A Dark Spot

I’m a habitual oiler. Anytime I get out of the shower or bathtub, I slather oil everywhere. My skin can be really dry so I try to cut the ashiness (that may not be a word) off at the pass. That means that every morning I sit on the bench at the foot of my bed and oil my feet first.

I was sitting at my dining room table typing the other evening. I threw my foot into my dining room chair. I did a double take. The toe next to my big toe seemed a little off. I looked closer. Where had this spot come from? I just oiled my feet this morning, and my toe didn’t look like that!

I whipped out my cell phone and took a picture. I sent the picture to my resident nurse, Bible Study Mama. Why was I so concerned? Well, I’m diabetic and that spot instantly meant that I was headed for major trouble. They always tell diabetics to check their feet. Uncontrolled blood sugars make healing slower. It can lead to amputation. YIKES!

Bible Study Mama was calm. She said it looked like a bruise and asked if I had dropped anything on my feet. Then my rational brain kicked in. See, the same toe was hurting on my other foot. They’re both the longest toes on my feet. I had worked out that morning without putting socks on. I was just in a rush to get out of the house, so I skipped an important step. Now, I was hurting.

You may laugh at me and my vivid imagination. That’s fine. I laugh at myself all the time. But the important thing to note is that I noticed something was wrong. When is the last time that you checked the condition of your heart? Not your pumping heart… but the heart that is at the seat of your emotions.

The Bible tells us to guard our hearts for out of it flows the issues of life. That’s a fancy way of telling us that we need to monitor and control the input that we recieve. We react according to what we’ve put into ourselves. If we are only around negativity and negative people, we become negative. It’s not intentional, but it seeps into us. We haven’t guarded our hearts.

Take time to check the condition of your heart right now. I’ll wait. When you regularly check in with God and yourself, you’ll know when something is a little off. You can prevent that little spot of trouble from turning into a situation that leaves you cut off from God. #wepreach