Well... Bless Your Heart
By Jessica Edwards
While living here in the South for over 28 years, I've come to know several southern words or sayings with meanings that most folks from not 'round here ain't got no idea what they mean. 😉
One of those sayings is “Well, bless your heart.” Sometimes it's used as a sweet way to give comfort or gratitude. Other ways it's used as a polite way to insult someone.
I did a little searching to see when and where this saying originated, and according to Google, the first time it was used in print was in Henry Fielding's 1732 play The Miser. We’ve been blessing people’s hearts for nearly 300 years.That's actually not true, because did you know Moses uses a phrase very similar to “bless your heart” in Deuteronomy 29:19?
Setting the Stage
Let's set the stage first. The people of Israel had just come through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the rebellious murmuring generation had died, and Moses was taking the opportunity to repeat the Law of God and expound on it to this new generation right before they cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land.
In the first 27 chapters or so of Deuteronomy, Moses is basically retelling the Law, reminding the people of God's faithfulness, and giving warnings for disobedience. When we get to chapters 28 and 29, Moses describes in detail the blessings of obedience and the cursings for disobedience. We tend to want to focus on God's blessings and forget the cursings part. They did too, and that's where we find Moses's version of our “bless your heart” phrase.
Blessing Himself in His Heart
Deuteronomy 29:18-19 (ESV) “Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.”
Did you see that? Even though God had given very specific blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience, this person is saying, “No, I'm good. Nothing is going to happen to me. I can continue to live the way I want, listen to my own heart, have it my way, do what I want when I want, and bless my heart, I don't care what God has to say about it.”
The verses in Deuteronomy remind me of Psalm 10. There are three things the wicked says in his heart.
- Nothing is going to shake me. Nothing bad is ever going to happen to me. (vs. 6)
- God doesn't see what I'm doing. (vs. 11)
- God isn't going to hold me accountable for anything I do. (vs. 13)
Evaluating My Own Heart
I wonder... how many times do I “bless my
heart?” How often do I forge on in blatant disobedience, ignore the
conviction or prompting of the Holy Spirit, or declare my
self-sufficiency by skipping time in His Word and in prayer?
May
Moses’s "bless your heart” open our eyes and cause us to
ponder whether we’re walking in stubbornness or faithfulness. May
we heed his warnings and bless God's name with pure hearts.
Jessica Edwards is a wife and homeschool mom who loves Jesus and His Word. She lives in the beautiful North Georgia mountains where you can find her hiking or trying to grow veggies in her vegetable garden.
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