There’s a common misconception that my daycare runs on electricity, when it is actually powered by coffee. 🙂 Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I do enjoy a good cup of coffee after feeding my kiddos breakfast and another one while they’re taking their afternoon naps.

This week I had a little incident with my coffee mug that drove home a Biblical lesson. The weather has turned quite cold (for the Ozarks anyway!) and while the daycare itself is staying warm, the kitchen cupboards are not. I opened the cupboard to retrieve my favorite coffee cup the other day and found it ice cold.

Well, pouring my coffee into that is just going to give me luke-warm caffeine in about a minute!

So I came up with a little system. When I arrive at the daycare in the morning, I place my coffee mug right up against the slow-cooker containing our lunch meal. The heat from the slow-cooker radiates into my cup, keeping it toasty warm until I’m ready for my coffee. Perfect!

You know, there are seasons in life that are cold.

Winter seasons, sad seasons, lonely seasons, discouraging seasons.

It’s in these times we desperately need the fellowship of our Christian brothers and sisters to “warm us up.”

The Bible tells us it’s important to spend time with the family of God. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) 

Just as my coffee cup can’t stay warm without the heat radiating from the slow-cooker, so we can’t be growing, thriving, evangelizing Christians if we never spend time with other Christians.

We were never meant to be alone. 

God knows how easy it is to get discouraged, and that’s why we find so much in the Scriptures about exhorting one another, encouraging one another, and bearing each other’s burdens.

God never created us to walk the road of life alone. 

When we are discouraged, we often don’t feel like getting out to church, making it to Bible study, or inviting a friend out for coffee. But it’s in these times that we need Christian fellowship the most. 

If you are feeling discouraged or a little lonely today, I encourage you to reach out to a friend or two in your church. And if you don’t have a church, start praying and looking for one.

Because you can’t stay warm on your own.

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)