HEART STRONG

How this squeezable heart ended up in our grandsons' toy stash, I'll never know. It's intended to help you squeeze away your anxieties, build up hand strength, or remind you how hard your real heart pumps to keep you alive! But I had additional thoughts--of the “heart” metaphor for the deep parts of our emotional and spiritual lives.

“The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart,” Jesus said about people whose “walk” didn't match their “talk.” Then He got very specific: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:18). Reading that list, I thought: Those are the plot lines for television shows and big-screen movies. But sadly, “art” imitates life. I can recall the physical sense of heaviness in my heart when I suffered from others' verbal sins.

Those Jesus entrusted with leading the early church saw the same problems. Paul bluntly warned the Ephesians to be truthful, keep short accounts, and watch their words: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths....Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Eph. 4:29, 31).

He similarly scolded the Colossians: “Rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Col. 3:8). James shared the same advice after comparing the tongue to a fire capable of much damage (James 3:5-6). He was disturbed that people who called themselves Christ-followers could use their mouths to both curse and praise. “My brothers and sisters,” he said, “this should not be!” (3:10).

How much better when the name and character of Jesus are lifted up in our ordinary lives. I like how James characterized what that looks like: “peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). Such are the character qualities that are squeezed out of a changed heart—one transformed by love for Jesus Christ.

Maybe that's the message needed for Valentine's Day--not sappy “luv,” but genuine, sacrificial love. The one made possible by the One who died on a cross. The One who showed us how to live with kindness and care—wholeheartedly.

P.S. In thinking about this topic, I looked up sayings about kindness. I'd heard this one before: “Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.” I never knew it came from former President Ronald Reagan. For more encouraging quotes about exercising that “kindness” muscle in your heart, try this website:

https://www.pinterest.com/stevenspianostu/speak-kindly/

And some more encouraging words...

I have a story in the newest "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book to be released this week, about "Making 'Me' Time." It's my seventh time in a Chicken Soup title, and I was especially grateful to be able to tell my story about donating home-sewn baby blankets to area hospitals and a pro-life clinic. I never dreamed that a simple project of a dozen blankets for my church's "community outreach day" would become more than 1,300, and also serve as emotional healing for me over the past decade. The story's title is "Patched-together Positives."

Reflections on reflections

Fiction writers sometimes revert to the “mirror trick” in describing a charter’s physical characteristics. They will have that person look into a glass or water mirror, their inner thoughts adding the details that help us “see” him or her.  Like this (go ahead and snicker at my  feeble fiction skills):
As Harold buzzed the stubble off his chin, he leaned into the bathroom mirror wondered why he hadn’t noticed the puffy bags under his eyes before.  He ran a brush through his thinning hair and groaned over how many were gray.  And those hairs hanging out his ears made him think of a dried-out tassel on a withered ear of corn.

The Bible had some thoughts about reflections, too.  Proverbs 27:10 says,

As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.

That verse came to mind recently when my husband and I traveled up the picturesque Methow Valley in central Washington state.  We passed by beautiful Patterson Lake, whose placid early-morning waters mirrored the shoreline trees.  Parts of the lake were a perfect reflection; others had already been stirred, probably by fishermen, blurring and shortening the reflection.

I thought of how when we reflect and love and peace of Jesus, it’s evident in our faces.  We’re approachable.  I have several friends like that—and how I enjoy being with them! But I have other friends who are plagued by anxiety or disappointment. The “peace of Christ that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) seems to have been drained from them. It’s hard to describe, but you just know.

It may seem strange to think that God is in the face-lift business and we lift our faces to Him—but He is. The apostle Paul picked up on that heart-to-face connection when he said those in relationship with Christ “with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory [and] are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

At times my “reflection” properties are in need of improvement, like those stirred lake waters that were no longer mirrors.  Thankfully, God is on the other side of the mirror.  He sees the exterior (like the morning chin stubble on our fiction model “Harold”) but He also sees deep within us to who we can become in Him.

Now, that’s worth reflecting on!