Meltdowns

     One thing I believe all women share in common, is the occasional emotional breakdown. I haven’t talked to a woman yet who has stated she has never had one. They might look different according to the person but they are definitely meltdowns. It usually comes when we are overwhelmed with the demands of life, or the menstrual calendar, or as we get older; the hormones. I have used all of these reasons for meltdowns. In fact, I just had one yesterday and hormones were the culprit! One thing I realized from my little meltdown is the problem I was having with my hormones only gave my mouth the freedom to say what I had stuffed in my soul. If I had taken my junk to the Lord and dealt with it, there would have been nothing for my mouth to feast on. All I would've had to deal with was the physical ailments due to the hormones flipping out. The other problem I realized is I stopped listening to the Lord in my emotional state. I heard him telling me to keep my mouth shout, to let it pass, but before I could process another thought the outpouring of wrong words started flowing and right behind them were the tears. The meltdown had begun. Could I have stopped it if I had stayed focused on the Lord and listened to him? Could I have stopped it if I had not stuffed feelings because I was too busy to deal with them. I think the answer is YES!
     At one of the pastor’s wife retreats I have attended, I was taught a principal of ministry and cups. We as women are constantly serving. We care for our children, our spouses, our parents, our jobs, our communities, and our church. When we are constantly ministering to others, we serve them out of our spiritual cup. We pour out a little to this person, a little to that person, and maybe a huge amount to another. Before we know it, our cup is empty. However, sometimes before we can find time to have the Lord fill our cup again, we get hit with another need. Maybe one we can't ignore because it has to do with our child or our husband. Our response is usually typical for a person who just got caught with an empty cup; it’s some form of an emotional meltdown. Ministering to others is not intended to be like this. We are to always keep our cup full, we should never empty it serving others. We are to stay connected to the Lord to the point our cup is overflowing and then we can minister to people with the overflows from our cup. This way, we never get caught with an empty cup and maybe our meltdowns will fade away. Is your cup empty, full, or overflowing?

I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.
John 15:11

A little extra: I keep a Christmas ornament on my desk of a little cup and saucer. This is a daily a daily reminder to keep my cup overflowing.