Restored & Ready Part 3: How to Guard Your Heart the Right Way

“How to Guard Your Heart the Right Way”

What does it actually mean to guard your heart?

After being hurt, many women either open too quickly or shut down completely—but neither leads to healthy, lasting relationships.

In this episode of Real Life Real Faith Real God, we talk about how to guard your heart with wisdom, not fear.

Inside this episode:

● The difference between guarding your heart and hiding it

● How to develop healthy emotional boundaries

● Why healing changes how you choose relationships

● How to recognize patterns, consistency, and alignment

This is about learning how to stay open… while also being protected.

✨ Free Gift for You
Start your healing journey with my “Restored and Ready” guide:
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Life gets real fast. Some days feel heavier than others, and sometimes it can seem like God isn't concerned about our everyday lives. But He cares about every detail-and He's speaking through our everyday moments.

Real Life, Real Faith, Real God with Tracy Glass brings 5 -10 minute devotional conversations where Scripture meets real life. In each short episode, you can expect a scripture to help you hear God above the noise, a real-life reflection for hope and clarity, and a simple step to partner with God today.

Create a daily rhythm of meeting with God-begin your day in His presence, rest there, and trade your hurry for His peace. Build a short, rich, consistent quiet time that feeds your soul for the day. You're not alone; God is with you in every detail. Find out more about Tracy and plug into all her resources at TracyGlassCoaching.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hey there, I'm Tracy. This is real life, real faith, real God. You're in the right place to get real. Real about life, real about your faith, and real with God. This is your moment to pause, take a deep breath, and stop pretending everything's fine if it isn't. Because God can handle your truth. He's not looking for perfect, he's looking for present. So whether you're feeling strong in your faith or struggling to hold on, you're not alone. Let's meet with him, just as we are right here, right now. Welcome back, everyone, to real life, real faith, real God. This is your host, Tracy Glass. And I'm so glad that you're joining me today. This is episode three of our series, uh Restored and Ready, and we've been talking about relationships and asking the question as women, are we ready to love again? That becomes a very difficult question and even conversation to have after you have been deeply hurt, disappointed, betrayed, and rejected in a relationship. But we've been talking about this difficult topic, especially for the woman who feels within her heart that yes, I would love to one day love again, but just doesn't know where to start. And in episode three, we're going to talk about something very important. And that is how do we guard our heart the right way after we've made the decision that yes, I'm going to try this again. I'm going to see if I can try and love again. And as we mentioned in episode two, that after our hearts heal, we begin to think differently. We process differently. And oftentimes we will not make the same choices or even decisions that we have made in prior relationships. So let's dig right into this conversation on how do we guard our hearts the right way? Well, we have been walking through this journey together. And basically, that journey has been from heartbreak to healing. And we have also asked ourselves some hard questions like Am I ready? Where do I even start? And what if I get hurt again? And today we're talking about something that is so important in the process. And that is how to guard our heart. Because if we're honest, after you've been hurt, guarding your heart can feel like one or two extremes. Either you let down your guard too quickly and you end up getting hurt again, or you build walls so high that no one can get close to you at all. And neither of those is what God has intended. The Bible says that above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. That means that our hearts matter, our emotions matter, and our healing matters to God. But guarding our heart is not about shutting down. It's not about saying, I'm never letting anyone in again. It's not about avoiding connection or running away from vulnerability because that's not really guarding your heart. That's hiding your heart. And there is a difference. I remember when I began to heal, I realized I didn't actually know how to guard my heart the right way. I only knew extremes. I knew what it looked like to be open, but not protected. And I knew what it looked like to be protected, but completely closed off too. But somewhere in the middle of my healing journey, God began to show me something different, guarding my heart. And that starts with letting God heal it. Because you can't guard something properly if it's still wounded in ways you haven't addressed. And as my heart began to heal, something shifted. Instead of reacting out of hurt, I started responding from a place of peace. That's when I realized guarding my heart is not about fear. It's about me using wisdom. It's about being aware. It's about me being intentional. It's about being led by God, not by my emotions and not by my past pain. Because here's what happens when you don't guard your heart the right way. You ignore things that shouldn't be ignored, you overlook patterns, and you accept less than what you truly deserve. Not because you don't know better, it's because something inside of you is still searching for validation. But when our heart is healed, we don't move like that anymore. We don't feel the need to prove our worth, we don't chase attention, and we don't settle just to avoid being alone because our identity is no longer tied to someone choosing us. It's rooted in God. And that changes everything. Now let's be clear guarding your heart doesn't mean you never feel anything. It doesn't mean you don't get excited. It doesn't mean you don't care. It simply means you don't give access to your heart too quickly. You allow time, you pay attention, you watch for consistency because words can sound good, but consistency reveals truth. And when you're guarding your heart, you're not rushing ahead of what God is showing you, you're not ignoring the small things, you're not brushing off what doesn't feel right, you're paying attention with peace. And here's something I had to learn. You can care about someone and still recognize they're not right for you. That doesn't make you cold, that makes you wise. Because guarding your heart also means this you trust God to protect you, even when you don't see everything clearly. I remember learning to rely on God in a deeper way. How I had to trust Him to reveal what I couldn't see, and to protect me from anything or anyone that didn't have my best interests at heart. I'm gonna say that again. I had to trust God to reveal to me what I could not see and to protect me from anything or anyone that didn't have my best interests at heart. And that brought me a level of peace I didn't have before, because I realized something. I didn't have to control everything, and I didn't have to figure everything out on my own. I could walk forward one step at a time, knowing God was guiding me. And when my old heart issues tried to resurface, because they did and they will, I learned not to hide them. I learned to bring them to God, to be honest about them, to let Him continue the healing process. Because guarding your heart isn't a one-time decision, it's an ongoing process. It's something you do daily through prayer, through being aware, and through choosing not to ignore what God is showing you. So today I want you to sit with this question. Am I guarding my heart or am I hiding it? Because God didn't create your heart to be hidden, He created it to be whole. And when your heart is whole, you don't have to live in fear of being hurt again. You can live in peace, knowing you are guided by the Lord, protected by the Lord, and loved by him as well. Let's pray. God, thank you for caring about our hearts. Thank you for being the one who heals us and teaches us how to live in wisdom. God, show us where we've been hiding instead of guarding our hearts. Help us release fear, help us release control and help us trust you more deeply. Teach us how to walk in wisdom, to pay attention and to follow your lead in every connection. And when old wounds try to resurface, give us the courage to bring them to you instead of hiding them. God, continue the healing process in us day by day, step by step. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to real life, real faith, real God today. And just a reminder: you don't have to shut your heart down to protect it. You just have to let God lead you as you move forward. Also, a reminder to go to the description section of this episode where you can download the free guide of Are You Ready to Love Again? My gift to you. All right, I'll see you in the next episode. Have a blessed day. Bye-bye. Thanks for taking a few moments to meet with God today. I pray this moment reminded you that you're not alone, you're not forgotten, and you don't have to carry it on. Whatever real looks like for you right now, there is a real faith and a real God walking with you in it. Until next time, keep showing up, keep being honest, and keep trusting the one who never lets you go.