What's in a cup?

I became a Christian because God granted me my wish for peace in my soul.  No matter how much I tried, my conscience got the better of me, when I smoked and drank etc.  I didn't feel guilty as much as bad, bad about walking on a path I had never wanted to walk because I had always believed to have been stronger than that.  I had seen no point in smoking cigarettes as a young teenager, so I thought that responsible and sensible attitude would remain all the days of my life.  It did not.   When I found myself on the path of self-destruction and identified it as such without denial, the answer to turn to God was obvious.  I was almost flabberghasted at my own stupidity or slowness of catching on that God's way is the right way.  That is the way to life and truth.  God in the heavens above could surely save me from myself, if I couldn't.  Surely no one else thus far had even tried saving me, for they were themselves involved in the things that corrupt the soul.   After reading ...

I am reminded of the time SISTA and I got sucked into quicksand.  It was a scary yet funny experience. And I am not sure what the lesson therein was, but I remember it fondly, as though such trying times can cause such a stir in your heart and soul because in retrospect that sudden fear seems hilarious.   We were with our parents on holiday, and we were staying in a beautiful lodge that overlooked the ocean.  The lodges were standing at the edge of a lagoon, and Melissa, being the more adventurous of the two, decided we should go paddling on a boat, just on the lagoon which snaked into a river.  The river led us to an island where we stopped the boat and hooked it on a tree branch to make sure it would not be swept away.  What would we do if our boat would disappear into the river and be washed to sea? We never thought we might disappear into the river and be washed to sea. We had paddled with the stream, so it was easy.  It was late afternoon, so we we...