What Does My Heart Say? by Alan Anderson

 

“Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)

 
“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” John 16:22 (ESV)

Our Writing Prompt

Our writing prompt for this month reminds me, “The Bible speaks of the heart as the core of one’s being, composed of our mind, emotion, and will. How do you keep or guard your heart? What is it saying to you these days?”

I pondered this question for a few days before I put words on the page. Once I began to write, I found my thoughts kept going in a certain way. The words that came to life in my mind are thoughts perhaps readers will also ponder.

You might have noticed the world is loud these days. Everyone has an opinion. More than this, those who have an opinion seem to have the need for everyone else to hear their opinion. So much noise, so much talking over each other…and they all think they speak the truth.

What Does My Heart Say?

Did I pray well?

In giving thought to this post for February, a few sobering questions came to mind. I would like to share these questions with you.

Dear friends, has your soul ever wept for the world around you? Has the weight of sorrow crushed your heart? There might be times where one’s sorrowful heart has cried out to heaven. Our cry is so deep that it seems God has turned His beautiful face away. Oh my, how we must guard our hearts from such despair.

As I observe the various upheavals going on today, I wonder if anyone knows the way forward. We need prayer. This writer and all who read this message all need prayer to guard our hearts.

We must pray for each other.

We must pray for the world.

In all the noise, confusion, and unguarded heart moments so pervasive today, my tendency is to retreat, to be quiet, to not state my opinion. Believe me, I have my faults, but I also must guard my heart as God’s Word dictates.

As a writer who is also a Christian living in this time of everyone does right in his or her own eyes, I must pause. Pause and listen to what my heart asks of me…did I pray well for the words I send into the world? This is a question I would like to hear the Lord answer some day. Did the tears and hope of my humble words make a difference to anyone amid the noise?

What Does My Heart Say?

My heart says to send words into the world as agents of peace. This simple statement begs a question from me as one called to write.

Did I serve well?

Dear friends, as writers who are Christians, we can offer peace to the world. A peace that passes all understanding, even our own. We must take this in a serious manner. This is how we can serve our call from the Lord to write well. We offer words of peace, love, and harmony, to soften the hearts of people amid calamitous thundering voices.

A Concluding Word

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” Psalm 139:23 (ESV)

This is what my heart says: Did I pray well? Did I serve well?

 

Alan lives in a small village called Deroche, British Columbia, with his wife, Terry, and their poodle, Charlie. He enjoys walking on the dike near his home with trees all around and where he finds inspiration to write. He occasionally writes articles for FellowScript Magazine and is a regular contributor to the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship blog. Alan is the new BC/Northern Regional Rep for InScribe. His website is https://scarredjoy.ca

What Does Your Heart Say? by Lorilee Guenter

Across from me in the coffee shop sat a lady. Her sweater read, "I wear my heart on my sleeve." On the sleeve a list of names represents people important to her. Without talking to her, I don't know who they are. I only know that these are people who mean a lot to her. She loves them.

I wonder what others see when they look at me. I don't proclaim my affection on my clothes. Do my actions as I sit across from family or friends show they are important to me? My words are a clanging gong if they are not backed up by action. I do not want to be a clanging gong. I want to be a voice in the symphony God is directing.

As summer gave way to fall, I noticed distraction pulling my attention. Instead of leaning in to engage in conversation, I was looking beyond. I was leaning back and letting my thoughts wander. I missed out on true connection. Communication became strained as I forgot how to listen not just with my ears but with my heart. I became a clanging gong.

Noticing my responsibility in the disconnect, I lean back in. I confess that I do not like what was going on. I don't want my distraction to turn my words into discordant noise so I allow God to tune me, to bring me back to where He desires me. I pause to listen. I vowed, with God's help, to set aside distraction. I can not do this on my own. Thankfully I don't have to. The Master Conductor knows what I need so I can sing.

Jesus wore His heart on the cross. As thorns pierced His brow and blood and water ran from His side, He wrote my name. He wrote our names. They aren't written with pencil to be erased. They aren't written with thread that can be picked out. Jesus wrote our names with His life. In doing so, He offered to guard our hearts. He knows that even if we try, we are incapable of consistent vigilance without His help. He knows we need His hand in all we do.

The seasons change, my resolve to connect well is tested. I know the only way it will hold is by leaning in. Today, I choose to trust, to let Jesus hold me close and make my heart sing as part of His masterpiece. Tomorrow, I pray I make the same choice.

Lorilee Guenter is a writer and artist from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She enjoys exploring God's creation. Her hobbies and interests are varied which leads to an eclectic set of books she is reading.

On Love and Bullying - Gloria Guest

I was in kindergarten when I learned what Valentine’s Day and bullying were, on the same day.

The room was abuzz with excitement, as we each gave and received valentines to and from every classmate. I felt so happy each time one of the shiny, bright valentines was given to me. We each had a special bag to store them in and I couldn’t wait to take mine home to show my mom and sisters.

But then Janet, a girl beside me, started one by one, taking my valentines and adding them to hers. I was too intimidated to say no. By the time she was finished my heart was feeling as depleted as the little pile she had left me with. Valentines, I decided, was not so much fun after all, and I had just been introduced to my first bully.

Thinking back, I can’t help but wonder at how my child’s mind tried to comprehend two such juxtaposed experiences; that of friendship and love being combined with bullying and selfishness. It can be hard enough for adults to put them together, even as life experience has taught us they do sometimes come at once. If we are truthful we will admit that it is often the ones we love the most that we also hurt the most. How to understand this?

In James 3:10, James writes, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” How many times have I done this; especially to those closest to me?

This can be applied to our writing also. How often have we written that defensive or angry text and then hit send? Or written an article with a harsh edge we try to ignore? We can think we are hiding a hardened heart but it’s revealed in our tone.

“If I speak (or write) in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” I Cor 13:1. This makes me consider further, how ‘clanging’ I might be sounding to my readers. Or worse, to God.

Just as it was too much for me as a five year old to consider the presence of love and friendship hand in hand with the presence of bullying and selfishness, so it’s hard to wrap my head around the presence of goodness and caring in my words, existing alongside my unresolved issues and self-serving motives possibly lurking behind them.

Christ is our only hope. Paul exclaimed, after detailing how he often wants to do what is good but then does not do it; “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom 7:24-25.

Both of those little girls in that kindergarten room that day, needed the help of Jesus; one to understand that she didn’t need to grasp for more love because God already loved her fully and the other to know that when someone hurts her, God's perfect love still exists and He wants to wrap his arms around her to comfort her.

Happy belated Valentine's to all of my Inscribe writer friends. May you too learn to not grasp for more love from those around you and to be comforted by God's love instead, as you endeavor to write from a heart filled with love.

Gloria Guest endeavors to write with a heart of love from the Saskatchewan prairies; which have included many newspaper articles and columns as a past reporter. She is published in two anthologies and is currently working on writing a devotional with the desire to provide hope to those who have gone through life's trials.

Take Out the Trash by Carol Harrison

 

 

Taking out the trash is a never-ending type of job. If I leave it for too many days, it starts to permeate the air with a less than pleasant aroma. I can’t take it out once and say, “There that’s all done for good.”

But what about the trash in my life and in my heart? I often struggle with negative thoughts pushing their way in and cloaking my heart with a dark covering. It blocks creativity and colours the world around me with pessimism. Yet in Proverbs 4:23(ESV) I read, “Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flows the springs of life.”

I decided to look more closely at the words like keep and vigilance in this verse. Some translations use the word guard your heart and keep alert. I added those in to the study as well. This allows me more clarity about the meaning and how to accomplish God’s directive.

Merriam Webster defines guard as, “Protect from danger especially by watchful attention. In Biblereference.com it talks about keep, used in place of guard, not in terms of maintaining ownership but referring to maintenance, care, and support.

Vigilance is keeping watch for possible dangers or difficulties and being alertly watchful. So how can I be alert, watchful, and guard my heart and why should I?

In Luke 6:45 Jesus is teaching and says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” I believe this is also true of the words we write. They also come from those well springs of life in the heart, that center of my thoughts, emotions, and will. Temptation is real, pulling us away from what is best for our hearts. God knows all about my willful self and waits for me to come to Him for help in guarding against the negativity and lies of the enemy.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Renewing my mind can only be truly accomplished with God’s wonderful and gracious help. For me it reminds me I need to take out the trash in my life and heart too. What am I watching, listening to, reading?

If I spend too much time on news stories it keeps me up to date with current affairs but it also plunges me into the darkness of depression. Too often it makes me forget that God is still in control and nothing is a surprise to Him. When the negativity takes over, the ideas for writing disappear and I want to escape into more mindless activities.

In Bible Study.com it states, “A God controlled thought life will

           - Govern your speech (Prov. 4: 24)

           - Guard your sight (vs 25)

           - Guide your steps (vs 27)

2 Corinthians 10: 5, “take every thought captive to obey Christ.” God can and does change our thoughts to good and positive when we allow Him to help us. So I need to seek God daily and take out the trash with His help by checking what I am watching, reading, and listening to. This allows me to hear God’s directions about words to say and write. In this way I can be alert and guard my heart.

 

Carol Harrison lives in Saskatoon, SK. She enjoys reading, sharing stories, and family time but realizes how easy it is to let herself be involved in many mindless activities which she needs to guard against.