Jammed shut hearts are never happy. They keep joy out.

More harm is being spread by the neglect of heart sanitizer than by the neglect of hand sanitizer. Like the body, the human heart needs to be continually cleaned. True sanity comes from a sanitized heart.

Few people walk around with pungent body odor, but carrying around heart-stench seems to be becoming common. Bodywash is good; mouthwash is too, but heart-wash is far more important. Open up to humility, honesty, kindness, repentance, and forgiveness.

If words harden your heart or enrage you, choose not to hear, read, or repeat them. I search for books filled with heart-nourishing words and read them with joy, passion, and awe.

I fill my mind with heart-softening words and hear (or read) them with delight, but turn away from heart-hardening words. There are too many heart-hardening words, but far too few heart-nourishing words.

The living Jesus specializes in cleaning hearts, but you have to bring Him your dirty laundry. Like a dog, I can’t scrub myself clean, so I let my Master, the living Jesus, regularly wash my heart.