by Lois Olmstead
I believe sometimes God uses everyday happenings to teach us life lessons. Years ago, when our grandson Tyler was about five years old, he was at our house on Sunday afternoon and asked “Grammi, can I have some juice?”
I said “Yes, of course.” (Being that kind of Grammi!)
He went to the cupboard and got his little blue cup. I got the juice out of the refrigerator... and it was like trying to fill a moving target. He would not hold still.
I said, “Tyler, stop—so Grammi can fill your cup!” And the minute those words came out of my mouth, a thought popped into my head. “Could Stop and let me fill Your cup? be what God wants to say to you?”
See if you happen to be a person like me, we can get so busy doing so many good things that if God tried to fill our cup it would all slosh out! Whoa. Just like Tyler’s cup.
Would God say that to me? “Stop, Lois, and let me fill your cup.”
Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me by the still waters…” After I brought Tyler home, I was sitting in my chair with my Bible in my hands... That voice in my head was still there! I pondered those words, “Stop and let me fill your cup.’ And “He maketh me and He leadeth me…” and the lesson for me became clear. A shepherd would “maketh and leadeth” his sheep who don’t or won’t “stoppeth.”
Sure. Another thing I often said to my little grandkids was “Stop. Look. Listen.” That absolutely could apply to us adults. Do we allow time in our daily life to stop and dwell on what God might want us to learn? Do we go to our Bible and look in His Word for ‘words’ for us? I know God speaks to us that way.
Look in your Bible. A few pages over, in Psalms 119, verse 105 says, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
It made me think of my calves back in my 4-H days. Before we took them to the Park County Fair, we had to teach them to lead. What a job that was! My steer would be big and strong and I was not. I remember one year, my Dad helped me tie the halter rope to the hitch on the little Ford tractor and we went in circles in the corral until he (the steer) got the idea of following my lead clear in his head.
Yes, you have to lead what won’t follow. This pondering was paying off for me that day. And the lesson has stuck with me in the precious words of those Psalms throughout my life.
“Stop and let me fill your cup.” Would Jesus say that to you? Maybe you could spend some time this week in Psalm 23 and 119 pondering those words for yourself. Enjoying the Journey.