Lately I have noticed that it’s been very hard to get Mika to drink water. I’m not really a water person either (I’d rather save the space in my stomach so I could eat more ), but since I came across some articles on what water really does and what can happen to our bodies when we don’t drink enough of it, I got a little bit alarmed and I am now trying to get into the habit of drinking H2O (after 26 years of existence, it is just now that I realize my science teachers were not exaggerating after all). I even put it as a wall paper on my cell phone as a reminder for me.

My point was, I think my two daughters took on that bad habit. And since I have come to realize the error of my ways, I’ve been trying extra hard to get them to drink water.

So far so good with Alyanna. All I have to do is make it a prerequisite to everything she’d like to do or to have. For example, earlier I was having fresh buko juice over breakfast. Now juice–whether fresh or not, both girls really like. So I was not surprised when both of them started begging me for juice. I gave both of them the condition that I would give them fresh, yummy juice, if they finished their water. I told them that I needed them to empty their cups for me to be able to use the same cups for the juice.

Alyanna immediately took her cup filled with water and gulped down every drop, excited for the juice. Mika, on the other hand, still refused to drink water (even if it was just an ounce or two). Instead, she started whining and kept saying “joo! joo! pu joo!”, gesturing that I pour some juice into her cup. I kept telling her, “Drink your water so I can put juice in your cup.”, but she just didn’t seem to get it. The whining started to turn into a cry of frustration because she was not getting what she wanted. My point was just, “Empty your cup so I could fill it with what you really want.”

As we were going through that whole scene, a thought popped into my head. It was actually a very familiar scene that I was in. I realized that when it comes to our walk with God, many times we start whining and crying out to God, sometimes out of frustration for not getting our desires met. We think “But Lord, I’ve been a good daughter!”, “If you really love me, why couldn’t you just give me this thing that I’ve been asking for?”, “I know that what I’m praying for is according to your will naman, how come I’m still not getting it?”

…and God just looks at us and says, “Because you don’t get it. I just want you to empty your cup. Only then could I fill it with the best thing that would really satisfy you.”