It is often said that what comes out comes up from the heart. If you’ve lived at all, you’ve seen this happen to you or because of you. Proverbs 4:23 says it best: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The bottom-line teaching here is to be vigilant with your heart because that’s where your beliefs and responses come from.
All your responses. In every situation.
If there is ever a time to be prepared or vigilant, it is during a time of loss. Whether you’ve had an experience of sudden loss or a long and slow goodbye, what comes out of us—how we walk this journey—flows from our heart. The springs of life flow from the heart.
“My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 7:1-3
These are important and wise sayings for all of life. Keep his words. Treasure up God’s commandments. Keep the commandments of the Lord and live. Keep his teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind his teaching on your fingers. Write his word on the tablet of your heart.
Feed the springs of your heart.
These are important and wise sayings for grief and loss, as well. You need his words and commandments. You need his teaching. You need his word on your heart.
Because what comes out springs up from the heart.
“Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ and call insight your intimate friend…” Proverbs 7:4
Solomon says it another way. He sums up these wise sayings with the word wisdom. We should be so connected to wisdom that we call wisdom our sister. We should call insight our intimate friend.
We need wisdom and insight because what comes out springs from the heart.
I cannot overstate the importance of these wise sayings. Loss brings on a distortion of thinking and brings on confusion. There’s a fog that descends upon you. Your decision-making is impaired. You need to be careful. You need help.
You need God and his word. You need the body of Christ. You need family, loving and guiding you. You need friends to walk with you. There are many missteps you could make.
Solomon addresses one among many missteps in Proverbs 7. He moves immediately into warnings of the “forbidden woman” or the “adulteress.” Here’s the warning as I see it. Sure, she’s a danger—no doubt. But the greater is the danger of not being ready to guard your own heart against her or any other misstep. It’s your responsibility to prepare the springs of your heart.
To be fair, widows and single women tell stories of being pursued by men who are widowers or single. We—men and women—need to build our lives on a firm foundation. We need to embrace wisdom. We need to be equipped with insight. We need to feed the springs of our heart.
It only comes from the teaching in the word of God. So, listen to Solomon. Be attentive to the words of life, and do not turn your heart aside to a forbidden woman or any other misstep as you walk the path of grief.
The springs of life flow from the heart.
“And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside…” Proverbs 7:24-25
Read the E-book Facing Loss: Lessons of Hope from My Unwanted Journey