16-03-2005, 08:23 AM
If I wanted my cup to hold anything other than criticism, I neede to stop hold it out to my auntie so trustingly. Whe she poured the ciritcism in anyway - as she was bound to do - I needed to take what I could learn from her critical words and then dump the bitter brew down the drain.
But it wasn't enough just to empty my cup. If I did, my aunt or someone else would fill it up again. What I needed to do was to keep my cup filled with love and acceptance and affirmation and encouragement from a dependable Source. I had to decide who I wanted to listen to - who was going to have power over me. And making that decision is what would enable me to empty out the criticism, wash out the cup, and then get it refilled form God's bubbling bounty of encouragement.
That, graduallyu, was what I learned to do. But it didn't happen all at once. It took a lot of time and practice and prayer. That particular painful afternoon, God and I had already been working onthis process of emptying anf filling for several years.
What did I do in response to her criticism?
I thanked my aunt for the idea. (I hadn't worn a padded bra since high school.) Then I pictured myself slowly turning over that cup of criticism and pouring it out, wiping it clean, holding it up again. And I prayed, Please, Lord, fill my cup with your love. Let me respond to her criticism with gentleness. Enven though she fills my cup with criticism, let me fill her cup with encouragement.
And, please, Lord, I added don't ever let me act like that to others. Teach me to see and express only what is good and healthy in my friends and family.
A sip of encouragement
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Proverbs 3:27
Judge not, and you shal not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1
:hartlik:
[
But it wasn't enough just to empty my cup. If I did, my aunt or someone else would fill it up again. What I needed to do was to keep my cup filled with love and acceptance and affirmation and encouragement from a dependable Source. I had to decide who I wanted to listen to - who was going to have power over me. And making that decision is what would enable me to empty out the criticism, wash out the cup, and then get it refilled form God's bubbling bounty of encouragement.
That, graduallyu, was what I learned to do. But it didn't happen all at once. It took a lot of time and practice and prayer. That particular painful afternoon, God and I had already been working onthis process of emptying anf filling for several years.
What did I do in response to her criticism?
I thanked my aunt for the idea. (I hadn't worn a padded bra since high school.) Then I pictured myself slowly turning over that cup of criticism and pouring it out, wiping it clean, holding it up again. And I prayed, Please, Lord, fill my cup with your love. Let me respond to her criticism with gentleness. Enven though she fills my cup with criticism, let me fill her cup with encouragement.
And, please, Lord, I added don't ever let me act like that to others. Teach me to see and express only what is good and healthy in my friends and family.
A sip of encouragement
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Proverbs 3:27
Judge not, and you shal not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1
:hartlik:
[