During the field trip to Cheyenne Canyon, I cannot believe how many S, S & L posts I experienced through looking and listening. What a gift! I can’t keep up with writing them lately. God is amazing, I’m captured by His presence! The more I praise and thank Him, the more joy I feel. Thank you, Jesus! It’s only by your grace that I see and hear and experience You in a fresh way each day.
Now on to this rock. How’s the for a hard transition? This small stone is smaller than it looks. It’s about the size of a quarter.
Check out its shape? Do you see the heart?
When I saw this rock, God brought to my mind the verse from Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
In that moment, I remembered my former heart of stone. I remembered the pain that came to me as a young child and how in order to survive I had to hardened my heart and pretend nothing hurt me. I escaped in my dreams as I slept. Dreaming the same dream over and over, I’d start running and eventually take flight away from the bad guys chasing me. This hardening of heart continued into my twenties with each bad decision I made. My choices all led to nothingness and depression. My heart became rough like this stone. It was my protection. Hard. Unbreakable. Just what I needed to handle the hard things in life.
But deep down, I felt there had to be another way. I wanted true life. My heart couldn’t stand the prison of the stony shell covering it any longer. Calloused by my selfishness and pride, I felt like such a failure. Self hatred ran through my veins like a disease. I had to break free. I couldn’t live other day with my stony heart, it was crushing me.
But in order to break free, I must be broken. Cracked wide open. Into many pieces. Only God knew what would break me.
And break me He did.
One bad decision led to another. I looked back at the rubble of my life up to that point and wept. So much destruction. So much pain. In my worst moment, I cried out for a new life. God responded immediately. Reaching inside of me and taking out my rock hard heart, He gave me a new one. The pieces of my once stony heart are now just memorial stones. No longer inside me or defining me. Instead part of His greater love story!
Now this new heart is not perfect, but this heart is beating free! I wouldn’t trade it for a rock one anyday. Sure having a flesh heart hurts more. I make stupid mistakes. I feel things deeper. But having my new heart allows me to live so much more. I’m learning to give and receive love!
For me, it’s the greatest exchange.
My hard heart for His soft one!
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Have you given your stony heart to God? He’s ready to reach in anytime you ask. He won’t force Himself on anyone. He waits until we are ready to undergo heart surgery because the weigh of a stone heart becomes so heavy it’s killing us!
Thank you for joining me for another Stop, Look and Listen where I share how God speaks through the simple, everyday and ordinary!
Another good analogy, Tiffany. It is so easy to become hard-hearted – we usually don’t even know the process is taking place until much later. Hurt, disappointment, rejection, pain, all of these things beat against the heart and harden it. The warmth of acceptance, friendship and love can soften it. That’s what we find in the Gospel and, hopefully, in Christian friends. Good post.
This was a great post sweetie.
So easy to have a hard heart in this world. And it’s so easy to ask God to change it into a soft one. But to do that, He has to break our hardness little by little over years of bad decisions and regrets.
I know this from experience.
And I know what you know: it was worth it.
Great post, Tiffany!
Beautiful Post!
Oh, in case you missed the comment I left a couple posts below, I have an award for you, over at my blog. Blessings!
Each time you share these I can’t help but think how much of a giver our God truly is! He gives to us all the time, we just have to be willing and open to receive His gifts. I am so thankful you are looking and aware of Him…and HIs amazing presence around you!
Whenever I think of a hardened heart, I think back to when I worked in Washington, D.C. some 19 years ago. There were always homeless people on the streets and in the Metro stations. Some were living in cardboard boxes right outside the White House gates.
This was before I was a Christian. Whenever I walked around downtown, I learned to cling to my belongings tightly and to not make eye contact with anyone. I NEVER gave a penny to a homeless person, much less acknowledge one.
I remember one day seeing a woman sitting on the sidewalk cradling a baby. Another woman was asking her if she had a place to stay that night. I thought to myself, “Why would this woman speak to that homeless woman? She’s just asking for trouble if she gets involved. All of this now breaks my heart and makes me feel badly about being so hard hearted back then. Thank you God for softening my heart!
Oh the softening of the heart, the breaking up of the soil to make it ready for the seed and it can produce fruit. It reminds me of that song…”Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me…: Great object lesson! The melting, the softening, the breaking up of our hearts can be painful but oh to be filled and used of Him! Have a great evening!
Love this story. I took my car to Jiffy Lube and decided to sit outside because the whether was nice. Low and behold there was a rock covered seating area filled with what others probably saw as plain old rocks. The little white and beige ones that probably cost little or nothing. But I’m a rock collector and I always look and look until one speaks to me. A little one shaped like a heart whisphered, “over here.” Was that incredible or what?
Love you.
Have a very restful night.
Oh I love this #11! Isn’t it amazing what can happen when we turn to Him and give it all over to Him? He transforms us into His likeness. He so melts my heart.
Loved this Tiffany. He is using you powerfully to reach out to all of us too.
Love you,
Alleluiabelle
Is God ‘Rock’ing you world turtle girl? : ) The Lord has given you eyes that see and ears to hear. Thank you Lord for how you are using Tiffany to speak to our hearts. May ours be perfect toward you. We love you. b
Oh, the pain of my stony heart; thank God for his tender grace and relentless pursuit of me that allowed me to trade up for the bigger and better of heaven’s exchange. Beautiful picture, friend. Beautiful heart!
By the way, love the look of your new webpage. I’m thinking of going dotcom but not sure how to do all of that.
Have a blessed Sabbath rest.
peace~elaine
After God gives us the new heart, He continues to soften it, continues to break it again & again if necessary, to bring about the restoration that we yearn for. He knows the true desires of our hearts, thank you LORD for coming for us wherever we are at and not leaving or forsaking us.
I love your writing Tiffany, and keep finding more treasures here.
Dotty