As a parent you are never, ever dealing just with the words and actions of your children. You are always also dealing with the thing that controls their words and behavior: the heart.

A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.

God's law is meant to address and expose the heart because sin is always a matter of the heart before it is an action of the body.

Somehow, what's in our hearts, good or bad is eventually translated into words and deeds.

The heart is like a woman, and the head is like a man, and although man is the head of woman, woman is the heart of man, and she turns man's head because she turns his heart.

The spiritual reality for many of us is that the one thing is not the Lord. And the danger in that reality is this: your one thing will control your heart, and whatever controls your heart will exercise inescapable influence over your words, choices, and actions. Your one thing will become that which shapes and directs your responses to the situations and relationships of your daily life. If the Lord isn't your one thing, the thing that is your one thing will be your functional lord.

Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,

He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.

The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person's life.

As a man thinketh in his heart; so is he. Therefore, all of my thoughts are positive. I do not allow the devil to use my spirit as a garbage dump by meditating on negative things that he offers me. (Prov. 23:7 KJV)

Whatever functionally rules your heart will then shape the way you see life and your desires, and it will control your words and behavior.