A friend emailed this to me tonite and I thought I would share:



The tea cup

The story is told of a couple who used to go England to shop at a
beautiful antique store. This particular trip was to celebrate their
25th
wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and
especially tea cups, and so 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 time. This time it 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 and 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. And 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:

The Lord 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 too hard to bear, try this....

Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and
have a little talk with the Potter!

thank you so very much......

Thank you for sharing I really loved that i saved it

I will do just that, its time for a good cup of tea. Anyonewish to join
me?



G

wow, that was really good. makes sense out of life