Happy Valentine’s Day! This photo is definitely a throwback from the past! 😂♥️ I know people want to dedicate this day to love and chocolate and more chocolate (and that’s not a bad idea! 🍫😋), but I wanted to dedicate today to hearts! Sweethearts, soft hearts, big hearts, hearts of gold, hearts of lions, and for my grandkids, cute little candy hearts!
I started looking up hearts in the scriptures and I came across this passage and was immediately intrigued by it.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
In today’s world guarding your heart means you are protecting it, but this scripture isn’t about protection... I found that “heart” in the scriptures can be used to refer to “the inner person.” In this scripture, “heart” is about our private thoughts, feelings, motives, and who we really are on the inside, not just who we appear to be on the outside. My parents spent every day of their lives teaching us about integrity and the importance of having good thoughts and honest intentions. The bottom line is our parents wanted us to be good people and to have good hearts...
“And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments.” (1 Kings 9:4)
Integrity of heart says it all. I can still see my mother standing in the kitchen saying over and over, “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.” (However I felt my mother was always watching!) 😉😂
“Walt Bettinger is the CEO of a large international company and has interviewed hundreds of job applicants over the years. When he was asked how he decides who to hire, he explained that he’s most interested in the character of a potential employee… He said that he sometimes schedules interviews at a restaurant for breakfast. He goes early to the restaurant and asks the manager to make a mistake on the job applicant’s order, promising that he will leave a good tip for making the ‘mistake.’ Bettinger wants to see how applicants respond to other people’s mistakes. That’s an important piece of information, because mistakes will happen in the workplace, just as they will happen over breakfast. Bettinger explains: ‘It’s just another way to get a look inside their heart rather than their head. We’re all going to make mistakes. The question is how are we going to recover when we make them, and are we going to be respectful to others when they make them?’ How we respond to mistakes offers a look inside our heart.”
So many things offer a look inside our hearts, how we respond to mistakes is just one of them. How do we respond to Anger? Betrayal? Unkindness? Turmoil? We have the perfect example of the kindest heart... the Savior. No one was treated worse than He was, yet He always responded in love.
My prayer every day and especially on this Valentine’s Day is to give my heart fully to my Father in Heaven and try to be the kind of person who He wants me to be, because I know that is when I will be my happiest. We will all be our happiest when our hearts are turned to the Lord our God.
I love you all! ♥️ #SundayMessage