“Would you let me, see beneath your beautiful, would you let me, see beneath your perfect, take it off now girl, take it off now girl, I wanna see inside, would you let me, see beneath your beautiful tonight.” I love this beautiful song by the UK artist Labrinth, titled Beneath Your Beautiful. In the song he is crying out to a girl who obviously has her walls up, to break them down and let him in so to speak. Our heart is a very delicate and precious part of us that even the bible instructs us to guard it because out of it flows all the issues of life. Today in wisdom weekly, I am going to share why we should guard our hearts and how we can protect this precious gift from God so we can keep ourselves from harm's way. So let's talk!
What does the phrase guard your heart mean? To guard your heart simply means that you don’t allow just anything or anyone come into that sacred space. Your heart is very delicate and can be easily misled, so you have to be on guard at all times, analyzing every situation or person who wants to come into your life. For instance when you meet someone new and the person comes with the intent of pursuing a relationship with you, be it romantic or business-wise, it is very easy for you to think that because this person is saying all the right words, then this has to be the one or the right fit for me. As the communication deepens, you find out that you open up your heart very quickly to the said person and begin to lay certain expectations on them.
If that person falters, your heart is crushed all the way. Then you may start with the analysis, did I do something wrong? Did I say something wrong? Or maybe I should have said this or done that. You start taking all the blame for why a situation didn’t work out because you put your heart into it too quickly. Whereas if you had protected yourself from the get-go and took ample time to really learn about someone or a business idea before opening up to them or before even considering that they could be a part of your life, you wouldn’t be hurt if the situation ends up not working out because your heart was guarded from the beginning and you discovered that they may not be the right fit for you.
For example, I haven't come across a company who went through an interview process with a candidate and ended up denying them the job, and got heartbroken in the process (please if you have, notify me haha). This is because they keep all emotions aside and they know what they are looking for. So if they fail to find that in you, they move forward to interview the next person. We should treat certain aspects of our lives with that same mindset, especially when it comes to choosing a life or business partner, you have to be wise because this person is going to become an intricate part of your life. We also have to guard our hearts from negative thoughts as well, because those little suckas can infiltrate our hearts, taking roots there and causing us to act irrationally.
“Guard your heart above all else, for out of it flows all the issues of life” Proverbs 4:23
Most of the disappointments we experience in life are due to unmet expectations, and when we expect something from people our hearts are often times involved. Someone close to me recently got his heart broken by a deal that fell through. He was so distraught and hurt by the situation because he put all his heart into it and thought that it was going to work out, but it didn't. That situation reminded me of this saying "don't count your chickens before they hatch" which simply means don’t make plans that depend on something good happening before you know it has actually happened. The only Person, who you can trust and take a leap of faith with, is God. Guarding your heart and putting God first, should go hand in hand.
While guarding your heart, you can ask God for wisdom as to how to handle a certain situation or circumstance and because God is all knowing, He will give you the best solution that fits your situation. It may be a business deal where He may tell you to hold on, for certain things to take place before you move ahead with the other party, or a relationship situation, where He may say yes! it is safe to go ahead with someone or forget it because he/she is no good and will just bring a lot of pain to your life. When tackling this journey called life, you need the wisdom of God to be able to navigate through it freely.
If you talk to a bunch of people about heartbreaks or aches they have faced (now you see why we should guard our hearts), they will plainly tell you it was because they didn't protect themselves. They trusted the said person completely and they broke their trust, or you can hear that the perpetrator became somebody else and trampled their heart.
How we can Guard Our Hearts
I think another underutilized tool we fail to consider often times is drum roll, please…..Time! We are always in a rush to get that big break, to get married, to have kids, to start a business, to move to another country for greener pastures and so on. If we only utilize time, we will figure out that a lot of situation that we want to get into, isn’t for us. It may not be the situation itself, but the ingredients presented to us at that particular time, which may not be what we need for our said meal. The advice here is to first guard your heart, then seek God, and give it time. You will never go wrong with these three things in place.
Let’s think about it this way; a company who is looking for skilled workers wouldn’t just go out there and hire anyone they find on the street just because they need workers. They take their time and resources to put together a job description and the kind of person they are looking for. When people apply for this said job, the company goes through a process of elimination to weed out unqualified candidates, leaving a few that they are interested in interviewing. After they interview those few, then they make a decision as to who they want to be in business with. If they still aren’t satisfied with everyone they interviewed, they go through the whole process again. They don’t mind spending their time and resources because they know how valuable time is, if utilized properly and have an integrity, together with a reputation to protect as a company or for the purposes of this post, they have their heart to protect. So they don’t let any Tom, Dick or Harry (Sorry guys this is the second time I have dragged you into a post this week, haha) to just come and be a part of their corporation or family. Now if a company can value the essence of their worth and can put in the time and energy just to find the right fit for them, how much more we? This tells us that we shouldn’t be so quick to give our hearts to people, because it is precious.
Before you rush ahead of yourself next time, ask yourself these three questions; is my heart protected? Am I seeking God in this circumstance? And am I giving this situation the time it needs, so I can see it for what it really is? When you ask yourselves these questions, then you can make a wise decision and not get hurt in the process.
This wraps it up for my weekly insight today; hope you are having an amazing Saturday morning so far. Feel free to leave your thought below and always remember to like, share and subscribe to never miss an update. I love y’all for reading!