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. 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.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not tempt you beyond what you can bear; but with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.