“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

- Proverbs 4:23

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned this verse. Then it came up again in some of my quiet time so I feel like it must be something for me to focus on this year. Often I love to look at the same scripture but in different translations. I love to see the differences in words that are used in the different translations.

As I start the new year, I am trying to be better about guarding my time and how I spend it. I can waste a silly amount of time scrolling through the vast wastelands of social media. It’s frightening how much time I can waste. It is also frightening what it can do to my heart and my mind. I am trying to be more deliberate in what I look at and what I spend my time on each day. We can also apply the same thing to the children in our lives, especially when they are young. Now that my children are 24 and 21, I cannot truly control what they spend their waking moments fill their hearts and minds with. However, I feel like I can still model what that looks like to guard my heart. I can also still talk to them about it. I can continue to share the advice from the scriptures about watching over our hearts and our minds as that is the control center of our bodies and our beings.

As I mentioned before, I am trying to be deliberate and diligent about my time with the Lord. I thought I would share a couple of things I use to help me accomplish a productive and focused time with God. Since I can get side tracked or off task pretty easily, I need things like journals to guide me when I am having quiet time. I use devotionals and I highlight or take notes in them as I read. I also write down my prayers often, as a way to keep myself focused. I use note cards as well, so that I do not forget those prayers that I am praying for others. I also use podcasts like The First Fifteen. This is a daily devotional by Craig Denison and I love these. They have a well thought out approach to having quiet time and I can focus while I listen because I can also read the devotion that I have received by email. From time to time I will share some other sources that I use.