A Heart of Gold

By Gary A. House

I truly believe that we are all born with a heart of gold.  With proper spiritual nurturing and guidance, that golden heart grows over time.

I, like many others, have been following the medical journey of Harnett County’s 12 year-old Ellen Whittington’s battle with auto immune encephalitis for nine months on FaceBook.

One 11 year-old girl from Greensboro, Cienna Joyce, has also been following Ellen’s progress even though she has never met Ellen.

Cienna had a birthday not long ago.  During the planning stages of her birthday party, Cienna informed her parents, Kim and Sonya Joyce, that she wanted to have a birthday party but she wanted no gifts for herself.    She claimed that she had everything that she needed.  From that golden heart that has been growing for 11 years, she asked if the guests could bring donations to be sent to The Ellen Fund. She felt that she needed to help Ellen more than she needed gifts for herself.

While on a business trip, Brian Whittington, Ellen’s father, crossed paths with Mrs. Joyce and was told of Cienna’s request to help Ellen instead of having a traditional birthday party.  Mrs. Joyce then handed Mr. Whittington an envelope with a donation to The Ellen Fund.

I have never met the Joyce family but I believe that there is an abundance of spiritual nurturing and guidance in the Joyce household.  They are raising a daughter that is and is destined to be a great, compassionate human being.

The world would be a much better place if those hearts of gold with which we were born grew larger each year like Cienna’s golden heart.  I often talk about the inherent goodness of humankind and

Cienna’s actions prove my theory to be correct. 

For some unknown reason, it appears as if our hearts of gold often get smaller as we get older.  The causes may be more responsibility, less time, more self-centeredness, or social and economic environments.  Whatever the reason, we must teach our hearts to grow like Cienna’s has grown.

In Matthew 18:2-4, Jesus called a little child and had him stand among the disciples and said “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

We should take a good look at ourselves and be grateful for what we have.  We also need to be cognizant of the needs of others and open our hearts like Cienna did for Ellen.

Would not the world be a wonderful place if everyone walked around with golden hearts?

I would personally like to thank Cienna for helping me and others reprioritize our lives and making our hearts grow again.  May we all strive to have hearts of gold like Cienna.