Spilled Milk

I am usually slightly frustrated or irritated when milk, water, or juice starts coming out of the straws of my children's cups and creating puddles on the lid, running down the sides of the cup, and dripping on the table, floor, car seat, child, etc. underneath. It's even messier when someone bumps said cup with the straw brimming with beverage because then it is slung around, causing the liquid to go further and possibly in more directions, landing on more surfaces. So, I'm usually more worried about the mess made and cleaning it up than anything else - until yesterday evening.

As I cleaned up a puddle of milk on the kitchen table, I thought about what I could learn from it and I realized that I wanted to be like that cup. I wanted my love for God and joy in Him to fill me so full that it can't help but overflow. I thought of the words "my cup runneth over" and looked up Psalm 23:5, which says "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows" (NIV '84 version).

I want what God gives me - His love, His blessings, His Word, His lessons - to fill me up so that I can not help but share them, that I won't be able to contain them no matter how hard I might try (not that I would want to contain them). I want it to show on me. I want God to be seen in my face, my eyes, the things I say and do, the choices I make - just like the beverages can be seen on the cup. I want it to spill over into other lives. I want the situations I encounter - even the hard ones - to jostle my cup and cause everything of God to be shared with many others - to go further and land in more places.

Dear Lord, I want my cup to runneth over for you today. Please fill me.

I will not look at one of the kid's straw cups sitting in a puddle with a drink brimming in the straw the same again.

Thank you for this lesson, dear Lord.


Additional verses: Exodus 33:13; Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 4:29; Deuteronomy 6:5-9; Deuteronomy 11:18-21