The "Right" Way to Make Coffee

Today as I was getting the morning started, I thought about a song that I learned in elementary music class.  Where the song came from, who wrote it, I have no idea, but Mrs. Turner, our music teacher, taught it to us.  It's called "Coffee".

C-O-F-F-E-E, coffee is not for me.
It's a drink some people wake up with,
That it makes them nervous is no myth.
Slave to the coffee cup, they can't give coffee up.

Funny little song, and very true.  Now, this isn't a lecture about drinking or not drinking coffee, because I love a good cup of coffee.  This writing is about making the coffee. Everyone does it differently, some like it black, with sugar only, with cream only, or with sugar and cream.  When I make my coffee, I like to get my little travel mug and put the Splenda and creamer, be it flavored or plain, in the bottom of the cup while the coffee is brewing.  But today, I did it differently.

Today, I poured the coffee and put the Splenda & creamer on top.  As I did that, I stopped and thought about it.  When I put the sugar and cream in the bottom of the cup before I pour in the coffee, it's ready for the coffee.  It almost doesn't need to even be stirred because as the coffee is meeting the cup, that's ready with the good stuff, it just mixes and stirs itself.  But today when the coffee went in first, I had to stop pouring before the coffee was too high in the cup to make sure I had room for the sugar and cream then get out a spoon to stir it all up so that everything would combine and taste just right. 

As I did my stirring, I thought about how our lives are like that cup of coffee.  Everyday if we will take our lives and put in our sugar and cream before we add the coffee, then it all mixes nicely, we don't even really need a spoon to mix it. But if we pour the coffee in first, we must try to save room for the "good stuff" and get the spoon and stir it to make it all work out to our liking.

As I considered this, I thought about our relationship with God and how it's just like making that cup of coffee.  If we will add Him first, add the good stuff first, then pour in the rest of our day, then it mixes so much more nicely. But if we start to take on the day and all that it entails before adding the good stuff, then we need more tools to make it all work.  We can't fill it to the brim because we'll get so busy pouring we won't leave room for Him.  We can go through each day knowing that we put the One thing in our lives that will help us through the bad, stressful, sometimes down right sucky times. And that very knowledge many times gives us the courage and strength to continue on.

Are you putting the "good stuff" in your life first?  Or are you filling your life to the very brim, hoping there will be a little room left to add it in later to only find out you need extra tools to make it all work? Put the good stuff in first........and everything will work out fine!

 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Stephanie