“Just follow your heart.” Have you ever heard someone say that? Perhaps you’ve said it yourself. That is terrible advice. If there’s one thing you shouldn’t listen to, it’s your own heart.
The writer said, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The word “keep” in the Hebrew means to “guard,” or “protect.” We are to guard our heart with “all diligence.” In other words, you can’t let your guard down on your heart.
Before we go any further, we need to identify the heart here. Because the heart that is spoken of isn’t the blood pumping muscle within your chest. The reference to the heart here means one’s inner self; or the center of a person’s thoughts, emotions, and mind. From this place called the heart flow the issue of life. You need to guard what you think about. You need to protect your emotions from how something negatively affects you. An unprotected heart is a vulnerable heart. Exposed emotions can become dangerous. If the mind isn’t safeguarded, then it become assailable to attack.
For example, let’s say you’re a single woman. You don’t protect your mind and it allows negative and oppressive thoughts to go unchecked. For instance, you let your imagination run wild creating negative scenarios, fabricating boogymen and ghosts that paralyze your faith and good sense. Next, your outlook becomes darkened, believing that no good ever happens to you, and life has given you the short end of the stick. Your self-worth becomes depleted because you believe the negative thoughts and scenarios that your emotions have devised. Now you feel lonely and vulnerable, just hoping that something can make it better.
Along comes an absolute loser of a male specimen, and he begins to show you attention. Your heart and emotions are unprotected, you aren’t thinking clearly, and you decide to date this imbecile. You overlook his destitute spirituality, dreadful dating record, and depleted bank account. Your heart says, “Go for it, you may never find a guy like this again!” So you hastily cry out, “I’m in love!” You’re not in love, you’re desperate. You’ve let your emotions take control, like a petulant toddler driving a semi-truck. Next thing you know, you’re married and your prince has revealed he’s an actual toad who’s only fit for the muddy banks of a fishing pond. He doesn’t help with your newborn, because he’s too busy playing video games, and he lost his fifth job in three months because the boss just “doesn’t get it, man.”
All of this leads to negative thoughts of regret and guilt, and how you wish you would have thought things through before you went on a date with a guy you had to pick up from his stepmom’s house, and he refused to pay for a single meal on a date, but you’re just so glad that he called you “pretty” that one time on a late night phone call.
All of this could have been avoided had you just guarded your heart and emotions.