When you have been hurt, it\u2019s easy to put up barriers. But be careful\u2014a protective shell can turn into a \u2018heart of stone\u2019<\/i>: resistant, unreceptive, impenetrable even to God. <\/p>\n
Kristin Armstrong writes: \u2018The only thing more painful, and with\u2026 more serious ramifications than a broken heart, is a frozen one… Paul warns us [about]\u2026 allowing our hearts to harden. \u201cThey are darkened in their understanding\u2026 separated from the life of God\u2026 due to\u2026 hardening of their hearts.\u201d<\/i> (Ephesians\u00a04:18\u00a0NIV) A soft heart is not weak or naive. To the contrary, wisdom, experience, and faith make for a strong heart, weathered by compassion and seasoned with mercy. A hardened heart is not protected, it\u2019s merely encased in injury, and it is painfully obvious to everyone but you\u2026 After a weekend that felt like one painful test after another, I called my best friend in tears. \u201cWhy won\u2019t this end? How strong does God want me to be? I can\u2019t take it anymore!\u201d Being a godly woman\u2026 she replied, \u201cPerhaps it\u2019s the other way around. You have been strong enough. God wants your heart to be soft and open.\u201d I hadn\u2019t thought of it that way. In response to heartbreak, betrayal, or shame, it is\u2026 easy to develop a heart of stone. We think this will protect us from\u2026 more pain. The problem with stone is\u2026 it feels nothing\u2014no pain, but no love. It is a trap that feels like self-preservation, but it is actually self-destruction. [God] wants to give you a heart of flesh. With His love you can emerge from a painful season of loss with a heart that is yielding, porous, and ready to receive the gifts He has\u2026 for you.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you have been hurt, it\u2019s easy to put up barriers. But be careful\u2014a protective shell can turn into a \u2018heart of stone\u2019: resistant, unreceptive, impenetrable even to God. Kristin Armstrong writes: \u2018The only thing more painful, and with\u2026 more serious ramifications than a broken heart, is a frozen one… Paul warns us [about]\u2026 allowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}