My favorite flowerpot was shaped like a pot-bellied cat.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bring it inside last winter and it cracked from the
freezing temperatures.
We put flowers in pots of various sizes and shapes for many reasons. These containers provide a place where the plants are supported properly, can get the water and attention they need, and can be moved around to various places.
A cracked flowerpot isn’t much good. The vessel loses water before the plants can absorb it, leaks soil onto the surfaces around it and is precarious to move from one location to another.
Sometimes we are like cracked flowerpots. According to 1 Corinthians 3:16, we are God’s temple —the vessel of His love and grace. And, at times, we aren’t very good at it.
Maybe it’s because we spend too much time under the harsh influence of the world and not enough time in the loving, renewing presence of the Lord. After a while our resolve to follow Jesus and His teachings begins to crack. We cave in to the constant barrage to accept society’s ways of thinking and living. Although Romans 12:2 warns us not to conform to the standards of this world, we cave in to the constant barrage to accept society’s ways of thinking and living.
When we allow our Christian values to be overrun and corrupted by the world, we are as useless than a cracked pot. When we don’t take the time to immerse in God’s Word, prayer, and fellowship with other believers, fissures form in our relationship with Jesus, and the peace and joy of being in His presence leak away.
We are called to tell others what God has done for us. (Psalm 40:10) We can only help others find a relationship with Jesus when we maintain our own relationship with Him. We can only support and refresh our fellow believers, and be an influence on the world, when we take the time to be refreshed and renewed and supported ourselves—through prayer (Ephesians 6:!8), Bible study (Joshua 1:8), and Christian fellowship (Hebrews 10:25).
Let’s not be cracked pots.
Be encouraged!
©2026 Pamela D. Williams