No, this doesn't belong in Goof Off, it just sounds like it does. The head of my writer's club (it's a Christian writer's club) sent me this. I found it very inspiring. She found it on a blog somewhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a couple who used to go to England to shop
in the beautiful
stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and
especially tea pots.
This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful
tea pot. They said, "May
we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea pot
spoke. "You don't
understand," it said. "I haven't always been a tea
pot.
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 teapot
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 and 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 time. 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 I couldn't believe it was 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
would 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 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 and 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 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.
~~~~~~~~
Very inspiring. I've though about how I'm impaitent with myself, with my progress in life. I was thinking about how I'm 24 but still act like a kid... living on my parents' generosity, messed up as far as getting a good job and keeping it... I was thinking about how I was always smart and did well in school. I think God's been telling me not to be so proud of my brain - because it really doesn't count for much in the real world/ His plan, whatever. I think he's also telling me to be paitient with my circumstances, that he'll provide for me and, someday, I'll get over all the bad ways I am now. (Depressed, lazy, ect.).
So... I feel like a teapot. I'm being molded and patted or fired in the furnace or something now, I guess, and I should just be paitent with God.