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The Teacup
A couple who used to go England to shop in a beautiful antique store,
Were
celebrating their 25TH Wedding Anniversary. They both liked antiques and
pottery, and especially teacups. Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked, "May
we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't
understand,"
it said, "I have not always been a teacup. There was a time
when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me,
pounded and
patted me, over and over and I yelled out, Don't do that. I don't like it! Let
me alone, but he only smiled, and gently said, 'Not yet!'
"Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and
around and around. Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick! I
screamed. But the master only nodded and said quietly, 'Not yet!'
He spun me and
poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself
and...
"..Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and
knocked and
pounded on the door. Help! Get me out of here! I could see him through the
opening and I could read his lips, as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not
yet!'
"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He
carefully took
me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool, that
felt so good! Ah, this is much better, I thought.
"But, after I cooled he picked me up and brushed and painted all over
me. The fumes
were horrible. I thought I would gag. Oh, please, stop it, stop it! I cried. He
only shook his head and said, 'Not yet!'
"Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. It was not like the first
one. This was
twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I
pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was
ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out, and again placed
me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering what's he going
to do next?
"An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I
did. I said,
That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm
beautiful! Quietly he spoke, 'I want you to remember," he said,
"I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you
alone, you'd 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 know it hurt and it 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. If I hadn't put you in the second oven, you wouldn't have
survived for long because the hardness would not have held.
"Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first
began with you.
Moral of the Story:
God knows what He's doing for each of us. He is the potter. We are His clay. He
will mold us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the
right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His
good, pleasing and perfect will.
So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost
beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you
feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink, try
this. Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest teacup, sit down and
think of this story and then... have a little talk with
the Potter.
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