.

These little pieces of candy come out every year just after the first of the year and I cannot get enough of them. These little hearts of sugar taste great and besides that they have those neat little sayings that when used in the proper contest can add some spice to life. Sayings like ‘bear hug’ ‘true love’ ‘love bird’ ‘kiss me’ ‘lover boy’ ‘my baby’ to name just a few.

I can eat those things at a ridiculous pace, and without any trouble at all I can knock a bag down before lunch on a regular work day. This year I went a little crazy even for me. I was eating my conversation hearts at such a pace that my teeth began to hurt from all the sugar.

I need to note one more thing about my addiction. I love the hard ones. They come in a few different ways, and all the others ways are okay, but I must have the hard ones. My habit is not to put them in my mouth and wait for them to soften. No, I go to crunching on these little hearts right off the bat. I cannot wait!

This brings us to another problem I had this year. After my teeth started hurting, I took a little break. But finally I gave in and picked me up some more hearts. I started popping them in and crunching away when all of a sudden I felt something in my mouth that was not candy. It was a portion of one of my teeth. I had crunched on a hard heart and it broke a tooth.

I learned a lesson that day; a hard heart is nothing to chew on. The world we live in is filled with hard hearts. There are people who have, over the course of their lives, allowed their hearts to no longer be tender. They have allowed the world and its many moments of pain and disappointment to toughen their hearts.

No longer can they forgive; they must receive justice. No longer do they have patience. Things must be done their way, and pronto. They no longer see the beauty of life as anything special - the touch of a baby, a beautiful mountain scene, a good joke, a special friend. Their hearts have hardened and stolen their joy.

Hard-hearted people are no fun to be around. They have little joy, few smiles and are cynical beyond measure. They see the negative before the positive. They have lost their friends as well as their way. Their heart, well, it just can not be cracked.

How is your heart? Is it hardened? It can happen to anyone. Life gets so busy and can be so difficult who can blame you? That being true, do yourself a favor.

Take a moment; allow your heart to be soaked by the presence of the loving God. Slow the pace, seek out a friend, let a wrong go, laugh a while, smile with some friends, hold a hand, worship in silence, read the Word.

Do it now, before your heart, cracks.

Scriptures: Hebrews 3:7-9,

“So, as the Holy Spirit says; “today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.”

Hebrews 12-13,

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

Prayer:

Dear Lord, help us to keep a tender heart, one sensitive to your word and your ways. Lead us in the direction of love and forgiveness, remembering the great things you have done for us, for the grace you have showed us, your undeserving children. We praise you for what a wonderful God you are. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.