Some Tea For Thought...

This was on one of my online groups this morning, and even thought I don't usually post a lot of religious stuff, this made me stop and think....


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.

--author unknown