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Guard your heart, bro.
Once upon a time, we
took a short line from the Bible and we turned it into a life song for girls.
We slapped it on silver promise rings and we stamped it on rubber bracelets.
We emblazoned it on fitted v-neck T’s, engraved it in hinged lockets, and
chickified it in every way imaginable. Then we developed flowery, heart
themed girls-retreats around it to ensure that our daughters would embrace
it.
“Above all else, guard your heart…”
Proverbs 4:23
We admonish our
girls to guard their hearts, and we warn them about “giving away pieces
of their heart” in the form of every kind of love to the unworthy slobs
they hang out with after school. Then we wind their “heart” up with
their virginity so tight it becomes a two-fer-one deal – in the process of
guarding their hearts, we end up guarding organs south of border. It’s a
pretty brilliant plan, when you think about it.
Oh, and we train our boys, too, but not to guard their heart. To our boys we
say,”For the love of God, avert your eyes and keep your johnson in your
pants.”
I’m, like, kind of an authority on guys because I have a husband who is a
guy, and I have lot of friends who are guys, and, also, I have a bunch of
kids who are all guys. So yeah, listen to me when I say that it turns out guys really
don’t talk about their hearts that much. In fact, most of the guys I know
don’t talk about their heart at all. And I’m guessing 90% have never, ever
been told to guard their heart. Probably because everybody knows that’s
totally a chick thing to do.
As the mother of 2.8 teenage sons, I win the awkward award for trying to
engage dudes in these conversations. When I start talking about heart stuff, the eye rolling gets so intense it
blows my hair back. This makes me nervous, so I do that thing where you try
way too hard to be hip and relatable and end up saying stupid crap, like,
“The Bible says you need to guard your heart…dawg.” And then my kids shake their
heads, “No, Mom… Just, no.” So then I say something even more
idiotic, like, “I’m just bein’ straight wichyou. My boy, Solomon, was,
like, the wisest brother to ever walk the planet and it’s his advice, not
mine, Bro.” And then, naturally, one of them will point out that they
are, in fact, not my “bro”.
It’s all very embarrassing. And worthwhile.
I
don’t think that our men are reminded often enough that they need to guard
their hearts.
We teach them to guard their eyes, but I want my sons to know and understand
that what porn does to their eyes isn’t what will break them, it’s what it
does to their heart that will eventually leave them empty and hurting.
And we teach our men to guard their junk, to keep it in their pants, but I
want my sons to know and understand that what promiscuity does to their loins
isn’t what will break them (although herpes is no cakewalk), it’s what it
does to their heart that will leave them lonely and aching for more.
I want my kids to get it when I tell them that the greatest thing they can
bring into marriage will be their own well-guarded heart. A heart that, for
all of its years and to the best of its ability, has borne the wisdom of Solomon; “For they are
life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”
When I look around the church, when I talk
amongst my friends, when I peek into the world – I see men who are broken and
hurting, men tied to their addictions, men out of control, men drowning in
lust, so many men longing for peace and grace and mercy, and in desperate
need of restoration for their tattered and broken hearts. Hearts that have
gone unguarded for far too long. And I want to break this verse like an
alabaster jar over their brows. I want to pour out the perfume of Redemption
on their lives. I want to release the words of Solomon to his sons, that they may be free to take up their
spears and stand guard over their own hearts, because their hearts are worthy
of the effort…. above all else….
“Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.”
…above all
else….. above all else…. above all else….. guard your heart, Bro.
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