Don't cry over spilled milk… NOT!

I was praying for someone the other day, and while praying the expression “don’t cry over spilled milk” popped into my head.  I decided that expression is wrong... Let me explain... I was praying for a woman who is angry because her marriage is breaking up, not her fault, and her soon-to-be-ex is being cruel.

Sometimes life is messy, sometimes things break that can’t be fixed (or at least can’t be fixed without leaving scars)...

Think about Spilled Milk... the Milk is no longer any good - what was meant to be a nutritious beverage to help us have and keep strong bones is now simply a mess all over the table or floor... I guess it would be fine for a cat or dog, but in human terms its no longer of any good use.  The mess can be cleaned, but the Milk can not be recovered and put back to its original use.

Then I thought, what if you didn’t just spill but dropped the whole glass, and it didn’t just make a milky mess but a milky mess with glass shards mixed in... not only is the milk no good, clean-up can be down right dangerous!  In trying to clean up the mess you can get cut... perhaps deeply...

This woman’s marriage is like spilled milk... her life, and the lives of her family, will never be the same.  This marriage which was intended to bless her life now not only has no value but is causing deep cuts & pain.

She has a mess on her hands, a mess caused by someone else, a mess that is causing serious injury - to her and to her family.  This is something that should be causing tears, but instead she’s focused on anger... the anger is making the mess worse, it is causing more injury, and it is keeping this family from healing.

This woman needs to cry, I know, I’ve been through this sort of mess myself... what she doesn’t need is to try to mask her pain with anger.   Does this mean she doesn’t get angry over her situation?  Of course not!  Anger is an appropriate response to the situation; however, until she lets go of the anger and deals with the pain she’s not going to find the healing her heart needs.

So I say go ahead and cry over spilled milk... better to shed our tears to the one who captures them in a bottle than to bottle them up and end up an angry mess...

Psalm 56:8 - You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?

Revelation 21:4 - and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.