Where Does Your Heart Live

By Bernadette A. Moyer

Where does your heart live? Does it live in the light with a desire to make the world a better place? Or is it bitter and unkind?

I am so proud of my friends and my peers, most of them are giving back, and just about every one of us has a favorite charity or two. Most of us have raised kids that were honor students, Eagle scouts and set up for success. Today was our local Komen for the Cure run supporting breast cancer. There are so many of my peers who are involved in this cause by running, giving and doing. They are happy to be in a supporting position.

“It is in giving that we receive.” St. Francis of Assisi There were many years when I was a young mother, widowed with a child to raise that I had very little to give. My energy was spent on my career and on raising my child; however I always found ways to make contributions. Often I would bake for the school and church bake sales, I didn’t have much money but my baked goods were always a hit and helped to raise much needed funds for our church and school. If I made pie, I made two of them and found another family to give one of my pies too. I learned early on that giving was for the giver, and that everyone has something to offer.

We can trade our piano playing skills and teach piano, we can teach cooking and reading and writing. There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t have a gift and a talent that can be shared. Some people can give time and others are afforded the gift of treasure so they donate money.

If someone is unkind and unhappy you can usually see where they have stopped focusing on others and become focused solely on themselves. I heard a story a few weeks ago about a truly wealthy woman, she was a doctor and in a thriving practice. When she learned of her terminal illness she didn’t go off on a vacation or head to a tropical location, instead she volunteered her time to a soup kitchen and encouraged reading to all the adults and all the children she encountered. Her last days weren’t spent being miserable but rather in giving back to society. She wanted her life to matter and to make a difference and it did.

I have also known a few people that can best be described as “sour grapes” and “haters” they may have had a difficult time along the way but they have made the choice to stay miserable and self-focused, I call them the “eternal victims.” They waste their lives by deceiving and hurting people with lies and manipulation.

When I think about it … it is all a choice, where do you want your heart to live? Do you want to give back and make something good of your life? Or do you choose to be the “hater” who thrives on hurting others?

My heart lives in a place of giving and doing and trying my best to take even the most hurtful situations and turning them around and finding the gifts and the goodness in them. Last week I met a man, he is homeless and has no teeth and no clean clothes, after he ate a warm meal and acquired some gently used clothing I took a few minutes and chatted with him.  He pulled a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and shared with me a drawing he had created, it was a picture of a little girl sitting on a park bench eating an ice-cream with a bird over her shoulder and a sunshine skyline. His drawing was special and it drove home for me that I can’t draw to save my life, the best I could do was stick people. He was truly gifted and talented and yet he was broken down poor.

When I finished chatting with him, he gave me that piece of art that he had created. He wanted me to have something of value and what he gave me was far greater than that piece of art. It was the realization that every single one of us has something to offer and that we need not judge, each person deserves to be treated with dignity. We are all children of God.

There isn’t a person alive that shouldn’t have enough food to eat, clean clothes to wear and a safe place to lay their head at the end of every single day. I couldn’t help but think about Luke 12:48 from the Bible that reads; “to whom much has been given, much is expected.” Most of us have so much and have so much to give. We are so blessed.

Where does your heart live …

Bernadette on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer