A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.... It was 2 a.m. as I sat in silence with a distraught friend when she suddenly whispered, “I don’t want God to give me a heart of flesh; my heart of stone keeps me safe.” She had been abused and abandoned in unthinkable ways by those who were supposed to keep her safe. Her heart of stone protected her.

God does not ask us to wallow in shame or self-hatred. When we recognize how our own hard-heartedness has impacted others, we begin to heal.