Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Guard Your Heart (06/08/12)
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TITLE: The Bypass | Previous Challenge Entry
By Connie K Cameron
06/11/12 -
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One day in 2006, Mark and I were arguing, I don’t even remember what it was about, but I do remember that the argument ended with Mark going for a drive to think. He told me later that he went out for a bite to eat and then to the emergency room because he wasn’t feeling good. He hadn’t been feeling good for some time.
Mark called me from the hospital to say sorry, and to tell me that he was going to have open heart surgery. I thought for sure he was just joking but the next month turned into one of the hardest months of my life.
Mark had five bypasses that day. And for the next 30 days I visited my husband in the ICU of the hospital. He had many complications.
Mark finally got to come home and I nursed him back to semi-health. I say semi-health because he lost the use of his kidneys while in the hospital and to this day, he goes to dialysis three times a week for three and a half hours a session.
I’ve heard it said that the heart is an over glorified pump, but is it? Have you ever heard someone say, have a heart? Or have you ever had a change of heart? A broken heart? A heart felt gift? A heavy heart? Did you ever learn something and know it by heart? Or have you ever had your heart set on something? Seems to me that it is more important than a pump, and the Bible expresses the same message.
Jesus explains to the disciples, in Matthew 15:17, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body, But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean.”
Researchers have found that, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Almost 2,000 Americans die from heart disease each day. One death every 44 seconds.+
Jesus also said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
My mom wears a locket around her neck with a picture of my dad in it. They were married for 60 years when my dad passed away three years ago and my mom still has such love for him. She took the locket off to take a shower, and she held that locket lovingly in her hands and she said, “This is my heart.”
And, in Matthew, it says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead that you will be saved.
When you are feeling love for another, as with my mom, that feeling isn’t in your liver or spleen, it’s in your heart. And without a heart, you couldn’t survive, like my husband, Mark. For a part of the body that is so important, we have to take good care of our heart, keep it safe and healthy. There are many ways to keep your heart healthy in the natural, but there is no better way to keep your heart spiritually safe than to accept the Holy Spirit into your heart. The Holy Spirit will guard your heart.
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The only thing I would suggest to make it even better is to do more showing and less telling. Instead of telling us that Mark doesn't feel good describe what you noticed. He grabbed his stomach and groaned. or perhaps. Mark shook his arm and massaged his shoulders while we were arguing. Things like that paint a picture for the reader and helps establish a relationship..
I think you did a fantastic job of finding perfect scripture to back up your points. Just make sure when you use them to reference them and tell which translation you used. You can do that as a footnote and it doesn't increase your word count. I especially liked how you brought the story full-circle. The beginning was a great pull to make me want to keep reading and the ending left me satisfied and I had a sense of peace.
Thank you. God Bless~