I read an analogy the other day comparing our lives to a cup of coffee. Actually, it was comparing who we are as people. What’s on the inside. You see, the cup never changes. It looks the same day in & day out. At least “ish” anyways. It will eventually get cracks from those accidental droppings. Or it might start to change color a bit because of rust water or fade because of multiple washings. But that cup is still that cup & nothing can change that. That cup is you. However, what does change is what we put inside. Coffee. Tea. Chocolate milk. A refreshing splash of lemonade. And the list goes on. Anything can be put in the cup. Different situations prompt what is put into the cup. Weather. Stress. Moments in life where you can either use a pick me up or a calm down. And that’s great & all, but that also means anything can spill out of the cup. And that’s where the analogy comes in.

One day your cup of coffee will be bumped & you’ll be asked why that coffee spilled. And you’ll likely respond saying that someone bumped you or your cup & that’s why the coffee spilled. Which isn’t wrong but the real answer is because that’s what was inside the cup. Coffee, coffee was what was inside. If it was hot chocolate that was inside your cup then it would have been hot chocolate that was spilled. If it was water inside your cup, water would’ve been spilled. Etc. Pretty much anything that you put inside your cup will likely spill when bumped. And if you as a human being are the cup then that must mean whatever is filling up your cup is you as an individual. If that makes sense? See where this is going?

We get to decide what we put in our cup each morning. Both figuratively & literally, we get to decide. And since we never know if today will be the day that our cup gets bumped & everything that’s inside get tossed everywhere, I think we should choose wisely. If we choose to fill ourselves with the good stuff like kindness, love, happiness & understanding, it makes the spill a little less messy. It makes the cleanup a little more tolerable. If you choose to fill your cup with anger or resentment or hatred & you suddenly get bumped, no one is going to want to help you clean up the mess. Bad attitudes aren’t going to make the situation any less bad. It just makes it harder for any glimmer of sunlight to be seen behind the clouds you are creating. Which of the two sounds good to you? I think the better choice is quite apparent.

You will never get through your life without any cup bumps or drink spills. Never ever. You might be able to anticipate a few so you can minimize the number of messes you will have to clean up in your lifetime, but there will be spills. Lots of them. In fact, there will be days that you lose everything that was in your cup. Down to the last drop. And whatever spills out of you is going to touch a lot of people no matter what. If you let goodness & kindness fill your cup, you will be showing so many people that there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk. To make lemonade when life gives you a sour situation. And sometimes, when your goodness spills, a couple of your drops might actually land is someone else’s cup. And now when the same thing happens to them, no matter what their cup was originally filled with, they now have a little goodness that pours out as well. Kind of like adding a little bit of cream to a bitter cup of coffee. And then when we are ready to start replenishing our cup again, we get to decide if the last bump is going to factor in on what we are filling our cup with this time. If we are going to pour in the hottest thing we can find so that when it spills again, we & those that love us get burned. Or if we going to pour in some warm tea because it’s calming & soothing all while perking us up at the same time. The choice is ours.

So today I’m challenging you to see your cup as half full instead of half empty. I’m challenging you to not blame the anger that spilled out of you on someone or something else. Because you’re the one who put that anger there. You decided that. The spill might have been caused by something out of your power but what you put inside your cup was not. So fill your cup up & get your towel ready, because a bump might come today or it might not. But any which way, crying over spilled milk or complaining about it isn’t going to get it cleaned up any faster. It’s not going to make your drink any sweeter for the next time. Don’t let today’s spill impact what you fill your cup with tomorrow. It’s not your favorite coffees fault your cup spilled. And I hope you know that. Because you are what you fill your cup with. So fill wisely.

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