Guarding your heart is very hard work. No wonder few people do it! I look at people as if they are crazy as they jump from relationship to relationship; they look at me as if I'm the crazy one for not doing the same. In the end, I may be lonely, but at least my heart will still be in one piece--safely tucked away.

If , on some crazy off-chance, I do find the one person God intended me to experience life with--well, then he alone will have my whole heart and will not have to live with the little bit left after many broken relationships.

Okay, this concept would be ideal if I had not the past I have. Considering it, I have chosen not to think of romance being even a possibility for my future. But I stress again and again the beauty of guarding the heart, no matter how difficult it may be, because so many of my friends (and family) find themselves broken time and time again by failed relationships.

You say dating doesn't involve the heart. Well, you tell that to the girl who cries her eyes out when her boyfriend dumps her after a couple of weeks. Tell that to the man who can't sleep because the pretty girl at work refuses to go to dinner with him. Tell that to the woman who can hardly walk straight from the sheer happiness of a first date that went superbly well.

All these things are emotionally-charged, whether it is a broken heart or a happy heart. That piece of your heart is given over to the other person the moment you begin thinking of them as more than a friend, even if a date has not yet taken place.

I'm trying to guard my heart. I can't say I'm perfect, nor can I say I'm even good, at it. But I am trying.

And, honestly, it has made a difference in my life.

So, again I say: you can call me crazy, think me crazy, believe I'm crazy, all you want. I still think I'm right.

Like grandma, like granddaughter. Stubborness, as well as burnt food, runs in the family.