Heart To Heart Talk

How I love talking to people after church.
My church family is precious to me.
There is nothing better than hugs from the children as they show me their favorite toy.
There is nothing nicer than hearing their stories or whatever is on their hearts.

One little girl likes to come and talk to me.
Her big smile and bright eyes melt my heart.
She wanted to come talk to the lady with the red lips, her mom said smiling.
She knows my lipstick and me very well.

Another family of four boys runs over to our pew each week.
There is always an opportunity to greet others before the service begins.
They use that time to come over from their side of the church just to get a hug.
They go down the line waiting for their hug and then run back to their parents.

Another mom told me that her two oldest daughters now share a room.
The nursery belongs to their little sister now.
I love to listen to them at night, she said.
They are in the room whispering to each other, having sister talk before they fall asleep.

I looked down at these two little girls and could just imagine them telling their secrets.
Stories that only they would understand.
Fears being poured out on their pillow.
I can only imagine.

Sister talk.
Just between the two of them.
Someone to listen to you in the dark.

I never had any brothers or sisters, but I had a best friend.
Every young girl asks if her friend can sleep over.
There in the dark, secrets and fears are poured out on a pillow.
There is something about talking without being seen, yet knowing you’re being heard.

What do you do when you are beyond the sister talk stage?
What do you do when your best friend lives far away?
What do you do with your fears and your secrets in the dark?

Who do you go to, no holds barred?
Who do you go to knowing that you will be unconditionally accepted?
Who do you go to knowing that you will be fully understood down deep?

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:5-8)

Go in your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.
Have a heart to heart talk with God.

There in the dark, your deepest secrets and fears are poured out on your pillow.
Poured out to the One who made you.
Poured out to the One who knows it anyway, before you even utter a word.

Our spouses and our families are the closest relationships we have on earth.
They know us better than anyone; they see us at our best and at our worst.
Even those relationships pale in comparison to our relationship with God.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)

The only One who can understand our heart is the One who made our heart.
God.

We go through life feeling misunderstood.
We go through life feeling like no one truly listens to us.
We go through life feeling invisible at times.

Perhaps we are going to the wrong person.
There is One Person we can always go to, One Person in whose name we pray.
One who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus.

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, there is now a Way to the Father.
Jesus is the Way.
We come to Jesus in faith, trusting in His finished work on the cross.
That is the only work we are to do: to believe in the One that was sent.

We know that we are heard by the One who hears.
We know that we are seen by the One who sees.
We know that we are understood by the only One who truly understands.

We will still have fears and insecurities, but we have a place to put them.
We can talk to the Father in prayer in the dark, in the light, anytime, or anywhere.

Like the little girls, we can have a heart to heart talk with God.
Imagine.

Fears poured out.
Secrets told.
Safe.
Everything put in its proper place.

Have you had a heart to heart talk with God today?