Soft Hearts & Stoney Hearts

Hi folks,

Andrew & I are hoping you are all well. As some of you will know we went on a big trip round Scotland at the end of February to visit his older family.
Now we are so glad we did as we don’t know when we’ll next be able to visit!

Just before we left Colin had spoken about having hard hearts or soft hearts & the importance of having soft hearts, at the Sunday service. A week or so later we were staying at a place called Brora, on the NE coast of Scotland about halfway between Inverness and John O Groats, where Andrew was the GP for many years. There is a fabulous beach – we never did manage to walk the whole length of it. The first evening we were there we were walking along the beautiful sand in the evening light as you can see in the 1st photo. In the distance you can see a spit of land going into the sea. When we got there it actually was an area just covered by stones. Now these were not pebbles easily walked over, neither were they great big boulders. They were indeed beautiful to look at, made up of all shapes and colours & just a bit bigger than our boots. But you know their size made them so difficult to walk on. They were at all angles and balance was so difficult!

The tide had just gone out so they were mostly wet and rather slippery . It would have been so easy to have slipped & caught ones foot between them & twisted or even broken an ankle or leg or arm. In fact it was so difficult Andrew refused to walk over them again, preferring to go round up & over the sand dunes as he felt so unbalanced trying to walk over them.

It was then the thought occurred to me: Colin had been talking about the need for soft hearts not stoney hearts & I thought, these stones are so beautiful but so hard they can be dangerous. So I thought if we have hard hearts that also can be dangerous for those close to us. If we have soft hearts we can give and take but if someone comes near to us & we are hard towards them we could cause them to fall & hurt themselves (emotionally/ mentally/ spiritually) & at the very least they will feel uncomfortable and I thought in these days where we are forced together & confined in small spaces the importance of having soft hearts of love towards those near to us & who come to us maybe for help support & fellowship. It’s no good just looking beautiful! As a church Family we want to be loving, kind and welcoming, supportive & helpful but when we have hard hearts people can injure themselves on us. What a thought!

Let us pray: thank you that you want us to have soft hearts towards you and other people. Lord today we come to you and ask that you would help us to have soft hearts. If we have hard hearts in any area of our lives please soften them so we can give and share & love those around us & help & support them and not damage them in any way. We pray this especially for families suddenly having to live at such close quarters. Be with us and change us today we ask. May Your peace and love be working in every family giving your grace to deal with every situation  in Jesus Name, Amen.