What's In The Well Comes Up In The Bucket

My grandmother used to say, "What's in the well comes up in the bucket."  If mud is in the well, mud is coming up in the bucket, if brackish water is in the well, brackish water is coming up in the bucket.  If refreshing, pure water is in the well - you get the picture.  The same is true for what is deep within.  There are ways of thinking and responding that have shaped each of us from infancy.  We watch the patterns of family from the earliest of age, and we pick up certain unspoken cues.  There are also words spoken to us and over us, that are damagingly suppressed, and we are often unaware of the ways they shape our reactions and responses.  I remember being told by a family member at a very young age that , "You'll never amount to anything."  At the time, I didn't even know what those words meant, and over the years those words were pressed into my psyche and contributed to shaping my over-functioning, people-pleasing, achieve, achieve, achieve attributes.  But, one thing was for sure, try as hard as I might to achieve thinness, I never could.  I was a failure.  Time and time again, it was one area of my life I worked hard at, but could never achieve.  Little did I know until doing some Family Systems study, that what was showing up on the outside was the result of something going on deep in the well of my being.  Temple Training is the result of this realization.  What has to be done is to clean out the well, repair some of the foundational stones and allow it to once again be filled with living water, the Word of God.  At the same time, I am minding nutrition, exercise (which I hate but have decided I will fall in love with),  scripture reading and prayer.  Fueling and filling the temple of the Holy Spirit, God's dwelling place; my body, soul and Spirit.

This is NOT an easy task.  Yesterday was day two and I found myself drawn to the few remaining Christmas cookies gifted to us.  I stood and looked at them, I picked them up and even smelled them.  My mind was busy with reasons why one or two, "all things in moderation" wouldn't hurt.  But, each time I put them down saying out loud, "Because I'm worth it!"  That's Temple Training!  Training is NEVER easy, but it is ALWAYS worth it.  So, today with a new resolve, I begin again.

Today's passage from Colossians 3:10 becomes my prayer and reflection for today.

"...and have clothed yourself with the new [spiritual self], which is (ever in the process of being) renewed and remoulded into (fuller and more perfect knowledge upon) knowledge, after the image (the likeness) of Him who created it." (Amplified Version)

I am reminded that all these years of struggle have NOT produced a failure.  They produced symptoms that I was finally able to diagnose in light of scripture.  I am in the process of being renewed and remoulded, reshaped into a likeness of the one who created me, inside and out.  As that which is deep within is being renewed, it will be reflected on the outside, but not unless I choose to cloth myself by addressing the deeper issues that have kept me from success.  The image of God has been distorted by a confused and wounded soul, but it isn't permanent damage, hallelujah!  So, on day three, I will remind myself, each time the struggle gets difficult, that a fuller and more perfect knowledge of who I am in the eyes of my creator, is coming up in the bucket!

Renew me Lord; body, soul, and Spirit!  May what comes up in the bucket of my life become a true reflection of what is in the well as you create in me a clean heart/soul.  Erase the reckless words spoken over me as a child and perfected in me, by me,  as I have tried to "perform" my way to proving it wrong.  Help me today, just today, to be faithful to the task at hand, Temple Training!  Amen.