Risking Your Heart

When it rains, it pours.  We all have phases in our lives like that, don’t we?  It seems like everything is going fine, and we are plugging along on this journey of life, and then it hits.  Like a tidal wave.  You have an unexpected expense to pay for.  Then a discipline issue with your child comes up.  Then something else happens and something else.  All within the time frame of 1 or 2 weeks.  We can get so overwhelmed.

These are the times when we realize how much we took those slow, normal days of life for granted.  And we think of all the times when someone shared a problem with us, and we said, “I’m sorry” and just moved on without offering a shoulder or tangible support for them in some way.  How we cry out for help now!

That’s a part of life.  Our lives will not always be easy or comfortable.  That is why encouragement is so important.  It is too familiar and too easy to not get involved in someone else’s life today.  It’s too simple to not open our hearts up to risk getting hurt, rejected, or bruised.  But that risk is so worth it!  It’s worth it to the person you risked it for.  They needed you.  They wanted a friend to just listen, understand, take the kids for a few hours, or offer some connections of help if that may be the case.  Wouldn’t it feel so great to be that person for someone else?  To know that you made a difference in a positive way?

We can get into the rut of assuming that some people never need help. We can assume that they have it all together or have their own little circle of support.  But a lot of times we can be wrong.  Everyone needs encouragement and support. EVERYONE.  And at some point, we will be in a position where we, too, need encouragement.

Don’t shield your heart away so much that it grows distant and cold. Don’t get too busy with life that you don’t see the need in someone else’s face, words, or posture.  That would cause more harm than risking your heart ever could.

Dionna Sanchez has the gift of compassion. She shares that compassion with other moms at her Emphasis On Moms website at www.EmphasisOnMoms.com.