a little food for thought / not NF

[Guest guest]

hi Crew -

this one makes sense to me .... hugs, LynnBK

Subject: carrots, eggs, and coffee beans

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so

hard for her. She did not how she was going to make it and wanted to give

up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem

was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with

water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In

one

he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed

ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he

was

doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the burners. He fished

the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and

placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked. " Darling, what do you see. " " Carrots, eggs, and

coffee, " she replied. He brought her closer and asked her to feel the

carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take

an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the

hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as

she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. " What does it mean Father? " He explained that each of

them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted

differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after

being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg

had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior.

But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the

boiling water, they had changed the water.

" Which are you, " he asked his daughter. " When adversity knocks on your

door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? "

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and

adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength? Are you the

egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but

after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become hardened

and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a

stiff spirit and heart? Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes

the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor as

the water reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest,

it just tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better

and make things better around you. When people talk about you, do your

praises to the Lord increase? When the hour is the darkest and trials are

their greatest, does your worship elevate to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

II Corinthians 4:8-9 - We are troubled on every side, yet not

distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not

forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.