I want to be a bucket filler, not a bucket dipper.

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

I visited a virtual "Y-Time" class.

What is "Y-Time" you ask?

"Y-Time" is a program that we developed to help kids learn while they play. We used to have an offering called "Child-Watch". "Child-Watch" was exactly what it sounds like. When parents would come to the "Y" to work out or take some sort of class, they would put their kids in "Child-Watch" and we would watch their children for them. We changed that a few years ago to "Y-Time" where kids learn and play.

We developed staff to become teachers and developed age appropriate lessons. This was a game changer.

While it would be nearly impossible to have a "Virtual Child-Watch"; I guess we already have that, it is called T.V., "Y-Time" is a true benefit.

In the class the instructor read a book, I wish I could remember the title, but the book was a about the question, "Are you a bucket filler, or are you a bucket dipper?"

A bucket filler is someone who fills other peoples emotional/spiritual bucket.
A bucket dipper takes another persons emotional/spiritual stuff out of their bucket.

The thing about being a bucket dipper is that they dip from another person's bucket in an attempt to fill their own. This comes in the form of:
-Putting someone else down.
-Bullying
-Making fun of someone

This mindset goes like, "If I make someone else feel worse, I will feel better, or, I will look better if I make someone else look bad. Thus my bucket will be full.

The problem with that is the fact that no matter how much someone dips out of someone else's bucket, their bucket never gets full.

The only way to fill your bucket is by filling someone else's, the Acceptance Paradox.

I have athiest friends that tell me that I am not doing good because of my faith but because it makes me feel good. My response back has always been, "Why can't it be both? Maybe God made it possible to feel good when I help someone else as a barometer of how I am living out my faith."

I think they were trying to be bucket dippers when they asked, just sayin.

Anyway, "Y-Time" was busy teaching kids to be bucket fillers and not bucket dippers.

I am not sure if I had mentioned that our YMCA had adopted an emergency room at a local hospital. The kids in our Child Development Centers make card of appreciation for the Nurses, Doctors, and support staff to try and fill their buckets.

Virtual "Y-Time" in their class activity (We always have a class activity) made cards of appreciation for people. The kids could pick who they wanted to give them to. Family, Grocery workers, firemen, policemen... It was fun to watch the kids make their cards and fill the buckets of others.

I think I will fill someone's bucket today.

Will you join me, and fill someone's bucket too?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,
Roger