Bekah at Femina had lots of good tips oriented toward our particular emotional tendencies as women. Her intended audience is unmarried women, but there are several that apply no matter the age or marital status:
1. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of thinking of your heart as an
innocent and beautiful treasure which you will tenderly bestow on some
worthy knight in shining armor. That’s just a cop out.
2. Just because you “feel” something doesn’t make it ok. We too often
think that when we “feel” a certain way, that somehow validates it. If
it’s something you shouldn’t be feeling, make yourself stop. Pray for
grace. If your “feeling” is a sin, confess it.
3. Don’t be an idiot about stories. Letting yourself swoon and obsess
about fictional characters (or actors) may seem innocent – it’s not. If
you have problems with infatuations, take an honest look at what you
let your mind and emotions do in books and movies. Your imagination is
the training ground for real life. If you have swoony pictures of Johnny
Depp up on your wall, go take them down. (Go on – do it now. I’ll wait
til you get back. And as a spiritual exercise, once you’ve un-taped it
from the wall, try taping it back up again and see how well it sticks.)
4. Don’t focus all your efforts and energies on impressing the guys,
or getting admiration from them. As you are getting dressed and doing
your hair in the morning, if all your mental energy is expended on
imagining what the guys will think when they see you . . . well I
guarantee that you will be unable to guard your heart if and when any of
your efforts prove successful. If all your conversations in real life
and on facebook are conducted for the benefit of any guys who possibly
be listening, you have officially given away the store as far as
guarding your heart goes. If you’re constantly casting about in the
hopes of male attention, well then I think we’ve pinpointed your
problem.
5. If the guy is a wimp, a skeeze, a non-Christian, already married,
or otherwise unsuitable . . . then no matter how handsome he is, or how
complimentary he is about your eyes, don’t let your emotions go there.
See the full post here: Heart Guarding (and other ways to whitewash a tomb)
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