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
especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth 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 hadn't 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 I first began with you."

 MORAL: 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.


~~~Author Unknown~~~

Now no chastening for the present seemth to be
joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby
Hebrews 12:11

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