Developing a Covenant of Love: Teaching the young the care of the HEART!

I didn’t learn the care of the HEART until I was older. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t taught about taking care of my HEART.

There are many things our parents taught us – and there are many things we had to learn on our own, mainly because our parents didn’t know. And I think Proverbs 4:23 and Philippians 4:8 holds critical information to be shared with our children, teens,  young adults, and even adults.

Watch over your Heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. (NASB)“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (NIV)

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Our young people are so bombarded with their thoughts until it takes them to the place of “I don’t want to live anymore” or “they don’t love me so…” and many other scenarios. Bottom-line: their thoughts are driving and pushing them into dangerous water.

You ask…, how do I know?

Well, I know because I followed my thoughts just like the young people today. I was what I thought, and that was so mixed up. I followed my thoughts, which took me up, and they took me down like on the horse on a Merry Go Round…, up… down and all around. I suffer from anxiety, and at one time, it was awful the panic attacks were not pleasant either. The doctor said to me, “Darlene, you can’t continue to run from the lion; you have to turn around and look at him.” The funny thing about that was I was living in California, and I can’t swim. I had gone as far as I could go without running into the Pacific Ocean! And again, I can’t SWIM!

The other reason I know.

I volunteer for the Crisis Text Line Organization as a crisis counselor who chats with people of all ages, races, nationalities, demographics, cultures, and various ethnic backgrounds. The beauty of how this organization is its set-up; you don’t know any of the characteristics about the person texting unless they bring it up in their text.

As you know, most non-profits organizations cannot include biblical beliefs or other religious beliefs into the organization set-up because of the type of funding from the government. Yet what I hear most are the struggles texters have with their thoughts. 

My heart goes out to them because I understand the struggle of what it is like to have a thought-life gone wild. And the exhaustion that follows from trying to achieve everything the thoughts tells one to do and what to believe about oneself. The thought-life can be a horrid game of roulette because you know what thought might take your life or someone else’s. The thoughts we entertain can take you right over the edge. 

What amazes me most is that the people I chat with don’t understand they can change their thoughts or have some control. I’ve had texters type “STOP” and end the chat because they don’t believe they can change the way they think or their thoughts.

I don’t want to see anyone old or young lose HEART!