Guarding your heart

"The culumlative effect of days upon years that we do not really understand is subtle erosion. We come to doubt our place, we come to question God's intentions toward us, and we lose track of the most important things in life. We're not fully convinced that God's offer to us is life. WE have forgotten that the heart is central." ~ John Eldredge in Wild at Heart

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

I stood on the playground underneath our jungle gym/slide combo staring out at the other children. It wasn't that I didn't want to join them. I did with all my heart, but time and time again my height had made me a freak. I was called "weirdo, big foot" and all sorts of other names that a child should never hear. My heart broke a little that day, and the lie in all of it was that I was never good enough.

Fast forward to middle school and I'm sitting alone in a choir room. The lie that has invaded my heart has been confirmed over and over again in my enviroment and experiences because I so believed it. A cute boy comes up to me, puts his arms around my shoulders, and the other pre-teens across the room start to laugh. A cruel joke, an amusement. My heart lurches within me. I really am not good enough.

This world is a harsh one, one that is at war, one that is in continual labor pains until the end times. And our hearts, our hearts are usually the casualties of this world at war. Every experience we have has the potential to wound our hearts, and that is why the bible speaks so about guarding it. It is a "wellspring of life." Yes. It is our core. It is where we either believe the lies of this world or the truth. It is where we decided who we are, or where we let the world decide for us. The heart; it's that important.

That's what being free is all about; guarding our hearts. We guard it by girding it up with what is true. It's about rejecting the lies, vows and judgements, generational cycles, and hurts that have so wounded our hearts. It's about replacing the lies (you're not good enough, not worth it, not beautiful) with the truth that God so wants us to understand.

This is the truth. No matter what your experiences, you are a child of God. He created you perfectly, He knit you in your mothers womb.He loves you infinitely and wishes that you could come to love yourself.He knows your hurts and wounds, He was there and He's crying with you.

Those that hurt you were hurting themselves, and God loves them too. He's hoping that with all the you have been forgiven, that you can learn to forgive the people that hurt you as well. But above all Ladies, He's wishing that you could see and know how utterly beautiful you are to Him.

Someone once told me that if you do not tell the world who you are, the world will in fact decide for you.

Search your heart and choose today to believe the truth. That you are beautiful. That you are worth it. That you're worth fighting for, and that the Lord of this Universe created your perfectly. Guard your heart with the truth, for your heart is crucial.

**For those that are wondering, my height evened out and I settled at a short 5'4. Though a head taller than most, I reached my peak early. Be careful what you pray for! **