It's that time of year again for Trunk-or-Treat here at Triad. Kids already have it marked on their calendars in great anticipation for the fun and candy that awaits. Many parts of this fun include the kids dressing up as their favorite superheroes, movie characters, and desired future vocations like police officers and firefighters. My daughter, Kinsley, wants to dress up as a doctor. She even has a little toy doctor kit filled with medical tools. She has her little toy flashlight and scope used to check my eyes and ears. She even has a toy shot that, for some reason, she loves to pretend to stick me with (maybe she watched too much CNN last year). After I get done “crying”, she gives me a Band-Aid to take care of my boo-boos. Oh, and I can’t forget her favorite doctor tool-- her toy stethoscope. With it, she gets real quiet and says, “Dad, let me check your heart… let me check your heart.”

You know, we all need a heart check sometimes. No, I’m not talking about a physical heart check, though that’s important. But I’m talking about a spiritual heart check. The Bible has much to say about our spiritual hearts and the importance of checking on them. One of my favorite verses states, “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). While I don’t have the time and space to do an exhaustive word study on the word heart, just know that it’s a complex and complicated part of our being--where our desires and decisions take shape. With this in mind, we just can’t help but realize the importance of guarding our hearts as Solomon, the author of this verse, cautioned. Note too that this verse plainly states that our hearts contain the issues of life… and if we’re honest, it doesn’t take too long to realize that we all have some “issues” of our own. Since our hearts carry such important matters, they are then in need of spiritual care and check-ups.

I mention all of this to get us to ask ourselves when was the last time we checked our hearts? Or better yet, when was the last time we had our hearts checked by someone else--especially by God? If God placed a spiritual stethoscope to our hearts right now, what would it reveal? What would it show our hearts to beat after? I can’t help but to equate the soft whispers of my daughter asking me to check my heart with the soft whispers of the Holy Spirit to do so as well. He desires to be our great physician so that He can align our hearts better with His.

So today, I hope we all will take the time to invite the Holy Spirit in our lives to perform His loving check-up that will guide us in the matters of our hearts. I can confidently tell you that the specific matters of our heart, matter to God; and the heart examination that He offers us will always leave us healthier than before. So why not have such a check-up done today?!