If you were allowed to have a customized filter for any area of your life, what kind of filter would you select?
Perhaps it would be a customized debit card filter that rejects any unnecessary purchases, or maybe it would eliminate any unwanted traffic and signals preventing you from making it to your destination on time.
While we can think of thousands of customized and unique filters to design that would be very beneficial in our life, one of the most important filters is one to guard our hearts.
Why guard the heart, you may ask? Our heart, my dear, is the central point of everything that goes out and comes in. It is connected to our livelihood and emotions, but it also sets the tone for how we interact with ourselves and others, and a whole lot more. What we allow to come in and settle is what we will eventually begin to believe and pour into others. If our beliefs and views are twisted, we could turn:
-congratulatory moments into moments of jealousy
-opportunities to learn into stunted growth
-love into hate
-healthy relationships into competitions
-kindness into missed blessings
-self-love into self-doubt
-humbleness into conceitedness
And the list goes on and on…
On various occasions, I’ve heard the following phrase, “If you don’t heal what hurt you, you’ll bleed on people who didn’t cut you”. While I believe this to be very true, I also believe it is important we become proactive and take precautions that will filter negativity before it even begins to take place.
This does not mean that we are building a guard wall that’s so high it becomes impossible for others to connect with us. However, if we don’t apply filters, we welcome a lot of things that will distort our view of life, situations, God, or people.
Now more than ever, I am understanding the importance of guarding my heart and learning who and what to let pour into me during both challenging and successful times. I’ve made the decision to “filter up” and be mindful of who I expose myself to, along with the words and thoughts that go in and out of my mouth and mind.
I also understand that filters don’t make us immune to trails. Trust me, I’ve had those and will continue to have many more, but I will remain cognizant of the truths I believe during those times.
Proverbs 4:23 reminds us that above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
What is one thing you can do this week to help filter out unhealthy thoughts, people, or habits that are planting seeds of negativity in various areas of your life?