Week Thirty. Clean Heart. Drawn to Love.

What is the disposition of your heart towards God? How often do you contemplate this question? Are you going through the motions, following God’s rules out of obligation or are you drawn to living them through love? 

I used to identify with the former because I was the “good girl” and my identity was tied up in doing the right thing to complete the image I had of myself. But as I allowed myself to be drawn into God’s love story for me, I now know in my bones that God’s way is a loving way that guides me to what is best. 

Like my husband who shares with me the gifts he sees in me, God shares that I carry His divine spark in my soul. I’m created in His image, He’s just waiting for me to see what He sees. Understanding and valuing myself like Him. Living empowered that my body is integrated with the divine, there is nothing that I lack. 

A loving heart is a pure heart. My faith leads me to a pure heart motivated by love, for God and for my neighbor, showing me how to love and value myself along the way. Modesty is the gift of the spirit that is an exterior byproduct of an interior disposition of heart. It is the quality of not being too proud or confident about yourself or your abilities or having propriety in dress, speech, or conduct. A clean heart has its confidence in God, drawn toward love. 

Many men keep the commandments in the way sick men take medicine: more from fear of dying in damnation than for joy of living according to our Savior’s will. Just as some people dislike taking medicine, no matter how pleasant it is, simply because it is called medicine, so there are some souls who hold in horror things commanded simply because they are commanded . . . On the contrary, a loving heart loves the commandments. The more difficult they are, the sweeter and more agreeable it finds them, since this more perfectly pleases the Beloved and gives Him greater honor.

St. Francis de Sales, p. 20 Finding God’s Will For You

Thank you Lord for drawing me into Your ultimate love story.