Like a Child's Tender Heart

Children. They have the most tender little hearts. It always amazes me when I watch my children and see/hear the world from their point of view. They are fairly straight shooters and call it like they see it. Often, our society laughs and moves on. Recently though as I was going about my day with my children, I began to think about how tender their little hearts are and how I didn't want to cause their hearts to harden. Monkey see, Monkey do afterall.

You know, our hearts can be just as tender too. A dear friend told me a few years ago, that our hearts are like clay. When we spend time with God (through prayer, worship, fellowship, bible study, etc.) then our hearts (clay) becomes more and more malleable. It's when we draw back and stop doing those things that causes our hearts begin to harden into stone.

A relationship with the LORD is just that... a relationship. It takes work, but it doesn't mean being in each others face all day long, every single day. Think about it this way - You are married, with children, jobs, and responsibilities. When you are in that life stage you don't have hours and hours on end to spend with your spouse. Your relationship is built through good communication in small pockets of time. Those pockets of time might be a 5 or 10 minute conversation while the kids play, a 3 hour date night, or 20 minutes of conversation at the end of the day before the lights go out. You might even have to schedule in time to go over necessary information with your spouse.

Life gets busy. I get that. So here are a few things we can do to keep wetting our clay (hearts) and building a relationship with God can mold us into something beautiful...

1) Daily be in the word - A relationship with God takes communication too. You may not have hours and hours on end to spend reading your bible, but you do have small pockets of time that you can utilize to keep your heart tender to Him. If you aren't a morning person, then maybe try a 5-minute devotional before you get out of bed, and have your quiet time later on in the day. There are many bible studies that can be done in 20-30 minutes per day. I personally use the YouVersion app for my smartphone, and I really like it! It will send me a notification to have my quiet time, and it will even read the bible too me if I need to multi-task.

2) Pray - Praying is the way that we communicate with God. The great thing about praying is that you can do it any time, anywhere, and with your eyes open or closed. (insert giggle) A great time to pray is when you are in the car! That's when I tend to find that I have the least amount of distractions. Praying is simple - talk to God just like you talk to your best friend. He is, in fact, the best friend we can have.

Colossians 4:2 - Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

3) Go to church - I heard a great quote recently, "We don't go to church because we are perfect. We go because we aren't." Church is a great place to worship God and receive biblical teaching.

4) Listen to Christian Music - In Philippians 4:8, we are told "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

God wants us to keep our thoughts on the good things in life. Christian music can be so uplifting and positive! I did a challenge when I was a teenager called the 30-day music diet. The gist of the challenge was to only listen to christian music for 30 days. I will tell you, I was surprised at how encouraged, happy, and positive that I felt at the end of those 30 days.

While there are many more ways to build your personal relationship with God, these are a few that will help you get started! Remeber that relationships take time, and this is the most important one you'll ever build!

Be Blessed,

Kimberly