Today is the perfect day to reach back into the archives and re-post this message on “Beautiful Hearts, Beautiful Words.” Late March, The Inaugural Heartlift Gathering was held at FPC Norfolk. It was truly remarkable on so many levels. Over 100 women gathered to experience the power of a heartlift. Individually and corporately. We had one goal: make Proverbs 4:23 come alive in our lives in order to become emotionally healthy women. When this happens, healthy overflows into our families, churches, communities and ultimately, the world!
We centered on three words: Above. All. Else. They pack quite a punch, don’t they? Wise King Solomon seems to think that heart care is our #1 priority. I couldn’t agree more. After living over half a century, it is the wisest piece of advice I could tell my younger self.
Beautiful Hearts, Beautiful Words, May 2017
People Magazine released their “Most Beautiful People” issue today. Academy Award Winner, Julia Roberts, announced as the most beautiful woman, really does seem to emulate today’s beautiful hearts, beautiful words thoughts.
Last year’s Most Beautiful Woman, Jennifer Aniston, shared that “the most beautiful words ever spoken to her,” were by a cancer patient she met.
“Every time I watch Friends, I laugh so hard.”
In my eyes, beautiful women are those who have beautiful, life-giving, heartlifting hearts. Hearts that speak life into everyone in their lives.
The Most Beautiful Things Someone Has Ever Said to You
Today, I ask, “What is the most beautiful thing someone ever said to you?”
I love that question so much. Immediately, I asked myself that. It took me a few minutes, actually, because it is much harder to remember the beautiful words. So much easier to remember the harsh, hurtful words.
Ask me, “What is the most hurtful thing someone ever said to you?” It would take a second to recall.
Sad, but statistically true. Researcher John Gottman dubbed “The Magic Ratio 5:1,” stating it takes 5 positive comments to obliterate 1 negative comment.
Roberts shares that she truly believes “she is peaking” right now. Becoming her “best self.” Ah, my #oneword for 2017: best.
Beauty is a Light in the Heart
Poet Kahil Gibran says, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” I couldn’t agree more. I will never grace the cover of People Magazine, but I can practice beauty by caring for my heart.
Proverbs 4:23 guides this critical practice:
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
Three simple truths:
- Above all else. Seems to me this is to be our highest priority.
- Guard your heart. Guard (NIV) or keep (KJV), transliteration, H5341, nastar, to to kept close, be blockaded. Wow. This definitely is something I have to practice.
- Everything flows from my heart. Luke 6:45 makes this even more clear:
It’s the same with people. A person full of goodness in his heart produces good things; a person with an evil reservoir in his heart pours out evil things. The heart overflows in the words a person speaks; your words reveal what’s within your heart (Luke 6:45).
It seems Poet Kahil Gibran and the apostle, physician, Biblical author, were on to something, doesn’t it? True beauty is all about our heart and is reflected in our words, as “our words reveal what is in our hearts.”
So today, in honor of one of our most popular cultural magazines, I, too, am honoring true, lasting, eternal beauty. As a woman who follows the teachings of Jesus, I want my heart to reflect HIS light, HIS love, and HIS heart-lifting TRUTH.
Will you please join me? Make someone’s day by shining YOUR light into their lives. Express the true beauty that lives in your beautiful heart.
The Gottman Institiute has many tips over on his website. I chose this one to practice today:
Aim for morepositive interactions.How can you tell if the magic ratio in yourrelationship is unbalanced? Pay attention to howyou and your partner interact with each other.For every negative interaction that takes placebetween you and your partner, are there severalpositive interactions? Using Gottman’s sugges-relationship. More positive feelings and actionscan lead to happier, more stable, and connectedrelationships.
The most beautiful words anyone has spoken about me was in a conversation between my best friend and her fiance , now her husband. “I want you to love me the way Kim loves me because I believe that’s how my God loves me”…