"Bring it all to my Sacred Heart."

I looked around the Adoration Chapel. Had someone just said that out loud?

Nope. It was totally silent.

I looked back up at the monstrance, holding tightly to everything that had been worrying me.

I sighed and finally released it.

Okay, Jesus. Here you go.

I thought that was how my devotion to the Sacred Heart began. Because Jesus told me to.

But it actually began almost 15 years earlier.

That day in Adoration, I knew that was Him speaking to me because it came out of absolutely nowhere.

I know I hadn't been thinking about the Sacred Heart right then, because prior to that, I'd honestly never really consciously thought much about the Sacred Heart at all.

Obviously I knew about the image, of course, but I knew absolutely nothing about the devotion or how it started or any of that. It was more of a "Oh yeah, that's nice" kind of thing versus a personal devotion.

Or so I thought.

When I was elementary school age, I was really into horses. So my parents got me a HUGE picture of horses for my room right next to my bed.

(To be clear: I was really into the IDEA of horses. Horse books, horse figurines, horse stuffed animals.

Actual horses though? I rode exactly one time in my life. It was terrifying.)

Maybe a year or two later, we were at our local Catholic gifts store, and I found an image of Jesus and Mary that I fell in love with. It didn't even really register to me that they were the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts — I was just deeply moved and mesmerized by their expressions.

Immediately, I asked my mom if I could get it. It was the perfect size for my huge frame in my room.

So even though I loved it, I replaced the horse image with this large picture of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts posted up right next to my bed.

And that's where they remained throughout the entirety of my pre-teen, teen, and young adult years.

Jesus' Sacred Heart had always been right there, looking out for me — but it wasn't until almost 15 years later that He spoke the call out loud.

(Goodness if that isn't a lesson on how long we sometimes need to wait on the Lord for an answer and His patience in persistently pursuing us!)

Anyway, after that day in Adoration, I began to explore the Sacred Heart devotion more deeply.

I learned about the history, but more importantly, I began to do what Jesus told me to do: Bring everything to His Sacred Heart.

I'd sometimes imagine myself being able to climb up into Jesus' Sacred Heart and just rest there, looking out at the world safe from the perspective that abode provided.

I prayed that I could love even a tiny bit in the fierce way His Sacred Heart passionately loves.

And most of all, I continually brought all my struggles and doubts and intentions and left them in His Sacred Heart.

And then I learned about Sacred Heart Enthronement.

Enthroning Jesus as the King of your home involves putting a prominent image of the Sacred Heart visibly in your home, an outward sign of the inward reality of consecrating oneself to the Sacred Heart.

(Kind of like the waters of baptism are the outward sign signifying the inner reality of being claimed for Christ and washing away Original Sin.)

I began praying about the idea of consecrating our family to the Sacred Heart (which we eventually did), but in my research for that, I stumbled upon Workplace Enthronement.

This is where you can consecrate your business or ministry and your physical workspace to the Sacred Heart.

I decided to do that as a stepping stone to doing the consecration and enthronement for our family.

And it is one of the most impactful things I've ever done for my business.

Not because I have a dramatic story of how Gloriam changed before and after.

And since I had a six month old at the time, the Enthronement itself was kind of anticlimactic, as I sat on our office floor holding a squirmy baby on my lap trying to read the prayers.

But I can 100% tell you that my best work, the work I'm proudest of, began after I did the Enthronement.

Having the Sacred Heart enthroned in my office helps remind me to always do things with Him at the center.

It helps to make my work feel more like ministry than business.

And having Him officially at the head of this work has given me so much clarity, so much direction, and so much less pressure.

Because I'm no longer the CEO. Jesus is. My job is just to do what He says and get out of His way.

So this week, I want to invite you to do something radically different for your marketing: Consider consecrating your business and enthroning your workplace to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It only takes a few days to prepare, so you could easily do this ahead of Friday's Solemnity.

I followed the guidelines for Enthronement from the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network here.​

And for the Sacred Heart image, I purchased this one from Catholic artist Nichole Lanthier. (It's STUNNING in person. His Heart literally looks like it's glowing.)

Like I said, I don't have a radical transformation story with which to convince you.

But it only took a little bit of time, and I can still see the fruits each day in the way I now approach Gloriam and the effects this work now has on people versus before.

And I can tell you that when we put Jesus at the center of our work where He belongs, He will make everything you do for His glory.

And isn't that what our goal ultimately is?

For His greater glory,

Emily