I have a love/hate relationships with ridiculous Christian object lessons. Sometimes they’re such a stretch that you wonder if the speaker / writer is being satirical or serious? Is this supposed to be funny or is everyone else totally into it?
Are you using easter Peeps to illustrate the journey to the cross so I’ll laugh or cry?
All that being said (feel free to groan now) but I seriously think that sippy cups are a lot like prayer. Seriously, read on, you’ll see I’m right.
1) You can never have too many sippy cups, truly I have gone to the store to add 6 more to our collection only to find none in the cupboard two hours later, I mean, where are they all? Do I even want to know?
2) It’s not a bad idea to have a smattering of variety, not every sippy cup fits every occasion. Sometimes you want the silicone straw, sometimes the flip top and sometimes the classic NUK with the white stopper. It’s nice to have a selection to fit all your child’s sipping needs.
The same is true with prayer, sometimes I sigh a prayer in exhaustion, sometimes I’m organized with a list and sometimes I just yell at God. Not one prayer fits all of my life.
3) When life is about to get crazy you should hop on Amazon and order a gross of sippy cups. That’s right, we could own 144 sippy cups and still come up short in the morning. My neighbors have all seen me do the sippy cup walk of shame out to the mini van to carry 7 presumably moldy cups inside so my son can have his warm milk.
So when it comes to prayer, when the schedule looks crazy, we’re tempted to pray less, big mistake. The more we have to tackle the more we have to hand over to God, the more we need to rely on him.
4) If you think you have a cottage cheese sippy cup, one that’s been sitting on the sunny patio for 6 days, it’s tempting to ignore it. Yet, it’s just going to get worse and nastier to deal with.
So in our prayer lives, when we know we have something gross rolling around on the floorboards, we’re prone to try and ignore it. Yet when we do this, it festers. So twist open whatever it is and let God take the concentrated Dawn to you, you’ll feel freer for it.
So there you have it sippy cup = prayer life. I’m right, aren’t I?
Give yourself a grade. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being horrible…10 being your a rock star) how is your prayer life. Leave a comment and let us know.
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When life is hard I’d say an 8 or a 9 but when life is easy and good only a 6 or 7. Funny how prayer wanes when I have the allusion of control.
I just ordered a $17 (ugh) glass sippy cup with silicone sleeve and that’s going to be my Lord’s Prayer- the trusty sippy. Never gets misplaced or moldy or forgotten because its too darn valuable to loose! Always the right sippy to turn to in times of joy and in times of need. The apex of sippies. I mean, prayers.
Oh Jill, I love it. We don’t have any fancy prayers, or sippys at the present moment, mostly your run of the mill beat up ones from WalMart. A few are missing their stoppers. Those are my “Dear God just get me through today” sippy cups- they flow when they fall over.
Ah the sippy cup metaphors are endless! I can’t wait to see a picture of your little man using his BMW of a cup
How true is the statement “illusion of control.” Great stuff!
I would say sadly about a 3. I am great at Scripture reading, solid at application, but prayer has always been my real spiritual battleground. I do not find most ways of praying–most of the ways I have been taught anyway–to be very engaging. I hate to admit that, but I also only own one sippy cup right now. My son is just beginning to enter the age of sippy cups, so I am sure that is about to change. Hopefully my prayer life changes with it!
Great stuff Leanne! Looking forward to more EpicTot posts
and what does it say about my prayer life that I have dozens of sippy cups but I’ve lost the lids for most of them…. Oh dear.