Whole Hearts

 



Multiple times in Deuteronomy the children of Israel are invited and reminded to give their whole hearts to the Lord.  


Entire.


All.


Complete.


It's not enough to give part of our hearts and then make up our guidelines for the rest.  


CS Lewis taught that where man goes working is when they "could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come … the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."


I mean truly happy.  Whole hearts happy.  Even when things aren't going perfect happy.  


And happiness will never be just about us.  


Jesus taught us that over and over again.  


One key place we can work on this is by teaching the next generations.


By giving them a stark contrast to the lies of the world that say we can buy, invent or demand our own happiness.


When first we love the Lord with all our hearts, then we can lead our children to Him in all of our interactions. They will grow in their devotion to the Lord as they see our devotion to Him. They will understand the power of prayer as they hear us pray to a loving Heavenly Father who is there listening and answering our prayers. They will understand faith as they see us live by faith. And they will learn the power of love by the kind and respectful ways that we relate to them. We cannot teach truth to our children apart from the trusting, caring relationships that we have with them. (Anne G Wirthlin).  


But the most beautiful part is that when we do give our whole hearts in this way, He will respond by filling our whole hearts with Godly love.  And true happiness. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Never Fall Away

Image
  In Alma chapter 23, the sons of Mosiah preached to the Lamanites. The law was declared that the word of God could not be obstructed. Note that the law did NOT say that everyone had to embrace and follow it, but their synagogues and temples and homes should be open to them. And then in verse six, something stuck out to me. Something that applies to our day. “They were converted unto the Lord and never did fall away.” NEVER DID FALL AWAY?? That sounds  like an important need in our day.   My immediate question was HOW?  So I read more closely. Verse 7: “For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren.”  They became a righteous people. They did lay down the weapons of their rebellion. They did not fight against God. They did not fight against their brethren. So what does that mean for us?  BECOME a righteous people.  Be willi
Read more

Trust

Image
  As I was riding a bike down the former train route along the Idaho-Montana border, I had hours to quietly reflect and appreciate the lush mountain landscape extending around me as far as I could see.   I was in a prayerful state, open to the promptings of the Spirit.   At one point I came to the edge of a meadow and needed to sit and rest for a bit.   There I found a lovely rustic bench made from a tree right there in the forest.  And it occurred to me how often the things we need are right there in our lives around us. The people, the resources, our talents and gifts. Psalm 34:8 lovingly promises “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him”. He will provide.   And as we learn to recognize that help, we will become more grateful and happy. 
Read more

Seeing

Image
  Even after a full semester, the young 7th grader, who I will call Anna, didn’t seem to have any friends. She said didn’t mind and felt anxious around people.   I rotated her through groups and she would participate as directed but rarely smiled, although she didn’t seem particularly sad or distraught either.   More of an acceptance that this was her life. She didn’t ever talk back or ask questions but she also didn’t complete assignments quite right.  Her other teachers also said that she didn’t follow directions well.   I was patient.  Building trust.  With her and within our classroom.  This had to be a safe place to share the hard parts. And two months ago she finally told me.  She couldn’t see the board.   As in she couldn’t read it without getting within 6 inches of the board! I immediately emailed our school nurse who gave her a screening.  When I asked Anna she said that the test was fine. But the troubles persisted and finally I reached out to her mom and expla
Read more