Finishing up with this Proverb from yesterday, focusing in on the last 13 verses, there seems to be a theme of the heart, which we haven’t really seen yet, and that I’ve been looking forward to.

Fear of the Lord -

Slow to anger -

Tranquil heart -

Oppresses a poor man -

Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding -

Righteousness -

...the heart is a big part of wisdom, not just the brain.  That’s part of what makes this so hard...we can’t just have the cognitive ‘know how’, but we must be sufficiently motivate, inclined, and humble to submit ourselves to wisdom.

Today, I am asking myself a question that may seems a little odd, but it is this, “How’s your heart?”.

If I pause and think (and I did do my 10 minutes of sitting this morning...very refreshing, day 2 is in the books!), but if I think about it, how IS my heart doing?  Am I mad at someone?  Am I hurt?  What am I feeling?  What am I hoping?  What’s the temperature of things inside of me ‘emotion-wise’?

It is important and often overlooked, understanding how we are doing in this way.  Am I really fearing the Lord in a healthy way?  How about anger...do I have any that I am harboring against someone at the moment?  Or is my heart tranquil?  Am I open and healthy enough, that I am in a place experience both empathy and sympathy, both feeling what others feel understanding what they feel?  It takes a healthy heart to be able to do that well.  Am I living ‘rightly’?  Living in wisdom begets seeing and hearing wisdom...healthy and righteous living position us and sensitize us to God’s will and God’s word in our lives.  How am I doing there?

This morning’s reading reminds me of the importance of the heart, and of assessing it.  In fact, I think this is a great thing to be thinking about during these 10 minutes of silence each morning...because it is precisely that time of time and setting where I can actually get to the root of my emotional state.

Great reading this morning.