Guard Your Heart (and mouth, and eyes, and feet, and other things)

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 "Don't ever miss out on a woman with a guarded heart. She's usually protecting the deepest most caring soul you'll ever know" 

-Sylvester McNutt

I don't know who Sylvester McNutt is, nor do I think this particular quote says anything radical or life-changing. I posted it because when I Googled "guard your heart," there were a slew of random quotes and bad (like, really bad) stock images to choose from, and it made me wonder what the phrase even means. 

Does it mean to be guarded, like as a person? Private? Skeptical? Shy? 

Does it mean to save yourself for your future husband / wife?

Does it mean to protect your heart and all your fragile feelings?

Let's get down to it. The passage I read today is Proverbs 4... specifically verse 23, but we'll get into that later. Proverbs 4 is, like most passages in the book of Proverbs, about wisdom and what it means to "get wisdom" and "be wise." This specific Proverb is titled "A Father's Wise Instruction." You can read it here... it's super short.

When I'm trying to figure out what a verse means, I like to look at it in several versions because as we know, the Bible is translated from different languages and different translations pull out slightly different meanings. I don't believe this contradicts the Truth found in Scripture, but rather adds all sorts of fascinating layers that we can discover when we seek the fullness and vastness of God's promises. I'd love to learn Hebrew and Greek and be able to know the original "meanings" of the texts, but for now, I'll rely on the internet. The Spirit will help with bringing it to life for me still today, in 2021.

The verse I'm sure you've heard or seen tattooed on someone before is this:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. -Proverbs 4:23 NIV

However, I read Proverbs 4 in the English Standard Version (for no particular reason, it's just the version that popped up when I googled the full passage) and the verse was written this way:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. -Proverbs 4:23 ESV

I almost missed it when I was reading the whole section... it seems so different from the "guard your heart" catchphrase that is used so often (and so often out of context) in the Church today. The surrounding verses are super important to include, I think, because they paint a fuller picture of what the author was trying to convey:

Put away from you crooked speech,
    and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet;
    then all your ways will be sure.     -Proverbs 4:24-26 ESV

I think so often we look to the heart verse because it can be so easily applied to love and relationships. But in the context of this entire passage about wisdom, we see that we're actually talking about being diligent and vigilant with our entire selves... our heart, our speech, our gaze, and the path of our feet.

In other words, we are to seek wisdom in all things with everything that we are. I can't wait to expound upon this more tomorrow and dig deeper into what it means to "keep your heart with all vigilance" while also "looking directly forward" and walking the path in front of you.

Peace!

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