One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 4:23; I love it so much that I have it printed on a white T-shirt. It says, “Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.” This verse, I like it because it reminds me to protect my heart, and not only in terms of falling in love, but spiritually. I am reminded to protect my heart from bad thoughts and sin because it is like my source of freshwater. If I pollute the source, I pollute the entire body. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the heart pure. Still, sometimes it’s just hard to guard/protect your heart. “How do you even go about guarding your heart?” some people may even ask. “What are the things that I may do that can leave my heart exposed?” other people may ask because sometimes you just don’t realize that you’re hurting your heart, but you are. In this article, I will give you four ways to guard your heart.
[Disclaimer: This article is in no way or form intended to make girls who share different beliefs question themselves or feel bad about themselves. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. All opinions are my own and you have the right to not agree with me. While this article is specifically written for Christian girls, I think all girls could learn something from this.]
- Pray Constantly
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Like in anything we do, we need God and His help and guidance. We need Him to be constantly working for us because the truth is that we’re not perfect. We’re humans and we’re bound to mess up, but God isn’t human. He is perfect, and He doesn’t make mistakes. To truly guard your heart, the most important thing is to do is to pray. Ask God for a good spirit and a clean heart. Ask Him to stay close to you and to watch over you, and to keep the things that will lead you astray away. However, if He chooses to give you a battle, ask Him to give you strength so that your heart won’t lose hope and joy.
Praying for your heart is important, but praying generally is. “When you don’t pray, you limit the work that God wants to do in your life.” I don’t remember where I read or heard that, and I’m pretty sure I reworded it somewhat, but the point is that daily prayer is important.
- Discover your Purpose
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Crucial questions that I think everyone needs to ask themselves at some point in their lives are:
– Who Am I?
– What Do I Stand For?
– Who Do I Want To Be?
– Who Does God Want Me To Be?
– What are my goals?
Discovering your purpose in life is important. It helps you to stay grounded. It helps you to identify the things in your life that matter, the things that you want to avoid, the qualities you want to develop, the habits that you want to keep and just the overall beautiful person that you aspire to be. If you already know your purpose, that’s great! If you don’t, take some time to reflect on it because understanding your purpose will help you to guard your heart. It will help you to be unwavering when something or someone tries to corrupt your source of life because you know who you are. You know who you want to be and who God wants you to be. You see the broader picture. And if your source does get corrupted, understanding your purpose gives you that drive to regain your focus.
- Take Care of your Diet
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When I say diet, I don’t only mean the foods that you eat, but yes – maintaining a healthy diet is important. Rather, what I’m referring to are the things that you ingest daily. These include the things that you hear, the things that you see, the things that you smell, etc. Not everything that you hear, see, etc. contributes to the development of you as a person. In fact, because it doesn’t contribute to our well-being, we open ourselves up to attacks on the heart. We open ourselves up to negative, impure thoughts. We allow ourselves to be sidetracked, and we create an environment that purity and positivity can’t dwell in. To protect your heart, you must take care of your diet.
- Beware of Bad Company
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This actually ties in with taking care of your diet because by being in bad company, you ingest negative energy and corrupt your heart. However, this one is something that I think needs to be discussed on its own. So, let me say this… if someone is corrupting your source, you don’t need them in your heart. Whether this be a friend, a significant other, a relative, you don’t need negative energy to corrupt your source. By allowing people into your life that don’t need to be in your life or people that God hasn’t put in your life, you leave your heart exposed to be hurt in more ways than one.
In conclusion, guarding your heart isn’t always an easy thing to do and it isn’t something that you master overnight. It is a daily process with God. However, by learning how to guard your heart, you protect the beauty of who you are as a person. You protect yourself from corruption, and you protect yourself from mistakes and heartache.