Guard your heart

"My child, pay attention to what I say.  Listen carefully to my words.  Don't lose sight of them.  Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their body.  Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." Proverbs 4:20-23

This verse kept coming to my mind this morning.  After Pastor Bucks sermon on Sunday, I've been really thinking about how I need to filter out so many things in my life.  I suppose this 7 challenge is a great way to start.

When I was young, I always heard to "guard your heart" when it came to dating.  I have to say I hate that phrase.  What teenager actually understand caution and fear?  Those things truly come with experience.  Your heart extends far more than to just dating anyway.  Matter of fact, I believe that dating would be one of the last areas your heart will reach.  What about how you react to conflict, what you expose yourself to on T.V., what comes out of your mouth,  how you care for the people around you, how you care for the people out of your circle?  All of these and about a billion more affect the heart.

When our heart has been unguarded we tend to over-compensate.  When we have allowed this world to determine what we want, have, desire, consume, and believe we have failed to guard the very connection between God.  There is nothing in this world that will make you happy or content for longer than the mere second you change the channel on your t.v.  I won't even start into politics.

All this to say, we've been taught that we can choose when and when not to guard our hearts.  We have been given the options to take all, some, most of, or a little of God.  Unfortunately, this is a very inaccurate statement.  You either belong to God or you don't.

The same goes for me on this "food" journey this month.  I started out with a simple plan.  Give food away.  But the longer I've gotten into it, I realize that if I really want to give this area of excess to God completely, it extends beyond just giving food away.  I am to guard my heart in this area and help others too.  Something I can't get past is how Pinterest and Facebook have somehow created a way to take food ideas for us soccer moms and prostitute them on the internet.  We display food, set it up, make sure the lighting is perfect, so that EVERYONE can see the glorious masterpiece we created.  Let's not mention the five extra ingredients we will never again use, that cost an arm and a leg to get.

This display of food prostitution would be horrifying to those in impoverished countries that may eat a meal of rice once a day.  And here we are, letting our guard down, feeding the fat and forgetting the forgotten.  Harsh, maybe.  But this wholly includes me, just so you know.

So AGAIN, I've been convicted.  I'm not sure where this conviction will lead, the very least I will not display food as a trophy on my Facebook page anymore, and perhaps not use ingredients I can't normally buy, but beyond on that, it may take more of God than me to change.