Heartfelt Musings

Due to our severe case of newlyweditis mixed with our aversion to television, I have decided that Wal-Mart is my official Seasonal Advisor. Owing to the onslaught of marketing Chinese-made plastic goods for even the slightest hint of a holiday, I am calendaring events well in advance. I stifled a guffaw when I spotted Cadbury Easter Eggs but the naked Cupids started me thinking...

All this hubbub about HEARTS.

There are certainly enough metaphors using hearts so that from a medical perspective, the semantics have transformed this vital organ into something quite interesting. We claim that hearts are the source of our love, we feel that they can be hurt, they can be full, hard, tender, and the Lord even tells us that they should be broken.

Last Wednesday I had an awesome--that which inspires awe--opportunity to take a closer look at my own heart. In order to make sure that the collagen in the lining of my aorta was strong (a VERY rare occurrence of aortal damage is associated with my bone disease, osteogenisis imperfecta, I, however, have a healthy aorta!) the doctor ordered an ultrasound to be performed. The nurse/technician was kind enough to amuse me during the procedure by pointing out all of the parts of my heart. I was overwhelmed with love for the Master Physician and His well-planned blueprints that resulted in the human heart. By no concerted efforts of my own, my heart beats 100,000 times a day which involves countless and intricate muscular pulsations resulting in the correct directional blood flow and literal "life blood" flowing throughout my body.

Prior to the ultrasound, during the consultation, the doctor congratulated me for taking good care of my heart since he mostly sees patients that have gone too far in the other extreme. He probably gets tired of telling people to get their acts together. He's right, of course. We need to be meticulous in the care of our physical hearts. Cheerios tells us that the tasty o's are good for our ticker, women should wear red to support female heart disease awareness, we should exercise, eat less red meat, eat more chocolate (okay, so in our case "more" would be difficult)...the list goes on and on.

Based on our knowledge of this organ, good ole' Saint Valentine helps remind us of the same kinds of things that Dr. Carter tells his patients, "Take good care of your heart!!"

I believe the best "heart" exercise is to open our hearts to others. Take Nick and Alli, for example. I never knew that I could feel such intense love until I opened my heart to the two most important people in my life. Every day I find that I am happier when I give the love to them that the Lord has given to me. Even potty training has been an exercise for my heart becuase I have worked and prayed really, really hard and I can honestly say that I do love it now (maybe that's why she's finally doing so well!).

Considering my constant state of spiritual forgetfulness, my most cherished experiences have been born during a time of diligent remembrance--truly an exercise of the heart. I consciously remember the heart of the Good Shepherd and find that He can fill my own heart with His incomprehensible love and wisdom.

Just as a summation of all these "Heartfelt Musings", an excerpt from an excellent book, Confronting the Myth of Self-Esteem by Ester Rasband:

"One of my favorite verses about Solomon is in 1 Kings 10, in which it says that all the earth sought Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. We who think in terms of human wonder and intellect think of wisdom as a thing of the mind. But it was Solomon's heart into which the Lord was able to put wisdom. And it must be our hearts into which the Lord puts our earthly level of perfection. Not our minds, not our muscles, not our training or our beauty or anything that is seen of men. It must be put into a perfect heart. Or at least, as Alma reminds us, a heart that has a desire to be perfect."

PS There is a fascinating clip of a simulated heart beating athttp://www.thecgroup.com/1a01.html