dispense with hurt...love your heart!

 


Recently, I ran into someone that my husband and I used to work for several years ago. We since changed employ and I haven't seen her until just a few days ago. We exchanged pleasantries and I left to do other things. My husband also ran into her two days after this meeting. She commented to him on how "well-fed" I looked. When he told me of this, I took it personally.
Hmmm. Well fed? Well FED?
I have gained about twenty pounds due to the fact that the drugs that I have to take for my Rheumatoid arthritis are steroidal, which means that I look bloated. I exercise to the best of my ability. I eat right, cutting out as much sugar, carbs and refined starch as possible. No fast food, no heavy restaurant fare...yet I do look...huge sigh...well-fed!
But she didn't know that. She didn't know the health issues that I have been dealing with. I am thankful to be alive, so I don't fret too much when I look in the mirror.
But her words made me look again. And dwell on the fact that I am not what I "used to be." I "used to" be able to run, jump, mow lawns, lift heavy objects...now I am lucky to carry a jug of milk from the car to the house.
"Rise above it," I told myself. And I cried.
"Rise above it," I reminded myself. And I vowed to eat nothing but celery sticks for the next week.
 What I needed to do was to remind myself that I am made in the image and likeness of God. He knows what I have been through, because He saw me through it!  "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me..."
Rise above it.
Always remember that...when life gets you down...just rise above it!

"and God said:

I would like to talk to you about your heart. Your heart may feel wounded right now, and you don’t even know why. You think of this and that, yet you really don’t know why your heart is aching. It aches because it aches. Maybe you have put all your eggs in one basket of your heart. You know, your heart wouldn’t feel heavy if you didn’t let your heart be a repository for everything in the world. It is better that your heart becomes a repository for all the happy things that come before you. Since when did your heart have to become a repository for ill winds that blow?

You heart is meant to be a safe place for happiness. What are you burdening your heart for? Your heart is meant for love, not scrapes and bruises. Your heart is not meant to be a wastebasket. Your heart is meant to be a heart, and everyone knows that a heart is meant for love. You know it, and yet you may have made your heart a dumping ground.

Your heart is a beautiful treasure chest. Would you put torn rags into a silk-lined treasure chest? You would put jewels and love notes and emblems of love. In your heart, which is the greatest treasure chest in creation, you have put dregs and shards of glass. You have put them there and kept them there. You have kept them warm there. Out, out, anything that does not belong in your heart. You have too much stuffed in your heart. Let’s clear out your heart.

It is not that you have to develop a thick skin. You don’t have to be hard-hearted. You just don’t have to store everything in your heart. When something enters your heart that does not belong there, take it out. Take it out right away. Have another receptacle to put it in, a pretty trash can perhaps, or a hole dug in the back yard or a dumpster anywhere. The dumpster will be emptied soon enough. It is your heart that must be emptied of all riff-raff right this minute. 

You have seen how when you delete a whole list of things on the computer, there is an image of one folder after another flying away. Let your heart empty itself just like that. The computer doesn’t ponder over each item. It doesn’t reread it and make two piles. No, a decision is made, and the computer deletes away. No looking back.

Make your decision now. Enough of the old ragged hurts. Off with their heads! Out the door! If you insist, one kiss goodbye, but that’s it. No great ceremony. No tears. Wounds go off to a better place and your heart is left with room to spare. Empty your heart of what never was entitled to be there. Your heart, I repeat, is not a repository for that which would scratch your heart. Talons of hurt do not, do not, do not belong in your heart.

Your heart is for giving. You don’t want to keep hurt in your heart or give even one of those hurtful things to another. It would be a mistake. Under any circumstances, it is a mistake to give away any of your hurt to another. It is a mistake for you to be wounded. It is a mistake to take pain in. Somehow you got the idea that your heart was to take all the punches. Not at all. Dispense with hurt. Come, find some joy to put in your heart. Love your heart.

Really, if you knew I resided within your heart, would you let anything come in that you don’t want Me to receive? Would you really allow in that which should not have been allowed in the first place? Would you let in stress and irritation to keep Me company within your heart?

You simply haven’t thought of what you have been accumulating in your heart. From this day forward, no longer do you accept anything unwanted that pushes its way into your heart. No, you say from firm ground:

“Sorry, you can’t come into this heart. This heart is for treasures. This heart is for love, love only. If you aren’t love, you can’t come in. So scat. Get out of here, and don’t come back.”

Beloveds, you don’t have to be hospitable to everything."

 from Heavenletters January 17, 2013