Joel M Bradshaw

23Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
24Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
25Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
26Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
27Do not swerve to the right or to the left;turn your foot away from evil.–Proverbs 4

Verse 23 is the famous ‘guard your heart’ proverb that I grew up hearing in Christian circles regarding dating and relationships. The Old Testament ‘heart’ is the inside you and the context here is that you are paying attention to wise instruction from the Bible and living wisely starting in your thoughts, motivations, and feelings.

Your inside is no longer influencing your outside to speak in crooked or devious ways. My wife always asks our kids if what they say is true, helpful, or kind.

If you are intentional about your thoughts honoring God then they will direct your desires and motivations to stay ahead of you. This means that you are satisfied where God is leading you and don’t desire to wander away.

Thus you ponder where you go each day and in life. Are you acting in trustful obedience to God or just wandering according to what pleases you most or gives a distraction? I have been in enough pain to make my steps intentional. No step of mine in those days is not pondered and planned. No step is thus wasted. I wish I had heeded this proverb in my youth.

When God expects you to follow him in a straight line, then a step off that path in either direction is selfish and wrong. We guard or keep our insides because doing so influences our outsides. The thoughts influence the feelings and motivations. They then affect our speech, actions, and attitudes. I always have diligent work to do with these. How about you? Guard your heart, indeed.–JMB