How one moment taught me to guard my heart instead of feeding offense.
When I was a student at Biola, a friend of mine invited me to hang out in her dorm room. We were working quietly on something when one of her roommates came home—completely unaware that we were there.
Within moments, she started talking poorly about my friend.
I froze. My eyes immediately went to my friend, waiting to see how she would react.
She didn’t panic. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even raise her voice.
Instead, she quietly reached for her phone… and turned on some music.
Just loud enough to let her roommate know that someone was there. Just enough to give her the chance to stop.
Later, I asked her why she did that. Why didn’t she listen? Why didn’t she confront her?
Her response stuck with me:
“That conversation wasn’t meant for me to hear. Even though it was about me, I choose to protect my heart. I don’t want to open a door that will only damage how I see her.”
And honestly… I loved her for that.
She wasn’t being passive.
She wasn’t avoiding conflict out of fear.
She was choosing wisdom. She was choosing peace.
Because the truth is—just because something is about you doesn’t mean it’s for you.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your heart is walk away from the temptation to overhear, to dig, to react, or to carry offense that wasn’t even meant to reach you.
We live in a culture that constantly invites us into drama and offense—encouraging us to overhear, to assume the worst, to jump into battles that God never asked us to fight.
But there’s something holy about guarding your heart (Proverbs 4:23).
About choosing peace over pride.
About trusting God to defend you instead of needing to defend yourself.
That day, my friend chose peace.
And now, years later, I still carry that lesson with me:
You don’t have to hear everything.
You don’t have to fight every battle.
You can choose to protect your heart—and that’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.
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