Feeding The Heart

Many of us are familiar with the Cherokee story of the grandfather telling his grandson about the two wolves that fight within us.  As the story goes, within each person there are two wolves fighting.  One wolf is focused on anger, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride and ego.  The other is focused on joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, compassion, generosity, truth, humility, kindness, empathy and faith. In response to the grandson’s question of which one will win, the grandfather’s answer is, “The one you feed”. All of us experience negative thoughts and emotions that harden and limit us.  The encouragement within the story is to be self-aware and intentional in feeding ‘good’ things to our hearts.

Within Luke, there is also the bible passage about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. Here again, there is the encouragement to plant good seeds within our hearts. What we speak and how we act, flows directly from our hearts.  We are encouraged to plant good seeds within our own hearts, the hearts of our families and in the groups of which we are a part. Reflecting on God’s word and seeking forgiveness for those times when our minds and hearts become filled with hardening thoughts can help to soften our hearts and help us to reset. Learning to let go and meet people and the world with good hearts enables us and those we encounter to live life abundantly.