The Measure You Use

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."
Luke 6:38

For all of Alphabet Soup, for the sake of the measure you use.

I'm not sure who reads these posts. I don't write them so that people will read them, I write them because some things need to be said.

Ever bought a box of brownie mix? (Ghirardelli is BEST) I don't typically eat brownies, but I have baked my fair share to give away. Tell me this, do you do what the box says? I forgot something once, the egg, maybe? And, I kept asking myself, what is WRONG here? Until I looked over and saw the egg, or the water, or whatever, measured, but unpoured/uncracked, and had I not seen it, my brownies would have given to me exactly what I put into them, less than required.

Sitting in the city where I live right now are seven young women who have just conquered their fourth of five law school finals for the very first time. They are alphabet soup.
Also there are about ten or so peers I call "friends" or "family"
The rest of the world just isn't as close, and the rest of the world won't be reading this anyway, so if someone who passes me in the hallway on tuesdays and thursdays happens to read this, I'll laugh.

On Sunday evening, three members of alphabet soup trooped into a study room where I was studying for my last final. In the center of the table was a large and beautiful cookie made by two of the girls, and bags from a well known restaurant chain littered our environment, we laughed, and we talked of life, and Torts.
Before that, one of them had been with me for two hours. She is one of two who I absolutely know will give me a run for my money, and not in a bad way.
I'm certain all of them are just going to truck me in some way, to teach me something I wasn't expecting, something I've wanted to learn for years.
But, in this study room, with this one letter of the alphabet, walls came down, and truth came out, and both were wondering "What just happened here?"
I assume this will happen more, because it's all based on the measure one uses, and I don't intend to scrimp, any investment worth making is worth making correctly. The eggless brownies in all of their pitiful brown sludginess will agree with me.

It's like that with everything, God, people, work, life, seriously.
Whatever you invest, you get back. If you give your best, you get your best and then some. If you give less, then, well, too bad for you, you'll get the same.
You'll come in the kitchen wanting a brownie and realize you did not pour the water, or you did not crack the egg, and if that happens, do not curse the brownies, for it's all about the measure you used, or didn't.

Now, I have to leave them for a week, and I miss them already, it's the strangest thing.
To each of them I have given, and from each, received more than my fair share.
From and for them, I move to the places where light is dimmer, and water does not freely run.
To a group of people who have been waiting all year to see me, and a place where the only English known is "I love you." Good words to know if you only know three, right?

So, here we go, together, and using a GOOD measure.
Remember, it's up to you, so do not curse the brownies when you forget the egg.
Give a little bit,
Courtney