Guard your heart!
Many women may have been told of this phrase when it comes to emotional intimacy. Men, however, also need to be reminded to be cautious and responsible when pursuing love. In a generation when love is nothing but a momentary high, brothers should also know how to guard their hearts.
You don’t guard things that are of little worth. As your heart is the core of your being, you want to protect it at all cost, especially from the attacks of the enemy. Satan will do anything to make you feel unworthy, isolated, or rejected. He wants to contaminate it with all forms of perversion and hypocrisy. He will tempt you into thinking you need to fill in the void in your heart by any means.
Right Posture
To love is to be vulnerable, and the worst thing you can do to someone is to leave them hanging after they have opened up their hearts. Make your intentions clear. Before you even think about pursuing someone, reflect and pray for discernment. Do you love her genuinely and not for the sheer experience of being in a relationship? If you are in it because you’re the only “single” person left in your peers or you want to feel good because you want someone to take care of you, don’t take any step further. Nothing pleasant will come out of it.
Often, people rush into relationships, thinking it’s the only way to feel complete and whole. The truth is, if your heart’s not in the right posture, that hollow spot would only feel empty than ever, consuming you from the inside out until there is nothing left but an empty shell.
On Genuine Love
Genuine love, on the other hand, nourishes and fosters the heart. It is neither forced nor rushed. It looks beyond the superficial and shuns the presence of any form of corruption. Genuine love is more than just a feeling. It is a commitment to be made, something that most people now conveniently forget. If you want to be emotionally intimate with someone, you should be ready to commit as well.
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Worth the Wait
Guarding your heart isn’t about repressing romance or pretending it doesn’t exist. It’s about making yourself ready for it. There is no guarantee you will be safe from any hurt or regret in genuine love. You will still encounter rejection or empathy. But a heart that is deeply rooted in Christ knows and understands that love is sacrifice. When you learn to love like Jesus did, only then can you love more, wholly and without restraint. Only then can the void in your heart be filled.
When the time comes when you are ready to open your heart up to someone, you will be glad that you have kept it reserved. After all, nothing is sweeter than having the conviction to say to someone someday that she was worth the wait.
