Our love cup

This past weekend I not only turned a young 43 years old, but I also learned something really cool about love. I was in San Antonio with my husband for a Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference. Every 3 years they get all their missionaries and spouses together for a state of the union. It was great to see this amazing ministry and how it ticks. There were 1,200+ people there and 19 foreign countries were represented. Before the big stuff happened there were meetings with just the international missionaries. I missed the first few days, but got to share with everyone in the last day. 

Wow! I often found myself weeping. Weeping as Marvin our worship leader sang his little heart out right to the end of himself. I don't know much about him but I think God has changed him big time, and he was in awe at where he was now. 

After Marvin sang, a man got up, I can't remember his name, but a couple of things he said really stuck with me. 1st he talked about leaving a mark on the world and what does your mark look like. He showed a picture of one young man's mark. His mark was the dents his motorcycle left on the concrete block wall  of the school gym as he drove 65 mph into it, ending his life. I know another young man who left a mark for good and even after his 16 short years on earth, his life is still leaving marks for good through his legacy.

This man went on to talk about love. How we were loved will matter in how we are able to receive love. He used the illustration of a tea cup. We are all given one at birth and how people love us is reflected in that cup. If we were cherished and loved and cared for our fragile china cup will still be all in one piece. When others love us it will be able to receive and hold that love in our cup. The love will remain inside that cup. It may even overflow and we will be able to share that love and even understand what is given to us when others love us.

Not all of us are blessed with the right kind of love though. If we are loved incorrectly then there are visible cracks that will appear in our cup. Over time our cups become so broken and cracked. So when someone comes along to love us our cup can't hold that love. It falls through all the cracks and holes. We can't receive it. It could even be so bad that our precious cup is just smashed to smithereens and it may never go back together again. When love from others is supposed to fill it, but it can't because there are just too many cracks and even after it is glued glue still leaves openings for that love to leak out. 

This made me think of a few people that really got the raw end of the deal on love. It helps me understand why when others try to love them, they can't even hold onto that love. Their cup was smashed by those that should have loved them. It is going to take years to repair that cup. And sometimes only God can put that cup back together.

I want you to think of 2 things.

1.  What kind of mark are you leaving on the world?

2. Next time you meet someone, think about what their cup might be like. The ones with the broken cups will probably stand out more, and what would it take to show some compassion towards them.

In His grip,

Jodi