I'm A Little Tea Cup.... You all know the song…

Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in
a tea cup again without thinking of this.

There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a
beautiful antique store 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. 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!" "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 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, 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.
How different we all are like a tea cup!

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.