by Anna Haiar

Keeping a Safe Hold on Your Sanity

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23, English Standard Version

Rejoice! The numerous texts, robocalls, attack ads, and yard signs over the past few months ended this week. Midterm elections have come and gone, and the rest of America can finally get back to our everyday lives. But now, pundits, political commentators, and armchair quarterbacks will opine for the next few days, weeks, and months, offering analysis after analysis of Tuesday’s elections. Our neighbors and friends will tweet their thoughts and let emotions get the best of them—and we will too, if we’re not careful.

If we’re being honest, the never-ending news cycles and constant stream of social media can profoundly affect our moods, thoughts, and feelings. Without realizing it, a lot of us treat our hearts and minds like open doors. Anyone and anything can walk in, share an opinion, and we take those words as truth—even when they’re not.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Guarding our hearts does not mean refusing to listen or pretending disagreement doesn’t exist. It means recognizing that not every voice deserves equal weight inside of us. What we repeatedly allow to occupy our thoughts begins to shape our peace, our decisions, and even the way we see other people. When every conflicting opinion is given full access, clarity becomes harder to find and rest becomes harder to keep.

In a world full of competing certainties, guarding our hearts is less about building higher walls and more about protecting the quiet space where we can still hear what is true. In the end, we do not guard our hearts by our own strength or wisdom. Christ Himself stands as the One who knows every voice that presses in, and He is the steady center who holds us when the noise grows loud.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado.