How is your heart?

Matters of the heart seem to be central to my life of late.

In the literal sense, my father just had open-heart surgery.  After a very scary couple of weeks wherein he verily bounced back from the brink of death, he's now at home recovering.  Glory to God!

In the spiritual sense, I just had a conversation with a friend of mine from home who is also a therapist and is getting ready to do a seminar for engaged couples about the first year of marriage.  She got married a year ago and is having the time of her life.  She and her husband are one of those obnoxiously perfect couples.  One of her offered up pieces of advice is, "Do a heart check.  Andy and I do a heart check every day.  How is your heart?"  She offered up other advice, too, like, LAUGH!  A lot!  I like Paige. 

I began to ponder this heart check  idea.  I wonder how it would be if we asked the significant people in our lives this very question every day, or even once a week.  Then I wondered how it would be if I checked mine with God.  At first glimpse it all sounds overly emotional for me, but when I stop and seriously ask myself, "Stacy, how is your heart?" I feel a vulnerability that I don't often want to feel.  That's not to say, mind you, that I'm in a bad place right now, it's just to say that matters of the heart are vulnerable by nature and can bring you to the brink of death.  What would it be like to live in the vulnerability every day?