Casting Pearls: Part 3

Remember to read Part 1 and 2 first.  :)

Okay, so now to explain my post titles for this series.  When I very first heard the phrase "casting your pearls before swine", I had no clue what it meant.  Someone said it to me once in reference to something else, and I had no clue what it meant.  Later on, I found out that it meant giving the most precious part of yourself to someone who wouldn't take care of it.  That is the idea behind the title for me.  When I share these blogs with people or when I share my words with people, I am really sharing my heart.  Sometimes it may not seem like it, but sometimes you have to sift through what I say and find my heart.  I am reading the book, "Shepherding A Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp for parents right now, and the whole message is about getting to the heart of the matter.  Instead of looking at the outward behavior of a child and focusing on that, dig deeper and ask yourself, "What is internally motivating this kind of behavior? What is inside my child that is producing this kind of behavior? What are my child's intentions, where is my child's heart in all of this?"  As I'm reading this book, I'm digging deeper into my own heart and the Lord is doing surgery there.

So, when I blog out my heart, I am casting out little treasures and pieces of me to the reading world.  I am praying that what I write will be caught by someone, taken in, and taken care of.  Yeah, I've got a lot of grit, a lot of grime, and at times a really hard shell that you have to get through...but if you're willing to dig through all that and sift through it, eventually you will find my heart.  I try my best not to waste words and I know I have a lot of learning left to do.  When I speak, I want it to mean something, leave a dent, and make an eternal impact.

I am thankful for our Pastor's recent series on Psalms 51 about doing our own, personal heart surgery.  It has really helped me see the junk inside my heart that I need to clean out.  It's interesting because in the physical realm, I have heart disease in my family.  My father had a heart attack when he was 55 and an aortic aneurysm when he was 68.  My grandfather had a heart attack in 1992 or 1993 and my mother had a stroke when I was in the 8th grade.  I have high cholesterol and I constantly have to think about what I put into my body.  With all of this talk about Spiritual heart surgery, I also have to think about what I put into my body Spiritually.  What is clogging my heart's arteries Spiritually?  What is keeping the blood of Jesus from flowing freely in my life?  Is there an area of unforgiveness in my life?  Something I haven't accepted Jesus' forgiveness for or something I need to forgive someone else for?

Thank you for going on this journey with me and coming alongside me as I search out the Spirit of God and begin to understand a little more about the heart of Christ.  Please stay with me as I learn more about how to REALLY love like Jesus does.  I think it's safe to say that while I am housed in this sinful vessel, I'll never fully be able to love like Christ, but I am praying that "He will become greater, and I will become less." as we just learned in Sunday School a couple weeks ago from John 3:30.  I am so very thankful for our church and for the discipleship it provides.  I am thankful for what I am learning from the Pastor's sermons as well as from my Sunday School teacher and classmates.  I don't just hear nice stories and messages that make me feel good on Sunday mornings.  I hear the Truth, and I hear the heart of the matter, and I get closer to the Heart of the One that really matters.

Listen to this song to hear this thought in praise:

"Embrace This Place"