When I was in the fourth grade, I had a teacher who was addicted to Snapple Iced Tea. I don't mean that she liked the tea, or that she had it a few times a week. I'm talking every single day, without fail, she would drink at least three teas throughout the course of the school day.

I don't know how many she drank at home, but in my little fourth-grade mind, I imagined that her house was built from empty glass Snapple jars, all stacked up. She had to do something with all of those empty jars, right?

Well, maybe they weren't the walls of her home, but they were the base of every single project we ever did in her class. Mother's Day vases? Paper matćhe the Snapple jars.

Class project about the solar system? Paint the jars to look like outer space. Need help organizing? Snapple Jar pencil-holders. She had such an overwhelming abundance of Snapple jars that they were literally spilling over into every other area of our classroom.

And no one was making her drink these teas. She was drinking them because she loved and enjoyed them. And as she drank them, she accumulated the jars, thus providing supplies for every craft project our fourth-grade class could ever possibly need, and filling our room with all of her jars.

What are you filling up with?

Whatever we constantly consume or intake, will inevitably pour out into other aspects of our life. If you are surrounded by and taking in, negativity and anger, then surely that will show up elsewhere in your life.

BUT, that said, if you are surrounded by peace, joy, love, and grace, then that is exactly what others will see spilling from every part of you.

Romans 15:13 says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

If we want to give and love and serve others as Christ did, then the only way is the Lord! And He made that way for us when He sent His son to save us.

The Lord is the source of all joy (Psalm 16:11), so it makes sense that if we are seeking these things, we go look where they are present. Why spend time searching elsewhere, when we the answer is waiting right in front of us.

It's really as simple as Snapple jars. If we want to be able to pour out into other areas of our lives, then we need to be filling up at a source. Not as a chore, but in pure love and delight.

What a privilege it is to grow in knowledge and faith, and then build each other up in the same ways. Much more rewarding than having hundreds of Snapple jars laying around, and I promise it's even sweeter.