Having therapy in our home so much can be difficult. For me. For the kids. For our family as a whole. It is hard. But it really helps us. The therapists are always observing the difficult things. They are observing the things that are challenging for us. All of us. Then they work together with their supervisor to come up with a plan.

Winter is hard for me. The theme “you can’t pour from an empty cup” was in my thoughts frequently. I decided to start seeing a counselor bi-weekly for some talk therapy. I frequently figure things out by talking through them. But I decided that taking the time to see my own therapist would be good modeling for my children.

I learned a couple of new things, that I love and use daily. But most importantly, I learned that my “cup” had long been emptied. And I just kept pouring from it.

So, when I could have been refilling my children’s cup, I was just pouring into them my exhaustion, my frustration, and my impatience. All the fumes that come with being empty and in survival mode. I wasn’t serving them love, compassion, patience, and empathy.

So, how did I fill my cup? Therapy was the first important step for me. I learned that I needed to set firm boundaries for myself and not be moved. I learned that I needed to make dates with friends. I learned that I needed more quality time with my husband. I learned that in all the things that needed to get done in a day, I needed to focus on the top three. The rest could wait until tomorrow.

As I started implementing all of these things, one by one, things started changing for me. And then, I was able to fill my cup a little more each day. And only then, was I able to fill my children’s cups the way they needed. The way they deserve.

The things that fill my cup the fastest are things of the Spirit. I love to hear, read, watch and learn things of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. When I do this, my cup fills. When I share the things that I learn, I can fill the cups of others.

Today, I get to fill my cup to overflowing. In fact, my whole family can! Today and tomorrow, I get to participate in the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There are three two-hour sessions today and two two-hour sessions tomorrow. We make yummy snack foods, we color, we listen, we take notes, we discuss as a family. It is one of our favorite weekends.

I invite you to listen. Here is the link:

churchofjesuschrist.org/media/broadcasts?lang=eng

I hope it helps to fill your cup like it does mine. If you are curious to learn more about this worldwide church that fills my cup, here is a link to learn more:

www.churchofjesuschrist.org

There is a chat function, and you can ask all the questions that you’d like.

Have a great weekend!