The Content Of Our Cup

Pour out your love and kindness on us, Lord, and grant us your salvation. Psalm 85:7, TLB

“HE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!”

“My children are so frustrating!”

“She makes me so angry!”

How often do we blame others for what comes spilling out all over our lives? How often do we call everyone else the problem before we look inside ourselves? And how often do we feel filled up by our frustration and anger?

What if we changed our approach? What if we started our day with a simple white coffee cup and chose what we could put in that cup? Now I know what you’re thinking. This is a no-brainer. Coffee. But this is a metaphorical cup, and I’m not talking about liquids.

Whatever we fill our cup with is what will come sloshing out when we are bumped during our day. If our cup is filled with resentment, bitterness, frustration, or anger, then those very contents will come spilling out when we’re jostled. If my children run into me (physically or emotionally), out sloshes frustration. Because I’ve chosen to fill my cup with it. But my kids aren’t the problem. I am the problem, and what I allow in my cup is the issue.

The good news here is that we have way more control over what we put in our cups than we think. We can dump out frustration, and fill up on love. We can dump out bitterness, and fill up on beauty. We can dump out anger, and fill up on grace.

And we don’t have to do this on our own—in fact, we can’t. Instead, we can go to God and ask Him to help us pour out our sour attitudes. And in their places, we can ask Him to pour in His sweet joy. His laughter. His light heart.

I love how pastor and author Paul David Tripp puts it in his book Parenting: “The cause of my actions is found inside my own heart. My children are simply the occasion where my heart reveals itself in words and actions. So I need much more than just rescue and relief from my children; I need rescue from me.”^a

Grace looks like a woman carrying a cup filled with love. And when she gets jostled as she goes about her day, she leaves stains of love on everyone’s clothing. She spills out joy and laughter and hope and beauty. But she doesn’t depend on herself to do this. Left on her own, she’d leave puddles of frustration for everyone to step in. But even if she did? There’s grace for that mess. Every time. And grace to receive a fresh filling of love, again, from the only One who can fill our cup.

GRACE REFLECTION: Today, find the natural pauses in your day and examine what’s in your cup. Did bitterness or frustration slip in there? Pour it out. And then ask God to fill you with love and joy and laughter.