Eight Ounces

So, play along with me for a minute. Imagine that each morning we are given an empty glass. We can fill it with eight ounces of whatever we choose. I'm not thinking about orange juice, or coffee, or milk. Rather, I'm thinking about eight ounces of anger, hurt, love, compassion, joy, envy, bitterness, forgiveness, rage...whatever feelings we want. Whatever makes us tick at that particular moment. But whatever we choose to put in that glass, whatever makes up those eight ounces, we're stuck with it for the day. Anything else we try to fit in our glass just spills over the edge.

And this is where our choice comes in. Our choice of how we are going to start our day. You see, I've always been a morning person. I function much better early in the morning when I'm refreshed. And I love starting something new. Even if it is just a day, and even if I get to do it 365 times a year.

For several weeks now, I've been doing this fantastic Bible study with three equally fantastic ladies. It's a weekly study with five days of "assignments" to complete. I've found that I enjoy doing my assignments the most in the mornings while I'm having my coffee and breakfast. It's certainly more productive than doing a Sudoku puzzle! I've also found that when I start my mornings with my Bible study, my eight ounce glass gets filled early in the day with love, peace, hope, gratitude, joy - it is filled with God. What a perfect way to start each day! Everything else that comes along during the day and tries to cram itself into my glass just spills over the edge. God keeps my glass full! Yay!

Now, I refer you to my blog post from this past Sunday. You know, the one about my "funk"? Because of various reasons, we have not had Bible study for three weeks. Hmmm. This means that I have not been waking up every morning looking forward to my daily assignment. Hmmm. So, what that means (and this is a completely uneducated guess here), is that my eight ounce glass in the morning gets filled with other things. Like the stress that I feel thinking about my to-do list at work. Or the frustration that I sometimes feel driving to the office. Along with my impatience waiting for the elevator in the lobby of my building. And the jealousy that I may have for the woman next to me who is dressed so much cuter than me that day.

You see, I think that when we don't put God first, when we cram Him in at the end of the day, or at the bottom of the list, we let everything else consume our lives. And I'm no expert, but I don't think that's how we are supposed to live our lives. I don't think that's what God intended for us.

So my challenge to you (and I'll certainly do this as well), is to try your absolute hardest to fill your eight ounce glass every day, with God and the things that He represents. Let Him consume you and fill your glass. It has to be better than dealing with all of the other stuff. That's just logical right? Let's all try to be "morning people" for His sake, and for ours. I'm rather confident that doing this will deliver me out of my "funk". And that's a place, a destination, that I certainly would like to be.