Bless Her Heart

Bless Her Heart, to get the full understanding of the phrase you have to hear or say with a Texas twang with four syllables:

Bless Hur Ha-art

Yep, it’s a Southern thang.

Photo credit: school.familyeducation.com

As I was writing my blog in my head while driving, I was thinking about my 14-year-old’s first day of  High School. Last night she was so nervous she was convinced she had a fever. This morning she was up early and walking around the house with her backpack on about an hour before the bus was scheduled to arrive; talking non-stop.

My heart was overwhelmed for her and I immediately knew the best thing I could do for her (and for me) at that moment was to pray. The first words out of my mouth were “Bless her heart, Lord.”  As I prayed for Him to guide her through the day, to go before her and lead the way, I practiced telling her, in my head, to remember who she is and as she meets new people choose those she wants to associate with carefully.

She has her father’s genes (bless hur ha-art) and she will have no problem being sound in who she is, so I pray her interactions with others will be tempered with humility and respect. Please Lord, PLEASE. (We are working on the missing Filter Gene, you know the one. The one that stops you from blurting out the first thought that comes to your brain? Yep, that one.)

 As our children grow, we don’t stop teaching, training, worrying, crying or following the bus to school (ok well maybe we stop actually following the bus to school, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to).

So today to every woman sending her child off to their first day at a new school, I know your pain and I say Bless Your Ha-art.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.