I posted this quote by C.S. Lewis back in February of 2006, but I felt it noteworthy to post again . . .

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable" . . . .

~C.S. Lewis

This is my prayer . . .

O Lord, please keep my heart ever tender before you - open up my heart to give and receive love, no matter how badly I've been wounded by people and their cold, selfish ways. I ask that you would break up the hard, stone-like places where my heart needs your touch. I am asking that you would heal my heart, and touch the inner places of my heart and spirit, so that I can be vulnerable and willing to love again, without reservation or mistrust. I yearn for my heartbeat to follow the rhythms of Your heartbeat. I long for my life to move in the direction towards the sound of Your compassionate voice. Teach me to love as You love - for You are the meaning of love, and the one and only reason why I have any capacity to love at all. I was made to love You and be loved by You.

This is the hope of my calling . . .

~ Nikki Fairbanks