Lessons from Tea Cups...

Recently, my daughters brainstormed into being a ladies' luncheon for the mothers and daughters at our little church. They asked me to share a some tea cup-related inspiration with everyone so I pondered a few weeks, and after asking the Lord, and some friends, I came up with the following:

Tea cups come in varied sizes, shapes, and with different marking or none at all. Some are exquisitely beautiful, while others are simply elegant. They come from different parts of the world and make their abode in our cabinets sometimes from far away.  But they all are created with a common purpose in mind: to hold something, whether it is tea, coffee, hot cocoa, little flower bouquets, floating candles, or potpourri.

So it is with people. We are all created by God. Some are tall, some are short. There are thick ones and thin ones. There are different skin tones and nationalities. There are different personalities. And we come from the four corners of the earth. But in all our differences, the Master Potter has created us all with one specific purpose in mind: To known Him and make Him known/ to love Him and others. No matter where we go in life, or where we've come from, always this is the single most important purpose, the Purpose of all purposes that He has in mind for us.

As we go through our lives, may we always remember the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31:

One of my friends sent me the following story when she heard that

I was giving a talk on tea cups at a ladies' luncheon. I was so blessed by it:

The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in the beautiful store. This was their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially tea-cups. They said,”May we see that? We’ve never seen one 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 red 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 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 yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook hid head, ‘Not yet’.
“Finally, the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 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 in to 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. 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.
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.’

“I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I just had 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 hurts 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 colour in your life, and if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for 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.” God knows what He’s doing [ for all of us ]. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mould us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.
– Submitted by Cathy Pinto

What a beautiful picture of the Potter and the clay.

And what reality it is many times as we go thru

the moulding and firing process...

we kick and scream until we figure out that 

He knows what He's doing and we yield to

letting Him produce in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

We enjoyed our day with the ladies.

There was pink. There were tea cups. There were white skirts.

And sheer lacey cloths. Candles. Tulips and icicle lights.

It was lovely.

(happy sigh)

I'm glad my daughters thot of this and

helped to get it accomplished.