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<\/a>\u201cWhat\u2019s in Your Heart?\u201d<\/p>\nValentine\u2019s Day is coming up soon. Since I still haven\u2019t gotten my Christmas cards out (I did take the tree down) I am thinking of making them into Valentine\u2019s Day cards and pretending this is an intentional strategy on my part to express my love to my friends and family. They aren\u2019t printed yet, so I could easily change the holly and ivy border to a row of hearts.<\/p>\n
Speaking of hearts, remember Valentine\u2019s Day in elementary school? Buying the box of valentine\u2019s cards at the grocery store and filling out one for every class member, even the boy who made fun of you for your thick new glasses and later broke your toe (accidentally) playing dodge ball? Remember the little chalky tasting hearts with mushy sayings on them? I guess you weren\u2019t supposed to eat them but to hand them out with your cards. What\u2019s the point of candy if it doesn\u2019t taste good?<\/p>\n
Capital One has its slogan \u201cWhat\u2019s in Your Wallet?\u201d The spiritual question that keeps coming to me this Valentine\u2019s Day is \u201cWhat\u2019s in your heart?\u201d The Hebrew word for heart (lev<\/em>) has the connotation of \u201cthe authority within.\u201d The heart was regarded as the seat of emotions, but also of will and thought. The heart could be led astray if one allowed the sin that lurks at its door to come inside. As God tells Cain, \u201cSin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it\u201d (Genesis 4:7).\u00a0 Once it gets in, it tries to take control of the heart. \u00a0But the heart is capable of turning toward God in whole- hearted trust (Proverbs 3:5) since God has taken the initiative in \u201csetting his heart in love\u201d on the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 10:15) and answers our prayers to create in us a \u201cclean heart\u201d (Psalm 51:10). \u00a0Jesus affirms that to love God and neighbor with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength is the heart of the law (Luke 10:27).<\/p>\nIn the New Testament we find an emphasis on the inward person (heart; kardia<\/em>) as capable of good or evil. The heart can bring forth good fruit or bad, as Jesus points out on more than one occasion (Matthew 12:34-5; Luke 6:45). The imagination resides in the heart, and if one does not allow the Holy Spirit to direct it, it can bring forth evil. But when under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it can lead us and our lives to be conformed to the image and will of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our imaginations, our ability to picture alternative futures, are part of what it means to say that we are made in God\u2019s image. Jesus, the image of God, is now available as the picture of our future with God. Looking to him we are to become conformed to his image as we await the day when we will behold him face to face, when reality will replace images. (James Fenhagen, More Than Wanderers<\/em>, 4-5) As Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: \u201cAll of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:18).<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s in your heart? Valentine\u2019s Day is a good time to reflect on what kind of fruit our hearts are producing, whose image we are growing to resemble.<\/p>\n
I am reminded of a story told by retired United Methodist Bishop Leontine Kelly. Bishop Kelly was elected to the episcopacy in the United Methodist Church in 1984, was the second woman and the first African American woman to be elected bishop of any major denomination. When she was 10 years old she lived with her parents in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was a pastor active in the community.\u00a0 One morning as she was getting ready for school, she heard a knock on the front door. She ran down the stairs to answer it. There on the step was an imposing woman with a confident air. Only later did Leontine find out that the visitor was Mary McCleod Bethune. Dr. Bethune was a prominent educator and civil rights leaders, founder of a school for African \u2013American students in Daytona Beach, Florida that became Bethune-Cookman University, and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was in town to raise money for her school, an effort with which Leontine\u2019s father was helping.<\/p>\n
Bishop Kelly says that as she looked up in awe at this imposing woman, Dr. Bethune looked down at her, with no preliminary statement or question like \u201chow are you this morning?\u201d or \u201ccould you go get your parents?\u201d She simply looked at her and inquired, \u201cLittle girl, who do you plan to be?\u201d At the moment, the fifth grade girl had no plans to be anything other than a fifth grade girl. But the question started her thinking, and it came to guide her life, gaining more and more resonance as she came to understand just who it was who was asking the question.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mary McCleod Bethune\u2019s question is a good one: \u201cWho do you plan to be?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0It all depends on what\u2019s in our hearts.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remember Valentine\u2019s Day in elementary school? Buying the box of valentine\u2019s cards at the grocery store and filling out one for every class member, even the boy who made fun of you for your thick new glasses and later broke your toe (accidentally) playing dodge ball? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Buying the box of valentine\u2019s cards at the grocery store and filling out one for every class member, even the boy who made fun of you for your thick new glasses and later broke your toe (accidentally) playing dodge ball?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/2011\/02\/whats-in-your-heart-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Knack For Noticing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-05T02:47:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-30T13:28:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/files\/2011\/02\/candy_conversation_hearts_gifts_and_apparel_sticker-p217957021577291691qjcl_4001-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alyce McKenzie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alyce McKenzie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/2011\/02\/whats-in-your-heart-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/2011\/02\/whats-in-your-heart-2\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"What's in Your Heart?\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-05T02:47:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-30T13:28:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/#\/schema\/person\/0ecf0acc853ed24cbbb812bc2486f745\"},\"description\":\"Remember Valentine\u2019s Day in elementary school? 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