Skip to main content

The Tea Cup


There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and specially teacups. This was their twentyfifth 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, "let 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 said, "Look at yourself".

And I did. I said, That‘s not me; that couldn‘t be 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‘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 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 had 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 first began with you.

I guess by now you already know what the story is all about. Pains, trials, difficulties in life. A nonstop, continuous action packed adventure. That‘s what life is, and the blows, well, they keep coming.

Guess what‘s happening? The Master is putting us His clay into the oven in order to break us, mold us and form us into His image. 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.
Think about it. Our every area of strength comes from our past "oven experience". This is why we‘re strong today and that strength, is used to help others and bring glory to His name.

Hellen Keller says: "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God".

Warren Wiersbe noted that when God permits his children to go through the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat.  As for me the best thing to do is to remember that I am but clay.

But what a privilege it is to have God as my master. He completes the work He has begun in me. So don't give up, don't let up! We're all diamonds in the rough...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BEING YOU...

I t's been said that the biggest enemy of 'great' is 'good'. The biggest enemy most of us face is 'ourselves'. The nagging voice says: be like him, you're not worthy; do what he does, follow where others are going. When you're trying to be like someone else, the best you can ever be is "second best" . Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you. We all do it or have done it at some point in our lives; we compare ourselves to others and gauge where we are based on what we observe them to be doing. When you stop comparing yourself to others, you tend to produce more results in your life, you are able to improve yourself, and get a better vision for your life . The easiest thing to be in the world is YOU . The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position. Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be cont...
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Yourself

Be an original individual and not a photocopy. However, you may try to change your personality, but you can't. A congolese proverb says, " Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile". Beware! Many spend their entire lives trying to change the way they were made. "To be nobody but yourself" says E.E. Cummings " but in a world which is doing its best day and night, to make everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." The greatest tragedy than can strike an individual is to fail to know himself.  Syndney Harris said "Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties and their real virtues". Whatever you are, be a good one.  You are number one; everyone in the world is your number two. Wart Disney said, "the more you are like yourself, the less you are like anyone els...
Post a Comment
Read more

Character..

Character is the aggregate sum total of one's distinctive moral and mental qualities. Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character, however it is not a natural endowment we are born with.  It is something that each individual forms of itself, with a continuous process in every thought, every action, every deed, every feeling which contributes to the education  faculty of our attitudes and habits.  Character is just like cloud of smoke, it can never be concealed or hidden because it will find its way out. Character is a magnet that attracts the right people to you. It is the real foundation of all worth while success.  "Thoughts leads on purposes, purposes go forth in action, action from habits, habits decides character, and character defines our destiny" (Tryon Edwards). Would your reputation recognize your character if they met in the dark? Would the boy you were be proud of the man you are?
Post a Comment
Read more