I’ve had a recent prompting and examination of my heart after praying Psalm 139: 23 “Search me, God, and know my heart.” Here’s what I figured out … don’t ask if you’re not willing to respond to God’s findings.

He went to work on bringing to light why I do what I do. Where’s my heart in my choices and actions? Is my heart right about it. Honey, you can be doing the right thing with the wrong heart and it will be wrong. I also believe God’s mercy and grace is so big he can cover the heart that is right but the steps went a little sideways.

Why does God care so much about the heart? Proverbs 4: 23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”

Think of your heart as a spring of water. If that spring becomes polluted, everything downstream becomes polluted too. If the spring of your heart is polluted, it’s not long until everything else in your life is negatively affected. And of course your enemy knows this well. If he can get your heart out of alignment, soon your desires are twisted. Your passion is twisted. Your pursuits and your motives are all wrong. Then you’re doing things you said you would never do and one day you wake up to realize you’ve become someone you never wanted to be. It began with your heart.

God wants to check our hearts.

So, why do you do what you do? Why do you wear what you wear? Why do you scroll through social media? What is the intent of your heart?

Over the past several weeks, I felt a little ping in my heart about a beautiful daily practice I’ve had for over 15 years.

Daily Gratitude Photos

- Began as an effort to leave a legacy of my life for my young children at the time (I thought I was dying).

- Became an effort to preserve my memories, should I lose them again.     FEAR DRIVEN

- Moved to a pure intention to live daily out of gratitude.  To slow down, to savor, to be present.  This changed my life.

For all those 15+ years, I’ve posted those daily gratitude photos on my personal facebook. 5,509 days, never missed a single one and dated and stored in monthly albums to remember my life and live it in gratitude.

WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH THAT? Yet I couldn’t ignore the pinging I felt from the Holy Spirit that said something needed to change about what was a beautiful, life changing daily practice. Once I surrendered to that ping, I came to understand God was checking my heart, and that deep examination found that there was a part of my heart that was wrong.

While it was still about living in gratitude and documenting that daily gratitude, it had also become about the show. And let me tell you something, God is not impressed by the show in the slightest. The show had to end.

So, after 5,509 days, on day 5,510 I took that daily gratitude photo with a heart that was 100% set on gratitude, void of the show, and kept it private. Those photo storage albums are just for me now.

If I share a photo now, it has gone through the filter of checking my heart first. I’ve found there aren’t a whole lot of photos that have passed for the time being.

This small act of obedience did something radically awesome for me … it flowed DOWNSTREAM. When the stream of my heart was pure, it cleaned up some other things. My addiction to my phone was almost immediately eliminated. I didn’t need to post everything. I didn’t need to obesess over comments and feedback (there wouldn’t be any). Nor did I have a need to see what everyone else was doing that day.

Get the heart right and everything downstream is positively affected. When the heart is wrong, everything downstream is polluted.

God is asking his girls today, “WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO? WHAT IS YOUR INTENT FOR THIS?” That’s your heart check.

Everyone of us put on clothes every day (unless you live in a nudist colony, and hey, that’s on you … I guess the question is why … what’s the intent of your heart with your nudity?). The rest of us got dressed, but why do we wear what we wear?

Crop tops are a thing now. I’m nearly 6 feet tall with a stupid long torso. Regular shirts were crop tops on me, now I fight to keep a poop from hanging out on occassion. If you put on a crop top, the question is WHY? God wants to do a heart check. I don’t see anywhere in scripture where crop tops were listed as not allowed for God’s girls, so this is up for discretion. A heart check will clear this up. Why are you wearing that? Is it to impress someone? Is it to show off that one little ab you worked so hard for? Is it to entice someone? WHAT IS YOUR INTENT.

Are you wearing leggings? Some people say leggings are inappropriate. But I believe God is so much more concerned with the intent of your leggings that the stretch of your leggings.

God’s word isn’t a rule book on what to wear and what not to wear. It’s not a rule book on what you can listen to, what you should watch, where you should go, or what you should do. Especially not the new covenant under Jesus. Jesus eliminated the need for a fear driven lifestyle overrun by rules. Instead, he just gives us a new heart.

Ezekiel 36: 26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.”

The heart God gives us through Jesus discerns our intent and puts our choices in alignment.

For one, wearing leggings may be sin because the intent is wrong. For another, they can wear their leggings every day all day without concern because their heart is right about it.

For me, I love big beautiful, luscious glue on eyelashes. I’ve checked my heart and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them for me. But I’m not trying to impress anyone, attract anyone, or make anyone jealous. Girl, I’ll not only tell you the cheap brand I buy at the Walmart, but I will personally show you how to glue those puppies on! For someone else, eyelashes may be a bad thing because your heart is off and it will pollute everything downstream in your life.

A kept and protected heart enjoys life as it flows. The unguarded heart is restricted, distracted and restless without true joy. The heart that has been confused is always chasing. Chasing more likes and follows. Chasing more attention. Chasing more accolades. Chasing more recognition. And that’s an exhausting race that we can never win.

Check your heart, my sister. Where is your heart a little off course with polluted intentions? Why do you do what you do? Why do you wear what you wear? Why do you go where you go?

Earlier this week, I was mentoring a young woman that was confused if God was displeased with her wearing a swimsuit in the pool. As I flopped around in a one shouldered turquoise swimsuit and a fabulous mermaid tail, and she sat on the side of the pool unsure, I asked her, “Honey, what is your intent? Where is your heart?”

I can’t judge your heart. That is not my place. I would be wrong to tell an adult what she can or cannot wear. I’m not the fashion or flesh police. God’s spirit within you will do the checking.

As a follower of Jesus, you have a new heart within you, and that new heart has discernment over wrong motives. Don’t ignore the promptings that tell you this is a harmless thing … it’s not harmless if it’s with the wrong intent. It’s polluting everything downstream in your life. Guess what is downstream of your heart … EVERYTHING. Remember our scripture today, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”

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