The Place They Hold In Your Heart

I was writing a birthday message to my daughter when I typed these words:

“The place you hold in my heart is unmatched.”

Then I laughed.

Not because it wasn’t true.

Because it is.

But it also made me realize something.

When someone holds that much of your heart, they also have the ability to break it.

That’s the risk of loving deeply.

As parents, we know that feeling. Our children can bring us our greatest joy and our deepest sorrow. A phone call can make us celebrate, or it can bring us to our knees. That’s what happens when you love with your whole heart.

But the Lord gently reminded me of something.

He never asked me to build my life around another person, not even my children.

He asked me to love Him first.

Not because He wants less love for them, but because He knows my heart was never designed to be held together by anyone but Him.

When my heart is anchored in Christ, I can love my children without fear. I can celebrate them without making them my identity. I can release them into God’s hands without feeling like I’m losing a part of myself.

The place they hold in my heart is unmatched.

But the place Jesus holds is unshakable.

That’s the difference.

My children are one of God’s greatest gifts to me. I love them with everything I have. But I entrust that love to the One who loves them even more than I ever could.

Only God can safely carry the weight of my whole heart.

Everyone else, including the people I love most, is safest when they are loved from a heart that is already resting in Him.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

Matthew 22:37–38 (KJV)