Our skin isn't the only thing we need to protect this summer. We also have to take time to protect ourselves. Especially protect our hearts just like it reads in Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
Our heart is an important muscle that has to work in order for our bodies to function. But it is also where we associate the feelings of love and pain. We can feel our heart beating in our chest at different speeds that let our brains know what we are feeling. Excitement, scared, nervous, content - all come in different types of patterns and speeds. And it is associated with how we feel in that situation. So God wants us to protect it. But how?
When God says to guard and protect your heart, He isn't saying to stay at home and never feel anything. He wants you to love. He wants you to put yourself out there. He wants you to have experiences and learn from them, even if He knows they are going to end in heartbreak. He still wants this for you. Why? Because He knows that each time you love with your heart you are growing in the path He has for you.
Guarding your heart simply means to remember who actually has it. Jesus holds your heart in the palm of His hand, so closely to His own. Allowing you to recover even when the pain seems so strong it could never go away. But He can't begin to repair it if you don't trust in what He will do to restore it.
I have had my heart broken. I have seen it restored. I have learned to trust again in situations I never thought possible. But I also know enough about life, and have watched too many people close to me experience it, to know that there will be greater heart break up ahead as I continue on this path Jesus has placed me on. So in order to prepare, I have to start trusting Him now.
When times turn bad, I know His love for me will be an easy thing to forget. But I pray that my broken heart will be held together by enough strings to remember how strong He actually is in every situation. I pray that for you too. No matter what season you are in. I pray you are able to guard your heart from the voices and situations that want to rip it apart. I pray that you remember your heart carries the greatest shield ever and that is the love of Jesus.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose sports are crushed. = Psalm 34:18