:: The Teacup ::
There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores.
They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their
twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
One day in this beautiful shop they saw a
beautiful teacup. They said,
"May we see that? We've never seen one quite so
beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You
don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup.
There was a time
when I was red and I was clay.
My master took me and rolled me and patted me
over and over and I yelled out, "Leave me alone", but he only smiled, 'Not
yet.'
"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I
was spun around and around and around. "Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed.
But the master only nodded and said, "Not yet."
Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I
wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could
see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head, "Not
yet."
Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to
cool. "There, that's better", I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The
fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Stop it, stop it!" I cried. He only
nodded, "Not yet."
Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the
first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I
pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening
nodding his head saying, "Not yet."
Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I
would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me
out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and I
couldn't believe it was me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.
"I want you to
remember, then," he said, "I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I
had left you alone, you would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin
around on the wheel, but if I had stopped,you would have crumbled. I knew it
hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there,
you would have cracked.I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you
all over,but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not
have had any color in your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second
oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have
held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first
began with you."
MORAL: God knows what He's doing for all of us. He is the
potter and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, so that we may be made
into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect
will.
Let this story be an encouragement to you and remind you that God has a
perfect plan for your life. He may need to place some struggles in your life to
strengthen your character so that you may be strong in the days of greater
adversity. Don't get discouraged when you feel like the heat of the struggle is
going to burn you. God knows exactly when to pull you out and deliver you from
that problem, and when He does you will be much wiser and stronger than you were
before. God will never give to us more than we are able to withstand, so remind
yourself that if many problems are coming your way, it is only because God knows
your inner strength and ability to be strong even in the midst of a
problem.
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