Guard Your Heart

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Why is it that God must remind us to guard our heart? I think it is because the heart is the soul, the center and the essential part of our well being as a human. A heart is the most important organ in our body, without it, there is no life.

When our heart is broken, there is no more happiness. It drained our spirit to the last drop, it is like we are alive but dead on the inside. This is why we must guard our heart to protect our own self, to prevent the death of the soul while the body is still alive. It will affect the body over time, but it is not the life anyone would want to live.

How do we guard the heart?

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)

There are a lot of things in life that still remain a mystery for me, such as how certain things falls into place the way they are and it makes the world a better place, and there are certain things that I do not get on justice, fairness and things beyond my own brain could process. Scientists had been a great help for average people like me to understand why things are the way they are now, how it works, and the purposes of them all. But, as genius as any scientist might get, there are still a lot of things that even the smartest man on earth could not answer, still in doubt or still doing their own research.

The limitation of our brain, body and soul on a lot of things under earth, makes us feel powerless (sometimes) and some other times, we should be thankful that we are not god and have to deal with all this craziness and needs around the world and beyond. God must be a brilliant inventor, scientist, engineer, etc, among other things that He is. This is why this verse in Philippians 4:7 is so powerful for our own sake. God knows that we will never be able to understand everything under heaven. Heck, we do not even understand why certain thing happen to us or what our own brain look like, or what the inside of our eyes look like, LOL. If we don't even know what our own body look like on the inside, how could we ever be able to understand other things that is not ours?. 

So, please keep this verse in mind, that God's peace will lead, transform, and guard our hearts beyond our own ability and understanding to do so ourselves.

Why do we need to guard the heart?

There are a lot of broken hearts in this earth and it is enslaved our lives like no other. The broken hearts that caused by someone they trust, love, respect and they crossed the line, broke the hearts into pieces. There are a lot of children who cry every night because of what their parents are doing to them, physically-verbally-mentally abuse. There are a lot of spouses who are dealing with their own nightmares of being married to a monster and they could not find a way out, their hearts are broken, their commitment has turned into hell. There are a lot of women who still hold some grudges over some cheating scene that happened years ago, but it was so deep in their heart, it leaves scars, bleeding and that bleeding heart has become a wall for them to move on and learn to live a loving life again. There are a lot of men who still think that their fathers are responsible for their crappy lives at this present life, and the sad story around the world continues like a never ending chain. 

We live in a broken world!

Once someone violated us, that tend to leave a mark or a scar in our hearts. Some people get over it sooner than others, some takes time, some takes some encouragement and many are still trapped in their own misery. The bleeding hearts are the hardest case of any hearts disease, because it is craved on their brain, soul and it transform their life, some even let it define themselves as a human being. This is why we MUST guard our heart from being broken.

What can we do?

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The Armor of God

 ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

(Ephesians 6:10-17)

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"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." 

(Proverbs 3:5). 

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That is one of my favorite verse, because I know without God's wisdom, counsel and lead, I will not be able to know which one is good for me and which one is bad for me. 

So, the key is to depend on God, completely. Understand what He thinks is good for us through his word in the Bible. Pray and seek counsel from wise people that will tell you what you need to do or choose. People that will tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear.

BUT, as much as we love God and His words, as much as we love our parents or any wise people in our lives for their golden advice, at the end of the day, it is us who make the final decision. This is the crucial part : you will be the decision maker and the one who will also live the life based on your own decision, so make sure you understand what you put yourself into before you make any rush decision. 

Remember that not everything is what it seemed like. God sees heart when we see their appearance, which could lead us to make stupid mistake because we have been fooled by our own desire, lust and selfishness. Sometimes, we do not know how big of an impact our decision is all about until it is over in a very bad way and everyone that we love is involving in our brokenness.

Here is a common example, the divorce parents are often have suffering children. The suffering children will have trouble identifying love and trust because they do not have that at home. Their love life often suffer because they are too afraid to go through the same path their parents had chosen. Some of them see sex as something to satisfy their own needs and that is all in that. No wonder, we live in a broken world, it is a chain reaction from one stupid decision to another, impact A to B to Z, then their legacy moves on.

Blaming the "broken home" might not always be the case, because at the end of the day, it is an individual case. I am a child of a divorce parents and so did my mom, but when I got married, I understand that things are not as easy as it looked like. Blaming others for our own decision is sad, childish and bad. Take courage and be responsible of your own choice!

To illustrate the broken heart, I think this song by Christina Perri will do it lol. I love her stuff and yes some of her songs are very sad, but very true in life as well. Jar of heart speaks to me and it is sadly a common everyday love stories around the world lol. But hey, trust me, broken heart is not fun, it is incredibly hard to deal and then try to fix a broken heart. So it is better to prevent it from happening. Anyway, here you go, listen to this song. It is a result of a broken heart.

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If you are currently living and dying because someone broke your heart, may it be your parents, siblings, family, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, spouses, priests, boss/coworkers, ex husband/wife, children, etc. Please understand that your life is NOT over yet. It is better to let those jerks go from your heart because they do not deserve your best in the future. The process of letting go and letting God deal with that is not an easy process but it will do wonders for your own good, healing and future. Ask God to not only heal your heart but also to replace it with a brand new heart. Give him the broken pieces and let Him repair it.

Remember that it is never too late to end a relationship that brings nothing to you but tears of sadness, abusive languages that makes you feel bad about yourself and any other form of abuse does not worth your time. Leave him or her!

Before you make any decision, really think about it. Many times, God already speaks to you inside your inner soul. There is a voice that keep reminding you that it is not right. You might hear some words of advice from other people, but like I said, at the end of the day, you will make the decision. Think clearly, live your life, deal with the consequences. Stop playing the blaming games, self pity, misery loves company, and the worst of them all is the VICTIM game.

Get up, get out and get help! You are stronger than you think and you deserve more in life. Cry for a night or two, throw everything that will remind you of that person, avoid the same path you picked, learn from mistake, regret is sometimes needed in order for us to not making the same mistake twice because it hurts badly. Live your drama free life. Don't you want that? :)

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit."

(Psalm 34:18)

Love and prayers,

xoxo,

Lindsay

That ONE big mistake!

I was watching Sex & The City 2 and there was a moment there that caught my attention. It was when Carrie kissed Aidan!

In the movie, it was described that Carrie was confused about her own marriage and she thought something is not right in her marriage. At least, that is the impression I got when I watched it. OK, back to the "kissing" moment.

See, that kiss was not even meant anything to her, but she felt really bad afterward, guilty! Before she went out to have dinner with Aidan, Charlotte told her that she was playing with fire to go out with Aidan. But, at that moment, Carrie did not seem to care. I meant, she knew what she was dealing with. She will be having dinner with someone that she used to date and that someone was crazy about her, that he even proposed to her.

What went wrong? Confuse mind leads to uncertainty about anything, even the best thing in life. She thought that something is not right in her marriage, but in fact, that is just marriage for 2 years in general. I, personally, was as lost as Carrie when I was in my early years of marriage. Not to mention, many people get divorce under eight years of marriage in the US.

Why? because when two people get together in the same house, having to share their lives together, and especially when they have children right away before they even know each other that well..it is hard! There are a lot of differences that just showed up after we got married.

There are a lot of sacrifices that needed to be done, things that you use to enjoy when you were SINGLE! Just like Carrie :)

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Carrie and Aidan met at the "perfect" time for a disaster to happen. See, they used to love each other in their past life (past: young and did not married yet)! Aidan is married, had 3 kids. Carrie is married with no kids.

Aidan find a "break" without the kids and of all the women in the world, he met Carrie. The woman who use to owned his heart, dumped him after he proposed. There was a "hanging" unfinished story in there. You know, the "what if" factor?! Meeting Aidan for Carrie was like the old good time. This is the man who worshiped her, while she thinks her husband does not (based on their lack of communication, and because he wanted to watch TV..or two days off without Carrie).

Carrie knew exactly what she was doing when she put those eyeliner and hot dress on. She is going to see Aidan and showed him that she is still hot and sometimes it is nice to know that someone is actually care for you.

When our spouse do not show interest in us anymore, we are craving for those praises or flirting moments. We will try to get it, no matter what on stake. Its the spur of the moment that could lead us to a disaster. But, in that "moment", the temptation seems like a good deal.

The funny part is that Big loves Carrie. She just does not expect that marriage will be that "boring." See, when we were dating, we would try to do "fun" things to impressed and to spend as much time with our spouse. But when we get married, we spend ALL the time in the world with that one person. What used to be fun becomes regular and at the end..boring..the same old routine. Sometimes, just laying on bed with each other is the best thing. Watching TV is the new addiction. Running together or even just grabbing a coffee becomes our "date" nights.

After the kiss, second after that moment. Carrie realized she made a huge mistake, she felt sick and ran away. Good for her! See, that ONE moment can lead to ONE big mistake that could lead to ONE disaster. I am not just talking about Carrie. I am talking about all of us, who has our own "moment" of playing with fire. We knew what we want, we knew where it will lead us, we know the cost..yet we are still going for that path.

Its a good thing that Big doesn't make a big deal of that kiss. In fact, it ended with happy ending for Carrie and Big. But, some of us are not that lucky. That one night stand leads you to divorce. That one hot night that leads you to get pregnant before you were ready. That one joke leads you to get punched on the face. That one signature leads you to jail. That one kiss leads you to another temptation.

Don't let that one confuse, doubtful moment that has no ground, fact and sanity leads you to do stupid things.

Remember, sometimes regret means just lesson to learn. But, sometimes regret does exist when it doesn't just you who get affected. When your high school's sweetheart dumped you and you said "No regrets just lesson to learn." Well then OK!! But, when you get drunk, drive and killed someone else and you said "just lesson to learn"..wow..something is not clicked in your brain. Yes we have to forgive ourselves and move on is the healthy way. But, regret is needed to prevent another fatal mistake.

See, regret is a feeling that we all should have so that we will NEVER repeat the same mistake. Lesson is a part of the regret, but regret is an unbearable guilt that makes you do not wanna do it or even get near to it ever again. Lesson to learn is a must, but when you do something really bad that caused others to suffer, you need to regret it in order to prevent the next one.

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Before we make any decision in life about anything. Think of that ONE moment. Will this action leads me to victory or death?! Some mistake cannot be forgiven nor forgotten for some people. You do not wanna jeopardized your love and life for ONE temporary, rush, confuse moment. What happen in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas..whatever, whoever, wherever your "VEGAS" is all about!

xoxo

Lindsay

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