Feeling OK about me - Part 3

A couple posts ago I talked about your life as a cup.  We don't want to feel empty, so we tend to fill it

with people, places, and things.  Yet, all of those are shaky.  Instead, filling our cup with God is more reliable and then allows people, places, and things to be overflow.  How does that work?

As a teen, there were so many pressures.  I felt I needed to please so many people from my parents to my teachers to my friends.  For me, when someone was proud of me I felt at peace, but when someone was mad at me or disappointed, I quickly felt unworthy.

Then, I began to fill my cup with my Father.  The simple fact that He cared about me, helped me.

When I was worried that my parents would be upset with me, I was able to hang onto that fact the God was with me and I would be okay.

When a girlfriend dumped me (and they all did.  I seemed to never be able to be the one to call it quits even when I should have), it hurt badly, but I knew there was still me and God.

When I was worried about the future whether because of some dating relationship, or college decision, I knew the truth that I could, "cast [my] cares upon Him, for He cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7

I wrote that verse all over my notebooks throughout high school.  It was a perspective-altering truth.  My life was very important...to Him.  He cared for it, for me.  It doesn't promise things to work the way I want all the time.  But it promises Father's commitment to care for me.

Making Father my cup-filler didn't mean I didn't get a lot of crap.  I still cried when I got dumped, got

hurt by family and friends, felt nervous before tests, and all the other things that happen to real-life people.  But I had a rock to build my life upon, not sinking sand.

In an upcoming post I'll comment on how this perspective also helps bring freedom and meaningful happiness to your human relationships too.