I love teacups and teapots. There's nothing quite like Earl Grey tea in a bone china cup decorated with delicate pink flowers and silvery-grey swirls. It's refreshment and luxury that you can hold in your hands.

Once, in my haste, I cracked my Royal Doulton Tranquility tea pot. (The irony of the pattern name has not escaped me) I had set it on my kitchen counter and poured in boiling water. A slow fizzing hissed out from the delicate porcelain. Water started pooling on the counter. Yes, there it was, a crack from stem to stern. The precious teapot had been too cold and the water had been too hot. When it cracked from the heat, my heart did too. It was my first teapot, given to me when I was 13.

I've thought a lot about that moment recently. I feel like that teapot. On a mission to live abundantly after my drought of 2014, I filled myself up with too much, too fast. Now I'm cracked. I'm literally a cracked pot, leaking dry. I can't hold anything that I pour in. 

I yearn for abundance, but how is my cup supposed to overflow when there isn't even a dribble inside? Even a splash would feel like a flood if I could swish it around in my cup, watch it swirl around the sides, and savor the sweet wetness before it slides down my burning, exhausted  throat.

But I'm drained, dry. There’s nothing left. Not even a fairy-sized sip. Every dewdrop slides out before it can refresh me.

To repair the damage I inflicted, I must sit, rest and ask the Potter to fill my cracks, to patch me up. He will slowly bring me to temperature, carefully pouring in ever warmer water to temper my bone china heart before filling it with the fiery water of passion and purpose.

Then, I will overflow with His abundance.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13 CEB)

Is your cup overflowing? Or is it leaking through its cracks? With what have you been filling your cup?

Kristy Rose is a Gen X homeschooling mom who sells Avon to support her writing habit. In 2006, God transplanted her to North Dakota. Moving to the state her great-grandparents homesteaded in 1903 and the ensuing adventures on the prairie have deepened her faith and given her a heart-felt understanding of God's amazing mercy and grace. You can get her take on pretty much everything at throughrosecoloredglasses.weebly.com. Read more JOY Blog posts by Kristy.

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