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| I am choosing to make coffee |
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A young woman went to her mother and told her about her
life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know
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 mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots
with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots
came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the
second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground
coffee beans.
She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She
fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She
pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you
see.'
'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the
carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother
then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After
pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee.
The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The
daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced
the same adversity: boiling water.
Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong,
hard, and unrelenting. However, 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 be came hardened. The ground coffee beans were
unique, however.
After they were in the boiling water, they had changed
the water.
Which are you?' she asked her daughter.
'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you
respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems
strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become
soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but
changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but
after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some
other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my
shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough
with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes
the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.
When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and
flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are
their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level?
How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or
a coffee bean?
God knows all things:
I am choosing to make coffee. |
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| To add a comment to "I am choosing to make coffee" |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| Pour me a cup while you're at it...LOL...LOL Praze da Lord! ;o) |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| I don't mind being like kool aid! A little sugar and I'm good to go! |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| with cream and one lump of sugar lady!!!!!
Awesome!
xoxo |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| Bring on the Coffee |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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When you are prayed up, you don't even know there is a problem, it's just life
doing what life do, changing like the seasons
119:129 PE. Thy testimonies [are] wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.
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| July 23, 2008 |
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I am coffee...excellent post. |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| Coffee with cream, please! |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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OUTSTANDING
I will take FRENCH Vanilla in mine please |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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Thanks for sharing Dr.Tameka!
I like the word picture of the beans changing the water! |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| That was a great life lesson! |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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| Awesome post |
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| July 23, 2008 |
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Great!! |
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| July 24, 2008 |
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Great Blog, quite enlightening... I guess my question and statements are as follows. Good for you if you are coffee! But what about the people who are not? The mother in this story makes it sound easy to just "be the coffee" but its not always that easy. I would think that there are an awful lot of hard boiled eggs and carrots out there as well... but maybe I am simply seeing things a little too negatively here. Good blog none the less! A real thinker. |
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| July 24, 2008 |
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| Good blog, I love this analogy. |
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| July 24, 2008 |
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Thank you all for your wonderful comments.
Jade- you are not thinking negatively, this is how you feel. We all have chooses in life. God has given us this opportunity. What we do with it is the question, and that is something between you and God.
Just to make you think..... |
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| July 24, 2008 |
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| Ah, it would be easy to say, "I'll be coffee!" But then I read Jade's comment, and my perspective changed a little. We don't simply choose to be, do we? More like, we choose to do, and through repeated doing, we start to be. Or better yet, by abiding in Christ, over time we can become the coffee in this analogy. Right? Thanks for the blog, Dr Woods. And thanks for your enlightening comment Jade! |
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| July 25, 2008 |
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Just want to say this post really hit home... And Mike, sometimes we do not choose to do we simply have to do out of need for survival (physical or emotional). I belive that is how the "eggs and carrotts" in life are created, I think you may be right though it is through those actions that those character traits are born. (just my humble oppinion)
Again, powerful blog. I have seen something in me and realized an unhealthy trait. I, am becoming more like the egg then I care to be. |
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| July 26, 2008 |
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From one egg to another...
This could very well be the "Reader's Digest" story of my life... until I met Jesus and settles down for a long walk. The "hard boiled" side of me still wants to have the final say... but then I take a minute, give thanks and know that without Him this heart could be damaged beyond repair from the boiling water.
I will say that I prefer expresso... boiling water and pressure sure brings out the best in those coffee beans... |
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| July 27, 2008 |
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| this is an awesome story! I have read several times THANK YOU & God Bless |
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| July 27, 2008 |
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| Cool beans. Thanks. |
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| August 06, 2008 |
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I can see the point of the coffee. It's harder when the "water" has been muddied. The coffee certainly will be different; the taste will be awful. I pray but my prayers seem to fall down a well. I'm told that God answers in his own way. If that is true then he's helping to build a tunnel with very little light at the end of it. We all build our own situations. But we need to feel that there is a way to climb out |
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| August 06, 2008 |
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I can see the point of the coffee. It's harder when the "water" has been muddied. The coffee certainly will be different; the taste will be awful. I pray but my prayers seem to fall down a well. I'm told that God answers in his own way. If that is true then he's helping to build a tunnel with very little light at the end of it. We all build our own situations. But we need to feel that there is a way to climb out |
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| August 13, 2008 |
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What a fine blog with which to sip my morning coffee!!!!
I will invite a blog friend who already seems to be the coffee bean, to come draw more strength from this reading. If if I manage to copy and paste... I will do so for myself to review a few times over. When I consider how small my adversity compared to many, yet like a 'carrot', I've weakened inwardly, in my strength, energy, and demise - though not defeated - My God lives!
Thanks for the sharing of this pot of stew. Good nourishment with my morning coffee!!!! |
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| August 13, 2008 |
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| READ THIS BEFORE, BUT IT'S ALWAY A GOOD READ. CHOOSING TO MAKE COFFEE HERE. THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS |
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