Heart of Stone, Heart of Flesh

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

I read a great book called, "The Peacegiver". One of the core messages contained with in the book is the idea that we need to have humble hearts. In other words we need to have a "fleshly heart", a heart that is soft, easily directed and influenced by God's will. This was a little bit new to me, but I was familiar with the converse idea that a hard heart is unyielding and will not be moved or changed.

I tried to teach my children about this concept so that they can recognize when their heart is right and when it is not. I will often ask them how their heart is feeling. I've gotten many responses like happy and sad. The one response surprised me when a child said, "My heart is as hard as a diamond!". He was angry with another sibling at the time.

Over the past 2 years or more I have tried to really consider the state of my heart. Sometimes I feel like it is fleshly and willing to be influenced, other times I run across hard diamond spots. These diamond spots are usually painful and difficult to give up. Recognizing the hard spot is the first step to change.