Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Proverbs 3:3-4

We almost naturally seem to think of the heart as the location and symbol of love, perhaps because of the reaction of the physical organ to the emotion. But if you think of the heart as we do, purely an emotional thing, we miss part of how the ancient Israelites would have understood this verse. Indeed, the heart did contain emotion but it also encompasses the place where decisions were made. Maybe we would substitute the word “mind” if we received this knowledge in a modern context. So love and faithfulness are not merely the feelings we should always hold in our hearts of emotion, but love and faithfulness should guide our mindful actions. Engraving love and faithfulness as the rules permanently enshrined in our hearts guides our whole being.

Ethan Kirl