Boss Your Heart

Heaven gained an angel of the greatest kind today. As many of you know- Chrissie Patterson went to dance with Jesus. I can only imagine that sweet smile on her face when she realizes how pleased Jesus is with her perfect heart.

The Lord gave us the privilege of meeting the Patterson family through a series of events- all of them surrounding this families incredible heart. I still to this day find it interesting how the word 'heart' has woven itself into the description of this family over and over without my even realizing it. You can read a post I wrote about Chrissie's big sister Mattie heart here.

A sweet blog reader decided instead of just following the Patterson's blog she wanted to do something. (thank you Rachael). Chrissie's precious mama had sat beside Chrissie's hospital bed one day and whispered into Chrissie's ear to 'boss her heart'. Chrissie did and we witnessed a miracle. So Rachael created a beautiful necklace that says "Boss your heart" (see below).

Because what we don't often realize is that each day we are given the chance to witness a miracle and 'boss our own hearts'.

The problem is... is that Satan is very sly and often when we are given the opportunity to 'boss our hearts' we chose instead to feel entitled to our feelings of:
fear
self pity
jealousy
pride
bitterness
anger
prejudice...
boss us instead.

We remain stagnant, paralyzed- because we allow these feelings to consume us- and we become useless to God.

Instead of bossing our hearts and practicing grace and love to the person who cut us off in a line of traffic, we instead allow anger in our hearts and cuss them out instead.


Instead of bossing our hearts to practice grace and love to our spouse who once again forgot to take out the trash, we allow our hearts to grow bitter.

Instead of bossing our hearts to practice grace and love to a friend who spoke behind our backs, we allow our hearts to hold onto a grudge of unforgiveness for years.

Instead of bossing our hearts to open our home to a child with special needs, we instead let fear consume our hearts and we close the door to the possibility of loving someone less than perfect.

Instead of bossing our hearts- we waste our time doing things that are easy, things that are safe, things that are comfortable, things that are all about 'us'- all the time trying to justify to ourselves and to the world that they truly matter- when down deep we know they do not.

Today, I am making the decision in Chrissie's' memory to boss my heart every single minute of every single day. I am asking God to do a mighty work in my life. I am asking the Lord to help me be the boss of my heart. I am allowing Him to clean out the ugliness and renew it with a heart of love. I am asking Him to get rid of any traces of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, self pity, pride, prejudice and fear.

The Patterson family adopted Chrisse knowing there was a risk. Knowing that Chrissie's precious heart was sick, but saying yes to God simply because He asked.

Was there pain involved in that risk? Absolutely- more than you and I will probably ever know.

But in that pain was also more beauty than most of us will ever experience in a lifetime.

And I know, without a shadow of a doubt that if you ask the Patterson's if it was worth it- hands down they would say YES.

For in true Jesus style, he used a child with a 'defective' heart- and allowed her to be more 'effective' than many of us who have healthy ones.


So my challenge for you today is to choose to become the boss of your heart.

Boss your heart and love the unlovable.

Boss your heart and forgive the unforgivable.

Boss and heart and say yes to Jesus no matter what the cost.

Boss your heart into reacting in LOVE every single time.

Take that leap of faith and be willing to hurt with those who are hurting.

Give until it hurts.

Love until your heart feels like it is going to be ripped out.

Make your days count- just like Chrissie did.

Patterson family, thank you for your amazing example of what I hope one day to be. Thank you for saying yes- and thank you for having the faith to do it. Thank you for sharing your story and your heart. Thank you for allowing us the privilege of witnessing your miracle. Thank you for changing me, challenging me and teaching me what truly counts in this life. Thank you for sharing your beautiful Serbian Sensation with the world- her life changed ours.

We love you more than words can say.

If you would like to purchase your own "Boss your heart" necklace you can visit here. $30 of all proceed go to help the Patterson Family offset medical costs.