Mom Heart Moments #276

You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

IF SOMEONE COULD SEE THE INSIDE of your soul —the pathways of your thoughts, the flow of your worship, the landscape of your attitudes —what would it look like? Would it hold beauty or ugliness?

A beautiful soul is cultivated and crafted over time by the elements that surround it and pour into its inner chamber. If someone fills a pitcher with lemonade, lemonade pours forth. We must be careful to fill our souls with what is beautiful, true, and lovely if that’s what we want to bring to others.

When my children were living at home, I sought to fill the moments of our days with all that was beautiful, inspiring, noble, lovely, good, and excellent, exercising vigilance to pick out stories and books that would inspire, seeking to protect my children from insipid, empty, dark, sarcastic, or shallow books, media, and people. I knew I was laying a foundation for life. I wanted them to have such a vast amount of truth, beauty, love, and goodness stored up in the deep vestiges of their souls, that they could draw from the wealth of that beauty for the rest of their lives.

My concern today is that many moms, exposed to contemporary culture, don’t even have a model or understanding of what is good. Too often, our faith is mediocre and weak and insipid because our souls are as empty, shallow, and contaminated as the fallen culture that surrounds us. One cannot watch garbage and violence and adultery and not be affected. One cannot feed on what is shallow and not become shallow.

How can you protect your own soul and the souls around you from contaminants and instead fill them with truth, beauty, and goodness?