Each of Us Carries Two Buckets
I often tell couples that the best marriages are those in which partners come together with their happiness buckets already full, eager to share their joy supply with each other. Too often people enter a relationship with empty buckets, expecting the other to provide an endless supply of whatever they need.
But metaphorically speaking, each of us carries two buckets, one a gratitude pail and the other a garbage pail.
The gratitude bucket is one we need to keep filled to overflowing with abundant and amazing grace, representing all of the unearned benefits that make us truly rich. It represents the part of our life where we find our yoke easy and our burden light, and from which we have a surplus of God-given, grace-based assets to share.
In our garbage bucket we carry our grievances, griefs, grudges and losses. These are not inconsequential, and are not to be ignored, but we want to carry them only as long as necessary to deposit them to a safe place for closure and healing. Garbage is viewed as something that needs to be taken out regularly for composting, while we practice the hygiene of regularly keeping its container as clean and flushed out as possible.
So when it comes to our relationships, we need to support each other in dealing with our distresses as well as blessing each other with our abundance.
I once ran across a letter a father wrote to his 13-year-old daughter when she was dealing with a crushing disappointment. He wrote, "...when momentary unhappiness befalls us, we pause only long enough to tidy up our hearts, and then we continue on wiser and better equipped for the much rougher road ahead."
She kept that note in her wallet for the rest of her life.
-Harvey Yoder
Notes, Prayers and Praises
WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER IN-PERSON CHURCH SERVICE at the Vlasits home at 3399 Caverns Drive, Keezletown Sunday October 17. Otherwise we continue to meet online from 4-5:30. For a phone connection dial 646-876-9923. For video: https://zoom.us/j/2849269967.
KAREN CAMPBELL is no longer needing dialysis (praise God!) but remains at Harrisonburg Health and Rehabilitation Center, 1225 Reservoir Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801, for the time being.She is to be fitted for a brace for her left foot, and remains in Rm. 86, . Her cell number is 540-209-2675.
THE ‘MY COINS COUNT’ total we raised for the Relief Sale this year was $42.16, and our total giving for the SOS campaign for MCC refugee relief was just over $3000.
OCTOBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS Joyce Ulrich 10/14 and Elly Nelson 10/28!
October Services, 4-5:30 pm
