What's in your heart?

Scripture:
"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."
(Matthew 12:34)
"But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart."
(Matthew 15:18)

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine experienced a very difficult situation with his step-daughter. She has just turned 16 and decided she wanted to go live with her dad. However, they way she did that was not so cool. As it works out his step-daughter's dad was going to Afganistan and the step-daughter wanted to see him before her dad left. Well when she got there and it was time to go home, the step-daughter had her dad text my friend and his wife, which was her mom, telling them she was not going home.

Well to say the least the situation got heated and my friend was unloading one day when we were texting and I needed to stop him so that he would refocus a bit. Well he did not like what I said and basically told me that I was "preaching to the choir" to which I responded, "not any choir I know."

Now at first glimpse it might seem that what I said was hard and uncaring and without a doubt there is much more to this story then I can tell or even know. But is it clear that when things got hard for my friend, out of his mouth flowed what was in his heart and the same is true with me, out of my mouth flowed what was in my heart.

What this all means is that when things get hard for us and our faith is tested, who we really are in our hearts is what slips out. When things are going the way we want things to go, then it is easy to be a good Christian, but in times of testing, the real "us" is revealed. So what should we do about it?

Well if we don't see it during the middle of the hard times, then we should at least look at ourselves after the rough times have past. Not to get down on ourselves so much as to realize where we really our in our walk with Christ. Did we kick and yell and scream or did we submit and pray and wait on the Lord. What ever we did, we can then assess where we are in our lives and then committ ourselves to surrender to the Lord more and not let these hard times bring us down.

Jesus is our Lord and Savior, for reals, not just on Sunday, not just when things go well, not just when people make us happy. The barometer of our relationship with Jesus and our walk in Christ is seen how we respond when things do not go the way we expect or want them too.

Request:
Pray that my friend and his wife have the grace and wisdom to deal with this situation and that the step-daughter be protected from her choices and hear the voice of God to do His will.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, All is yours and we thank you and praise you for caring completely for us. Forgive us when we listen to anything else except you and lead us to be filled with the knowledge of your Will. In the Name of Jesus. Amen