Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Ribs Ain't Just For Dinner!

To know me is to know that I enjoy
*my family
*our church
*chapel day @ Des Moines Christian
and today I got all 3 rolled into 1 when Pastor Lori spoke at chapel this morning!
But let me back up a bit. When Mark and I began dating 10 years ago, he had video called Guard Your Heart, and, honestly, I thought that was the goofiest thing I had ever heard of. Never watched it. Never even asked him about it. Just thought it sounded goofy.
And then I read the book Boundaries, and again saw the phrase Guard Your Heart. It did not seem so goofy then, but I still did not really get its significance.
A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out our video cabinet, saw that same video from 10 years ago, and began to wonder if there was something to it, but forgot all about it when tidying became my priority:)
Fast forward to this morning.
Pastor Lori spoke on the importance to Guard Your Heart. And now I get it...
As Pastor Lori so wonderfully illustrated, God gave us ribs to guard our physical heart. Because although we can live without a finger or various other body parts, without our heart, we cease to live.
And if we do not guard our heart spiritually, we will cease to live the life that God intended for each and every one of us.
So how do we develop "spiritual ribs"?
By prayer, studying God's word, worshiping God through song, giving praise to Him in all things, carefully choosing friends and friendships that honor God.
Conversely, we need to guard our hearts from unforgiveness, self-centeredness, placing money & things before our family & God, and relationships that only breed negativity.
What's the Big Idea???
Ribs Ain't Just For Dinner!
And by remembering Pastor Lori's very clever word picture of the verse, I can even recite it by memory:
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life"~ proverbs 4:23
and that may be the first full scripture I have ever memorized!

2 comments:

hahainlala said...

So, I see the title of your blog and I think...So help me if she is bragging about Iowa again!!! "Oh, you should see the rain" "Oh, you should see the snow" "Oh, it's the corn harvest" "Oh, the butter cow is amazing" and now "oh, I just had the best bbq pork ribs" But clearly I was wrong and learned that I should not jump to conclusions:):):)

Thanks for sharing your day...it is great food for thought:) Ha...I said food...ribs...haha...get it?!?!....okay, I must be tired!!!

Love,
yfc Heather
xoxo

Lori Eilers said...

That's so cool how God prepared your heart to receive. Glad you and Sandy were there to cheer me on.