Ice Cubes or Warm water?

Wednesday Oct 5, 2005

Ice Cubes or Warm water?

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4:29

Thought:
Have you ever gotten a cup of cold water poured on you in the shower? It is funny to watch but not fun to have happen. The same is true of insults, though they are funny to hear sometimes, they are not fun to have hurled at you. I heard it said once that it takes 10 compliments to make up for 1 insult. I don’t know if 10 is really the magic number or not but I do know that insults hurt and can have a lasting effect on a person.

I have heard it said that we all have buckets that others pour into. Warm water is from those who encourage us and ice-cubes are from those who say unkind words that sting and hurt us.

People are drawn to those who share warm water. Awhile ago, we decided to test this theory and gave out sticky notes one week just to see what would happen. The results were beyond what we could have ever imagined. Our teens took the sticky notes and were set loose on their teachers, parents, friends and even people they didn’t get along with. Most of the notes were not signed but said things like “I believe in you!” or “I’m praying for you!” or “You are cool” some even wrote “Jesus loves you!”.

One teacher stopped class when she found a note and demanded to know who left it on her desk. This was a teacher who had given this student a hard time for being so outright with her Christianity. When the girl raised her hand she said, “I just thought you could use some encouragement”, the teacher grinned from ear to ear and said, “Thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me.” From that point on the teacher would eagerly call on this student and really listened to her thoughts. She encouraged her in her convictions, though she did not agree with her beliefs in God. It is amazing how far a little encouragement can go.

Questions:
Is your bucket full of warm water that feels good or ice cubes that can cut and are
chilling?

Are you filling the buckets of others with warm water or ice-cubes?
Think back to an insult that hurt your feelings…Are you willing to let it go and forgive them?

Did you know that God only thinks good thoughts about you?
It is true!!!

Exercise:
Find a sticky pad or some 3x5 card or something and write a few notes of encouragement. Make sure you give them to the people in your family, friends and give out to a few people you may not like or think don’t like you. You don’t have to sign them but you can if you want to.

Pray:
Ask God to give you words that are warm to say to others. Pray that the notes you give out will get to those who really need some encouraging words.