Re: Prayers, help and advice
Jeff, can only offer this little story. Please read to the end.
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There was a couple who used to go
England to shop in a beautiful antique
store. This trip was to celebrate 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, the tea cup spoke.
"You don't understand," it said, "I have not always
been a tea cup. 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....then
he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I
yelled and knocked and pounded at 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. 'Oh,
that felt so good! Ah, this is much better,' I thought.
But, after I cooled he picked me up and he
brushed and painted me all over. 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.
Only 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 to me 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, then,'
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 back in that 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.'"
God knows what He's doing in each of us. He is
the potter, and 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
tea cup, sit down, and have a little talk with
the Potter.
