How to Create a Heart Map

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Recently, my favorite girls and I planned a retreat for some relaxation and refreshment. These are my people. The ones I spill all my secrets too. This was our second annual (perhaps soon to be bi-annual) trip up to the Country Lake Christian Retreat Center, in southern Indiana. Country Lake has a lodge, with breathtaking views. It is quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. And perfect.

The four of us are great friends, homeschool moms, and accountability partners. We meet once a month to share our struggles and goals, and spend the rest of the month holding each other accountable for the changes we hope to make in our lives as wives, moms, homeschool teachers, and Christ-followers. We get down to the nitty-gritty, often sharing things with each other that we will never share with another person. Having them in my life is priceless.

Our time this particular weekend was loosely scheduled to have some time for girl talk, devotions, prayer, exercise, rest, reading, and quiet time. The lodge is very comfortable and welcoming. We were provided all of our meals, an amazing fireplace, wonderful leather sofas and comfy beds. It is the best place for a retreat such as ours (and close to home, too!). I actually went up a day ahead of the other ladies to have some time completely alone. It was a glorious time of rest, reading, praying, and reflection.

For our time together, the girls and I decided ahead of time that each of us would prepare a short devotional so that we would focus some time on Bible study at least 4 times during the weekend. I thought I would tell you a little bit about the devotional I shared with the girls.

A couple of weeks ago, on Pinterest, I saw the idea to do a “heart map” as a writing exercise. It really had no basis in spiritual matters, but was a cute way to come up with descriptive words and illustrate those things that you love. Because I chose the verses from Psalm 51:10-11 as my Scripture to go along with my word of the year, it clicked with me that I could make a similar exercise a part of our devotional time — creating a heart map not necessarily of just what or who we love, but of anything we believe our hearts should be focused on this year.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence. And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:10-11)

We briefly discussed what it means to have a clean (pure heart) and how the word “create” goes beyond being made, to continuing to be shaped and molded, and fine-tuned. We talked about how God does this to our hearts and lives and how our friendship is one of the tools he uses. We also talked about the idea of being slaves to whatever we allow to be our master, instead of God (Romans 6:16). And that in order for God to be our Master, and create a pure heart within us, our hearts (desire, focus, time, energy, lives) must have a focus toward the things of Him.

After reading these verses and discussing these ideas, we took paper (or our journals) and drew our own heart maps. We considered those people, things, and ideas that we wanted to focus our hearts toward in the coming year, giving each of us a nice visual to reference throughout the year whenever we realize we’re getting off course. Althought I love to doodle, I don’t pretend to be an artist. Here is what mine looked like when I was finished.

I often doodle my devotional time, but this type of activity was new to the other ladies. I think they enjoyed it though, and it was a very thought-provoking activity for all of us. I hope that they will continue to look at their heart maps throughout the year, and remember our time together, as well as remain focused on the things of their hearts.

Amazingly, one of the other ladies had chosen the same verse for her devotional time, and another chose verses from the love chapter — 1 Corinthians 13. To top it all off, the lodge had decorated with a love and hearts theme. Isn’t God amazing? That could not have been coincidence. Valentine’s Day is more than a month away!

We had a wonderful weekend of fellowship. I am feeling very blessed and thankful tonight. Not just for the weekend. Also, for the ladies God has put in my path . . . for such a time as this.

Create a heart map to represent all of those things you desire to focus your heart on throughout the year. #heartmap #doodle #doodling #love

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