Confessions of a Juicebox

I am a juicebox.  This is not a manifestation of all the years of picnics with my children.  Nor an illustration of the squishiness of my abs. It's my life.  I think most women are juiceboxes.  We want to provide sips of encouragement, affirmation, merriment, counsel, hope to refresh those around us. 

Sometimes I can become depleted.   I can feel like there are 12 straws sticking in me, all sucking voraciously!  I get empty.  Or worse, filled with juice that tastes horrible when it comes through the straw.

I don't want to squirt nasty juice nor do I want to refuse those straws.  I find joy in dispensing a laugh or a hug or a splash of care to those lives that come my way.  Psalm 11:25b says "And he who waters will himself be watered."  Amen.  I have surely found this to be true.  Whenever I have given a sip of replenishment to another, my own soul has been refreshed.

The challenge is to keep my juicebox filled with sweet juice.  So that when it's squeezed, that's what comes out.  Connection to the Source of Living Water,  abiding in the One who turned water into wine, is what it takes.  Drinking continuously of the Water that He gives fills up the juicebox so that the juicebox not only can share sips with others but also so that the juicebox feels filled.  Joy.  Satisfaction.  Flowing through to others but also satiating my own thirst.

This post originally was published on October 8, 2012