I run this blog on gardening topics. It is my passion, but as a mother, a wife and a woman, there are other things that affect me too. Every now and then, I raise another subject and bring you stories I have heard. This is a lesson in life, taken from my church magazine. A daughter complained to her father 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 all the fighting and struggling. It seemed as though in solving one problem, two more would arise.

Her father, who was a chef, took her into the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed them all on a hot gas stove. Soon the pots of water came to the boil.

In one, he placed carrots. In the second, he placed eggs and in the third, he placed ground coffee beans.

He left them to sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what on earth he was doing. About twenty minutes later, he turned of the stoves.

He fished the carrots out of the first pot and placed them in a bowl. Then he pulled out the eggs and placed them in another bowl. Finally, he ladled out the coffee and poured it into a cup.

Turning to his daughter, he asked “Darling, what do you see here?”

“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” replied the daughter, impatiently.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noticed that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it open. After peeling off the shell, she observed that the egg was hard boiled. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted it’s rich aroma. She turned to him and asked humbly “What does this mean, Father?”

He explained that each of them had faced exactly the same adversity – boiling water, but each had reacted differently. The carrots went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but after being subjected to the boiling water, they softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. It’s thin outer shell had protected it’s liquid interior, but after sitting in the boiling water, the insides had become hardened.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they had gone in to the boiling water, they had actually changed the water.

“Which one are you?” asked the father. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Which one are 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 fragile, changeable heart, but after the effects of adversity, the heart becomes hard and stiff? Your exterior shell looks the same, but you become tough and hard on the inside.

Or, are you the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the very thing that is bringing the pain. When the water reaches it’s peak temperature, it just tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make the things around you better too. When people talk about you, do your praises to the Lord increase? When the hour is the darkest and the trials are the greatest, does your worship elevate to the next level?

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

Please God, let me be a coffee bean!

In closing, there was a very gracious old lady, who was mailing an old family bible to her brother in another part of the country. “Is there anything breakable in here” asks the postal clerk. “Only the ten commandments,” answers the old lady.

Sally Robson is married to Derek, an up and coming South African internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet. They have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. She also has a passion for gardening. For more articles and advice on gardening topics, visit Sally’s website at http://www.dersalsites.com/gardening/  and her blog at http://dersalsites.com/sallysgardeningtips

To remain informed their internet marketing progress, by newsletter and mail, to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, sign up here. You will also get some free software. It’s free. Click this link : http://dersalsites.com/newsletter/

For more on internet marketing, South African business, list building, law of attraction and rugby, visit Derek’s blog at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness/

Clint has started a website on fitness and bodybuilding and has amassed hundreds of articles on various topics of fitness. Check his site at: http://dersalsites.com/clintstraining/  and his new blogsite at http://dersalsites.com/clintstrainingblog/

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