how the light gets in

Here’s an activity from the first graders homework this week:

We were hunting through the house to make a list of anything we could find with the /or/ sound. It didn’t take very long to make the list.

What catches me by surprise though is how the lesson stuck.

At the end of the day, Bean just kept following the lesson, adding more and more words to the list.

Let’s follow this another direction, shall we? We’re taking a sharp turn from 1st grade phonics to your heart.

What are you following these days? Now that we’re all under “stay at home” orders with virtual learning throwing us into a literal tailspin. What and who are you following?

I ask because this pandemic – whether it’s the stillness and quiet, the uncertainty, the anxiety, the loss and loneliness – it’s going to push you to self-soothe. So what are you looking for to ease the pain, to pass the time?

I ask because of these words…

Above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are.

Proverbs 4:23 TPT

God’s words always lead back to Him. They’re powerful that way. He is powerful that way.

The problem is I don’t always follow.

I do follow a lot of people and apps and videos. All those voices can end up pushing God out of the way.

But, the practice of reading His word and looking for it, always leads me back to Him.

This week COVID-19 hit my family with some significant loss (let’s leave it at that) and I was heartbroken. We went for a walk. I got a good cry in.

And then, I sat down on my phone and scrolling through account after account, double tapping mindlessly through my grief. It did nothing.

Annoyed with myself, I went to wash the dishes.

Right in front of me, in a tiny clay pot, was this:

As soon as I spotted that itty bitty heart pushing up through the dirt, it reminded me of a God who sees me and loves me.

Did God bend that sprout into a heart shape just for me? I like to think so.

Guard the affections of your heart because they affect all that you are. There’s power in the choices you get to make, the accounts you follow. Choose wisely. I am not saying they all need to be Jesus accounts but are they making you laugh, building you up, teaching you something, encouraging you, leading you to a better you?

You – YOU – open the door from the inside. You decide who and what comes in.

Guard your precious heart.