The Analogy of Analyzing… Hello weekend readers. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful (and your football team won?). I was going to write something different until a friend of mine called me and asked me the craziest question, “Cyndy, what should I do about Black Friday?” After thinking about that, my musings are about Black Friday—a day that can make or break us.

How does one answer a question that my friend asked me? Well, we spoke back and forth for a while that had nothing to do with her question so I figured she was in some kind of denial and was skirting the problem she needed to fix. Finally she told me what had happened last year. Here it is—in a nut-shell: she spent way too much money and it ruined not only her budget along with lying to her husband, she also lost her joy of Christmas. Now she is trying to analyze what to do before she goes shopping online and in stores on Black Friday this year. I quickly said, “Really, you are going to do this again? Are you nuts? Listen to yourself.”

After a long pause, I told her, “You asked me for help and this is what I am going to say. As soon as we hang up on this call, I want you to sit down and pray, have a conversation with God and ask God for the wisdom you need before you buy one more thing.” I know that sounded harsh but honestly, I felt she was just going to do the same dang thing this year!

Here is a neat analogy when you are trying to analyze something to make it come out the way you want it: “You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? “Because someone bumped into me!!!” Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.”

That analogy is from a psychologist friend who works with teenagers. I think he was spot-on about this subject. He continues with this strategy: “So we have to ask ourselves, “what’s in my cup? When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratitude, peace and humility? Anger, bitterness, victim mentality and quitting tendencies? Remember this: life provides the cup; YOU choose how to fill it.”

After my phone call with this friend, I decided to look for Scriptures that could be helpful for her and for me and anyone else who might need them. I landed on three (out of many) that I thought pertained to this encounter:

Proverbs 28:13 [msg] “You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.”

Psalm 69:5 [voice] “O True God, my foolish ways are plain before You; my mistakes—no, nothing can be hidden from You.”

Isaiah 64:6 [voice] “We are all messed up like a person compromised with impurity; even all our right efforts are like soiled rags. We’re drying up like a leaf in autumn and are blown away by our wrongdoing.”

I’m not sure how your ‘Black Friday’ went, but it isn’t just about that day, is it? Let’s face it, we all will have times when life comes along and shakes us and whatever is inside of “our cup” will come out—sooner or later. It’s easy to fake it or hide it until you get rattled.

In closing, I admit that to stop the junk coming out of our cup means that we have to face up to our pitiful analysis and find a better way to take care of ourselves (and our wallet). Let’s take the first step and fill our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity, kindness, gentleness and love for ourselves and others. Just think, if we did this we can shout “my cup runneth over again—this time with goodness.” AMEN!