The Heart
Ashley Tapp
MA, LPC/A, NCC
February 2026
The heart is the holder. It is the place where blessings and burdens are both kept. It gives and it takes. It loves and it resents. It aches and it heals. It holds joy and grief, hope and fear, longing and peace, sometimes all at once. We often think of the heart as a muscle, something biological and practical. But anyone who has loved deeply, lost painfully, or hoped desperately knows the heart is far more than that. The heart is the core of a person. It is the inner chamber where our truest self lives. The part of us that is not easily seen, not easily explained, and not easily shared. God knows our hearts. He knows the quiet joys we never speak aloud. He knows the wounds we’ve learned to smile over. He knows the prayers we were too tired or afraid to form into words. He knows what we carry, even when we pretend we’re empty. He knows what we long for, even when we’ve told ourselves we don’t care anymore. What we present to the world is one thing. What we hold in our hearts is another. We show strength while carrying fear. We offer kindness while wrestling with bitterness. We give encouragement while secretly feeling unsure ourselves. We appear healed while parts of us are still tender and aching.
The heart is honest even when the lips are not. It keeps record of what mattered. It remembers what hurt. It stores what shaped us. And this is not a flaw, it is a gift. Because the heart is also where transformation happens. The heart is where pain can soften into wisdom. Where grief can turn into compassion. Where disappointment can deepen into understanding. Where brokenness can be reshaped into beauty. Nothing is wasted in the hands of God, not even the things that hurt us. So the question is not just what is in your heart, but what are you allowing it to become? Are you letting old wounds turn into walls, or into windows? Are you allowing bitterness to take root, or are you making space for healing? Are you holding tightly to what hurt you, or gently offering it up so it can be transformed?
Ask yourself: What do I truly hold in my heart? And what purpose is it serving me? Because whatever we carry shapes how we see, how we love, how we trust, and how we move through the world. And here is the hope, the quiet, powerful, unshakable hope: Your heart is not too broken to be healed. Not too guarded to be softened. Not too tired to be restored. Not too wounded to love again. The heart may be the holder, but God is the healer. And when you place what you carry into His hands, even the heaviest things become lighter. Even the deepest pain becomes meaningful. Even the most wounded heart can become a place of peace, purpose, and love again.