Take Good Care of My Heart

Last week my husband and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. It was great for lots of reasons but I mention it because I often wax nostalgic around then. So this year, for several days after, I found myself strangely humming a tune from the 80's - Take Good Care of My Heart - a song from Whitney Houston's debut album and a duet with Jermaine Jackson. I think I played that cassette until the tape snapped. No idea how the tune got there or where it came from. But everytime I caught myself humming it I sighed, smiled and shook my head. "Take good care of my heart......" - right. I knew that at 15 I sang that to a boy somewhere that I just knew I was mad about. At 15 I was a hopeless romantic who believed every happily ever after story - Disney would write my great romance. But now, many years later, I think about how ridiculous it was to think that ANY human being would be able to take good care of my heart..... Let alone someone as young and as messed up as me. I get now that God placed that longing inside of all of us - for that complete love - so that HE could take that place. So He could hold our hearts. And it only took me 25 years and lots of heartache to see that God is the very best part of every relationship I have now - ESPECIALLY my marriage.

But here's why I thought it was blog worthy. Do you think it's possible to communicate any part of that to young women and men in their teens? As my nieces and nephews approach this age, I am longing for a way to share with them and maybe help them understand that God takes care of my heart even when my husband is the love of my life. Are they doomed to trial and error like I was? Is sharing with them what I've learned going to fall on deaf ears? Or maybe I just need to be praying and make sure that I'm asking God to take good care of their hearts until they can take care of their own....