Are you guarding your heart?

One of my favorite verses and one I have committed to memory is Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." A wellspring is a plentiful source or supply. The author of Proverbs is telling us that our heart is the plentiful source and supply of life...and above all else we do, to guard it.

The condition of our heart is so important to our lives. Our heart is what we live from it is the source of our happiness, our joy, love, peace and our anger, hate, self doubt and depression. As our heart goes...our life goes.

This is why it's so important to guard and care for our hearts. How do we do this?

I think for each of us it is a bit different. For me I do things like:

1. Stay grounded in the Word of God. In a world filled with lots of junk it's nice to be reminded daily of the awesome love, mercy and grace afforded to us by our Father and our savior Jesus.
2. Guard my Eyes - What we see can have a direct affect on our heart. As a former porn addict I have to be hyper-sensitive to what I watch and see. It's even hard just watching your normal TV shows anymore. In Job 31:1 Job makes a covenant with his eyes to not look lustfully at a girl. If during his time he had problems with this...well given today's standards we are in trouble.
3. Guard my Ears - I've got to really monitor what I hear; certain music, talk shows, etc... cause my heart to turn the wrong way. I start to fill anger and hate. I have to turn to K-Love or listening to my iPod to things that keep me focused on the things beyond this world.
4. Guard my Mouth - The tongue is a double edged sword...it can build people up or tear them down. When we say something and mean it in our heart it can really hurt and can be very difficult to recover from. For me when I slip and somebody is hurt, it affects my heart greatly because I being most own worst critic can cause damage to my own heart.
5. Capture Thoughts - Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Any thought that is not obedient to Christ needs to be captured and not turned into action. I don't know about the rest of you...but this is hard for me because I have a very active imagination.
6. Forgive - If I quickly forgive someone who wrongs me then I do not dwell on the wrong done and I don't have any cause to worry about retribution. Forgiveness is something that we don't nearly have enough of in our world...this really seems to be related to a lack of love of our fellow man.

These are the big things that came to mind for me. I'm sure you have others...please share.