Who Has Your Heart?

The American idea of the Valentine’s Day card came about in 1847, when Miss Esther Howland of Summer Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, received a Valentine greeting all the way from England and decided after admiring it that she could make a better one.  She set about assembling cards with lace and hearts, some in pop-up form, at her home. Before long she had made a handsome sum of five thousand dollars! Valentine greetings would be a hit from that time forward. Today, little cards with everything from a chubby cupid with arrow drawn to a sweet puppy or kitten, to a big red heart with gold sparkles, all ask for the heart of the receiver on the 14^th of February.

There are so many things we can give our heart away to, so many things that whisper for our attention, beckoning like little red and pink Valentine’s Day cards, asking for our affection.  Sometimes we forget that God also asks for our heart, and He is the only One who we can trust completely with our affection, love, and commitment. In Proverbs, God seeks the heart of the young man who could easily find himself caught up in the enticements of the world, losing his heart in the midst of answering their call:

My son, give me your heart And let your eyes delight in my ways, Proverbs 23:26

The man in Proverbs isn’t alone in his need of a warning to guard his heart by entrusting Himself to God, we can all fall prey to temptation to give our heart away to things in this world that will leave us feeling unfulfilled, or worse, cause us harm.  Valentine’s Day is almost here. Consider who has your heart, and trust yourself to God above all.