to cry.

It wasn’t grand or expensive. It was about a little girl who gave to someone who didn’t have anything. She was selling chocolate bars and approached someone who said they didn’t have the dollar to spend on it, but she thanked her anyway for asking. Before she knew it, she had a candy bar in her hand from the little girl. It didn’t take a thought or a prayer or anything. It was a natural overflow of her heart.

So, God your heart today and share some love with not just your friends, family, and loved ones, but with someone who may not have anything, even a dollar for a candy bar.