The Smallest Measuring Cup

I turned 25 last week.

People ask me if I feel older, and I do. Not because I've had a birthday, or because I pay my own bills, or because I fall asleep at 9pm, or because my joints hurt. (Though those are all valid reasons to feel old...er.)

I'm coming to realize that the older I get, the better life gets. The stronger my friendships become. The more I learn about myself. The more I see of the character and qualities and attributes of God.

Maybe, as a kid, you get to have a larger percentage of fun and don't worry about as many things. But you also, as a kid, don't have the capacity to actually acknowledge and be grateful that, at the time, the fun things are outweighing the worrisome things. And fun taken for granted is not long remembered.

On Saturday (my birthday), my friend Katie, over tea, said to me, "In comparing life to measuring cups, you are the smallest measuring cup."

It made me feel young, obviously, because I'm still nesting in four larger measuring cups (if you count thirds...which, let's be accurate here, folks, because baking is a science). But it also made me excited to grow older, because the older you get, the fuller life gets. The more you know. The more you experience. The more you can hold.

My life is pretty full right now, but I'm only the smallest measuring cup. I'm looking forward to growing.

Just as each day brims with beauty, my mouth brims with praise. - Psalm 71:8

Pigeon's First Day of School

My roommate and I have a pigeon nesting on our porch. In the words of my roommate: "She did a crappy job. Look, there's like a bush growing out of the side."

So Pigeon and I stood (well, Pigeon sat...on her eggs) on the porch and waved goodbye to Courtney as she headed to her first day of school. She teaches music to 900 kindergarteners. You can understand why she wasn't exactly boarding a rocket ship so she could get to school quicker.

This week, some of us Vineyardites took school supplies and lunch to two neighborhood elementary schools. We prayed over them and blessed them. We gave them chewy oatmeal walnut raisin cookies (through which I was also blessed). And I thought about how important prayer is; how important it is to be aware that God is with and in and around and before us, at all times of the day, and that that fact lends a much bigger picture to the work we do in our measurable hours. And that, my friends, gives us joy.

Success waits upon cheerfulness. The man who toils rejoicing in his God has success guaranteed. - Charles Spurgeon

I lose sight of the bigger picture, and I think that I'm serving this person or that chair or this piece of paper or, worse yet, myself. All of those "masters" will only leave me empty and spent and exhausted at the end of the day, and very, very lacking in joy.

If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 4:11

Bringing God praise is a much bigger picture than cutting and folding paper, than sitting in a cubicle, than teaching playground rules. And serving God, to bring God praise, in the strength God provides, is an attitude-changer when it comes to serving others.

I prayed these words over my roommate (Pigeon was not involved in this portion) today, and I pray them for myself today, and I pray them for you today: May you know the joy that comes from serving the God who created you and in bringing Him praise, even when the tasks [for the moment] might seem joyless.

Happy first day of school, from my family to yours.