Have you ever seen something thats totally normal, mundane even, something you see regularly and usually think nothing of it but one day it just strikes you differently? As if God is just saying ”LOOK, child”?
I recently had one of these moments. With my sons bath cups. Bath cups? I’m being serious. They are these plastic cups, some have holes, some fewer holes, others have slits in the bottom of them and they slowly leak out the water you put in them. Total winner in our house. Loads of fun for bathtime.
Now that we are all on the same page; the other day I was mindlessly scrolling and everything was pointing to ”self care” and it felt… can I use the word icky (now this term “self care” has bothered me for quite some time but this day was different. I was pinpointing my dislike of it- don’t you love when God does this)? It was icky. Please don’t think I’m about to say we shouldn’t care for ourselves. That absolutely is not what I think. But I do think we have some of this a bit backwards as a society.
Let’s just straighten out some ruffles before we move forward, I think caring for ourselves is huge and mental health is beyond important. Do what you need to do to reach loving yourself and stable health. This is not about that. I believe you are worthy of good things and self love… and all the things, really! This comes down to intent of the heart. In our society, self care is to “fill ones self up first so we can overflow to others” I get it, when you’re on a plane that has oxygen issues you put your mask on first before helping others because you can’t help others until you are taken care of. This I understand and agree with. Get yourself taken care of. The part I struggle with is HOW we get to this filled up place, this taken care of state. WHERE do we go to be filled? WHAT do we let fill us? You see, when we fill our cups up with self care (fill in the blank on how) we not only put ourselves before others but also before God. WE are the ones doing the filling. WE are not meant to do the filling. Please hear that: we are not MEANT to do the filling. Not even for ourselves. Should we love ourselves, of course- God loves you. Are we to care for ourselves, of course- God cares for you. Are you to put yourself first so that you can pour into others-no. This is where we get it wrong- me included. It is when we put God first that we are filled and overflow. It is when we put God first that we can help others. It is when we put God first that He fills us.
I totally fall for the self care scheme and buy myself fancy things and give myself breaks and eat junk food I love. I’m not saying you shouldn’t give yourself breaks or buy yourself something you love- thats great. But if we do it with the intent of filling our cups we’ve missed it all together and become like those little bath cups that leak. They are full for a moment but are constantly being depleted but when we let God fill us, it’s a well that never runs dry and overflows constantly.
Even Morse Sweetly 