“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”    Proverbs 4:23

I love this picture of the kids that we took at the beach years ago. It came up on Facebook this morning as a memory and had a quote attached to it. I do not remember where I read the quote, but it says, “Even in my best dreams, I never could have imagined each of you.” I just love that! It is so true. Sometimes we have dreams and God’s plans far exceed them. This is true and evident when I look at this picture and reminds me to continue to trust Him even when my dreams die.

When I look at this picture I am also reminded, because they are standing in front of a post office, that their hearts are like letters. Hearts are like letters that they will read for the rest of their lives to themselves and ones others will read as well. I do not fear what I will write today on their hearts because my heart has been written on by my Heavenly Father early this morning. I only fear taking the pen out of His hand and trying to make my own marks that will cause pain. Sometimes I look at the marks on my own heart and imagine a big line drawn through the painful words. In its place is the word grace. So, even if we do mess up, there is grace given by our Heavenly Father.

Yesterday, my husband was asked to show a precious family a home. He is a real estate agent and I love to come along. As we walked throughout the home, I heard the daughters making plans, as if the house was theirs already. The mom said, “Remember to guard your hearts, girls.” Such wisdom that leaves permanent ink on a young heart. As we were all leaving, the family was looking forward to what the Lord had in store for them. We read beautiful letters at that moment that the ink had not even yet dried.

Other days the letters have lists of dreams written on them that have seemed to have died. Perhaps the Lord did not speak, even though I was sure I had heard Him. Such was the case recently. Years ago, actually just before this post office picture was taken, I felt led to launch a business to help moms dress their children. I really like clothes and putting together outfits for kids. Being a personal shopper seemed like a great idea. So the dream of a business named Threads came into being. Reality is that moms do just fine picking out clothes for their kids and the business never took off and my dream was buried. The only evidence that it was ever a thought was the cute postcards and business cards that had been created.

Fast forward to the present and we happened to be given an abundance of upholstery fabric bolts. The number of bolts we have is overwhelming. As I looked at this gift, I tried to come up with a way to use them. Lots of ideas came, but never the right one. Until a dear friend and I were having lunch and I told her what we had been given. Immediately she told me the solution was simple, make fabric covered bulletin boards. As we talked through the idea, we thought of how most college girls have a cute board in on their dorm wall. How a lot of us moms keep boards with sweet notes, art work and encouraging words up in places we see often in our homes. And so these boards have been made and they are beautiful. They are being stored in our wine cellar just waiting for this new business to launch. And trying to come up with a company name was driving me crazy. I asked others, prayed, read scripture and asked again. Then the name came…Threads. A dream I had has come back to life. This time instead of focusing on outward appearance, this one focuses on the heart. I pray each item pinned on these boards speaks words of life. And each board will come with a note of encouragement. I plan on praying over each one and asking the Lord to choose a scripture that the receiver needs to hear. I got that idea from a jewelry company called The Crowning Jewels and loved it. I kinda picture these boards as 17X23 visible hearts for our homes. Let me know if you want one!

May the Lord continue to write on each of our hearts words of peace, comfort, conviction that leads to repentance and obedience. Let Him write your heart with the most loving hand that chose to be nailed to the cross for the whole world. May we all shine because our hearts have been inked with His holy script of grace. And may we remember many are reading our hearts during this time in history.