Many years ago while we were living in America I bought some mugs to have to give as gifts to friends who I thought might need some encouragement.
They had a picture of a cute little bear with the words
“Smile! Cause God thinks you’re special and so do I”
printed on them.
When we came back to Northern Ireland I had only
3 left,
and shortly after that only
one.
That was when I decided that I was going to keep the last one for myself because sometimes I need encouragement too.
I brought it out of its box and thought about where to put it.
You see in the unit in our lounge we had some mugs which the boys had got at the Boy’s Brigade over several years, another from Wales with our daughter Linda’s name on it, one with a picture of Peter Rabbit our son was given as a baby, and others that my husband Fred has accumulated from working trips abroad.
These are all deemed to be too good or too impractical to actually be used so they are treated as ornaments.
I could have made a space there for this mug but somehow
that didn’t seem quite right.
Then I decided that if the mug was to be an encouragement to me, I should see it often and the best way to do that would be to use it regularly.
So that is what I have done.
And I still have this mug after all these years.
And I still have this mug after all these years.
It really is nice to make my coffee in this mug and smile
when I look at the words on it.
Some may think it strange but it brings me a lot of joy to use this mug not only for the message it reminds me of but for the memories of the good friends I had to whom I gave the rest of the mugs.
Then one day I was in a lady’s home when she showed me some bibles which she was very proud to have. She told me the story associated with each bible, why they were important to her and how she liked to keep them in very good condition, even though one of them she informed me was more than 150 years old.
The problem was, each of these bibles was wrapped carefully in a plastic bag and put away only to be brought out occasionally for someone else to hear the stories.
This was the only way for her to keep them clean and in good condition.
I found it very sad to think that even though this lady held fond memories of the people she had got these bibles from or the places from which she had received them, and had a special high regard for these as old books; she didn’t read them and she didn’t make use of them so she couldn’t be encouraged by the words within or come to know the joy of meeting the Saviour they offered her.
It was like my mug.
If I had kept it ‘good’ I would not have got the enjoyment and encouragement from it that I have got by using it regularly;