It all starts with the heart

Today I want to write my first on-line devotional. When I consented to do this, I thought, "Sure", that's no problem! Later, as I began to think about what to say, I realized the gravity of "putting yourself" out there. When we tell someone anything about our life, our heart, and especially our Lord, we need to be very careful that we do it honestly, completely, and with one goal in mind. What is that goal? To give God the glory, for anything, and everything in hopes that someone, anyone, will want to experience the same grace and mercy that has inspired us to share. I trust that this will be such a blog.

I have been so privileged in my life, through my marriage and with my children that I thought about the most important things I know and what I could share in this devotional blog and so "love" became the natural theme. Thinking about that led me to thinking about the innermost part of my being, starting with the heart.

After 38 years of marriage to Gary, I am often asked about how we have done it, and done it so well, for so long. There is really only one answer, and that is the Lord. I have always loved Gary, from the time I met him almost 40 years ago, until this very day. Always. He was always so good to me, so kind and sweet and with a way of making me feel like the most treasured wife in the whole world. Besides that, he was, and still is, quite a looker!! We met in 1969 and I had never before nor since, met someone with such a caring heart and humble spirit. He is the exact match for someone like me, because he is calming, and sure, and steady as a rock. I am excitable (putting it mildly), ready to try anything and everything, and have been known to be all over the board! See? Perfect match!! He is probably the only person, besides our Lord, who knows the fear, the uncertainty, the hurts and the heartaches in my life, and he guards the trust that I give him with everything he is. I love him deeply.

Even though I fell so madly in love with Gary from the start, it wasn't until he was saved and became a Christian, letting God direct our life and become the authority in our home, that I found out it was possible to love him even more. Why? Because until the Lord completed his heart, even with all the love he gave me, he couldn't give me everything because he was not complete. And neither was I. Until I accepted the Lord as Savior, turning my will over to him and starting to practice the whole "get over yourself" philosophy, I couldn't be all I wanted or needed to be to Gary, to my children and to our Lord. Marriage. It really does take three. It starts with our hearts, goes forward with our hearts, and ends with our hearts. We have to seek to know ourselves and the One who can fill the void in our lives before we can become who and what we were made to be. Start at the beginning, examine your heart.

As believers in Christ Jesus, our life is not to be one of guilt, shame, emptiness and a constant search to fill the void in our lives. Until we turn over ourselves, we cannot give Him our homes, our marriages, our children. In Deuteronomy 4:29, was are told to seek out the Lord with "all of our heart". That is because when we come to Him, bare, open, needing help and truly wanting to make a change and turn it over, He will be there and we get started on an unbelievably blessed journey.

In the days ahead, I will be dealing much with our hearts and how we should be so careful to make sure that it is right with God and kept from the enemy who seeks to destroy who you were meant to be and the wonderful life a loving God wants to give you. Will you have to give up something? Change? Get over yourself? Probably. But since the Bible mentions the heart 743 times, it is worth looking into and even more worth in finding and living and abiding in the truth.