The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go to 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
tea-cups. 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 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."

The moral of this story is this:

God knows what He's doing [ for each of us ]. He is the potter, and we
are His clay. He will mould 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 of your favorite
tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and
then, have a little talk with the Potter.