Bless Your Pea-Pickin’ Heart

When my niece, who is now an Assistant District Attorney here in South Texas, was first sworn in at Austin’s Texas Supreme Court as a Texas Attorney, I gave her a book called “Y is for Y’all”. It is a book of Southern ABC’s. It’s a great and hilarious gift for a newcomer to the South, because, yes, darlin’, we are bilingual in the South — with speakin’ Southern talk!

So, of course, when I started to write this blog about hearts, I recalled “B” is for “Bless Your Heart” and I add to it: “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart!” We do a lot of “blessing your hearts” here in the South – and the add on of “pea-pickin” helps us with sympathizing or empathizing with them.

The Bible uses the term “heart” to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections that we have. Our heart represents the source of all our motivations — what we love to do and what we care about most. Even today, we still use the word in this way when we say, “I love you with all my heart.”

The Bible says what is in our hearts is what reveals what we really are: “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart” (Proverbs 27:19). We are not what others think we are or what circumstances force us to be. Our heart is the real us. It determines why we say the things we do, why we feel the way we do, and why we act the way we do.

Physically, each of us has a unique heartbeat. Just as we each have unique thumbprints, eye prints, and voiceprints, each of our hearts beat in slightly different patterns.

In the same way, God has given each of us a unique emotional heartbeat that races when we think about the people, the subjects, activities, or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care about some things and not about others. Those things point us in the direction of where we should be serving.

Another word for the heart is passion. There are certain things that we feel deeply passionate about and others that we couldn’t care less about. Some experiences turn us on and capture our attention, while others turn us off or bore us to tears. That’s what I can say about volunteering at the family center. I am passionate about serving those people.

Where did those interests come from? They came from God! He gave them to us for a reason, and He wants us to use them to serve others. It wasn’t by accident that God placed within us – tender hearts for loving others and “blessing their hearts” to ooze with God’s goodness and mercy. He sincerely wants us to “bless the hearts of those around us” so that they have a heart like God’s heart that loves like He loves.

If you aren’t a “Bless your heart” kind of person, then try it on. I promise you, you’ll feel so good about blessing others like God does.