This past Friday I received a text from someone who was passing something along to me. As soon as I read it I thought it would be good to share with you:
You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? “Because some bumped into me!!”
Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in your cup, you would have spilled tea.
Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves…”What’s in my cup?”
When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratitude, peace and humility? Anger, bitterness, victim mentality and quitting-tendencies?
Life provides a cup, YOU choose how to fill it.
Today let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity; and kindness, gentleness and love for others.
As the person who sent this to me said: “I love this analogy!” I would agree. The Scriptures back up this analogy. “Live by the Spirit,” Paul writes in Galatians 5:25. That follows his description of a life of the flesh versus the life of the Spirit. “Be filled with the Spirit,” Paul writes in Ephesians 5:18. Jesus spoke about how a person speaks from the overflow of his/her heart.
So the question remains: If you are shaken, what will spill out?
I love this, Bill! Will definately pass it on. Like when you hit your thumb with a hammer, the true you comes our under pressure.
Glad you like it Pam. I do not know where it came from. I can ask if needed. As for the hammer: that is why I try to avoid them. 🙂
Now that’s a loaded question for sure, Bill. We must choose to be filled with the Spirit when tough times loom on the horizon, and pray that we can overcome trials with God’s help.
Let’s concentrate on our cups overflowing because the Lord is so good to us.
Blessings!
it is a loaded question Martha but one I think we all must eventually answer. I know, myself, what I feed on comes out. I prefer to read the Word and focus on love, joy, etc.
It is easy to point blame to everything around us, to say you pushed me to far. Truth is, when we live by the Spirit, you do not react, you pray first, than you respond. We have to make the choice to fill our lives with God’s words, and to be lead by the Spirit by surrendering daily to God. If you want justification for bad behavior, and a nasty attitude the world will give it to you, they will even encourage it. I want to live with the Spirit guiding me not the crazy mixed up culture.
as a follower of Jesus the only valid reason for living is allowing Him to guide us into His truth and into living a life of service to Him. If a person is being led by the Spirit then there is no justification for bad behavior whatsoever. Thanks Gail for the comment and the analogy. 🙂
The truth of this post is a little scary.
I really didn’t have a mouth that shot out vulgarities, however, as a pre-teenager and teenager, I would occasionally spout off wordy-dirds that I wouldn’t say in front of my grandma…
One day while working on a project with my mom and step-dad, I remember hitting my finger while using a hammer. The word that slipped out turned both their heads. I think it shocked me more than them.
The point is it isn’t just words. It is attitude, it is responses, it is how we treat those we love.
The more I spend time with God, the more pleasant my responses are, especially when my life is hit with a hammer.
Your last sentence is gold Ryan. I had to be really careful with my words as well. 🙂