Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
My "heart" is not only the seat of my emotions, but it also affects my thinking processes and my actions. So my life flows from my "heart," similar to how my physical life, my blood, flows from my heart into every part of my body. Just as I endeavor to keep my heart and body in good health, so also I seek to fill my "heart" with God's agape love, that unconditional caring for others regardless of the cost to me. His love is the "blood" that flows into every part of my living; my decisions, my words and my relationships. To love God and love my neighbor is the fulfillment of all "the Law and the Prophets," the whole program and plan God has plotted out for us.
Therefore, I will "guard [my] heart," to put into it only what is positive and good (see I Corinthians 13) and turn away from anything that is not true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good reputation, excellent or worthy of praise (see Philippians 4:8). Then I will know that the peace of God will settle any upheavals in my emotions and comfort me in the hard times I may face.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
