Heart and Soul
What does your soul crave? Take this study.
Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EST.
“Bless her heart.” That is a saying I’ve heard all my life. Maybe it’s a Southern thing. It means, “Oh, poor thing.” Some women don’t say it sincerely. It is almost a write off, a swooshing away of the person and their problems. If you can’t say something nice then say, “Bless her heart.”
Video: Affair-proof marriage
Move forward in your marriage: Learn from our Life Lessons
I have to catch myself when I say it and add, “No, really, I mean it. I am asking God to bless her.” I get some curious nods.
For me it is a prayer. To bless her heart is to invoke God’s presence into her life and her situation – to come into the heart of the matter and to give her wisdom, patience and comfort. Hearts break. Hearts harden. Hearts emotionally bleed. We need God in our hearts to help us discern, empathize and love.
The Psalmist had a better way to say it –“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm103:1)!
There was an old duet I used to plunk out on the piano with my sister called “Heart and Soul”. I have no idea what the lyrics were, but the two words seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. If our heart isn’t in it, then it affects our soul. If our soul is toughened by hardship and doubt, we don’t have the heart to do it. On the other hand, if we have the love of Jesus down in our hearts, as the children’s hymn says, He is also in the center of our soul.
Our hearts are temporal. Without them, life as we know it on earth doesn’t exist. They are emotional, persuadable and changing. Our souls are eternal. They go on after life on earth has stopped. If guided by the Holy Spirit they are steadfast despite of our emotions and moods. What’s in our souls affects our hearts.
Perhaps, from now on I’ll say “May God bless her heart down to her soul.”
Questions: Do you have the love of Jesus down in your heart? What about down to your soul? If you don’t, will you seek out someone to pray with you?
About the Author Julie Cosgrove
Well, Julie, it is true about having our hearts hardened from hardships and doubts and not having our “hearts in it”. For the past 7 yrs, i tried and tried again to stay in a relationship with someone whose “heart wasn’t in it”. Being a sensitive soul, i was always feeling so empty and unvalued but b/c he had been hurt so many times in his past, he was incapable of expressing his love and was filled with fear. The resentments would build up inside of me and i got so tired of being the ‘resentful martyr’. Instead of love and compassion growing in my own heart, it was a form of hatred and dislike for him which was growing within my soul. He always wanted to get married yet i couldn’t do it b/c i kept feeling the negatives would only get worse since i had been experiencing them for the past 7 yrs. We were NOT living together either. The more i thought about the emptiness and his distant emotions and being under the same roof….well…i just couldn’t do it to myself and broke it off. He’s not good for me and even though i have a love for him, he wasn’t a chief means of nurture and safety for me as a woman of God. i knew eventually my “heart would NOT be in it” for the long haul b/c it was becoming more and more hardended as the years went on. i now have peace…untroubled, undisturbed well being. i feel i made the right choice b/c God is a God of Peace and i didn’t have any with this man. i experienced more anxiety, emptiness and feelings of worthlessness. Today i rest and rejoice in the LORD. Bless you.