The Tea Cup

I don't know if this has been widely circulated, I got this today in an e-mail. For me, at this point in time, it felt almost like a personal message for me.


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 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, Leave 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 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 think
on this story and then, have a little talk with the
Potter.


** A true friend is someone that reaches for your
hand and touches your
heart.

author unknown

Very nice and there is a lot of truth in it.

very very nice... "enjoy today, pursue tomorrow and cherish yesterday."

What a nice story...and I have a friend that is being "prodded" just now and needs this...I'll send it to her. Thanks...Jo

I've heard this used in sermons several times and it always touches me. Indeed we are all like that teacup if we are yielded to JESUS.