Open Those Eggs

Imagine that I dump 10,000 plastic eggs in your back yard. I assure you that inside one of those hollow eggs is a check for $1 Million dollars with your name on it. Would you get discouraged if you opened the first 100 eggs without finding the check? How about the first 1000 eggs? Of course not ! You'd just keep opening those eggs, just waiting for the moment when you'd find the check. St. Paul knew the meaning of the word "suffering." He had been beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked, starved, and rejected. And yet Paul said that his sufferings were nothing compared to the glory that would come. In other words, Paul had opened a lot of empty eggs, but he never gave up or got discouraged. He believed that something great was in his future - God's glory revealed in him. Perhaps it feels to you as if your life has been nothing but empty eggs. You've already opened 99000 of them and you're not sure you've got the will to go on. Let me encourage you today. Don't give up. I don't want to trivialize the challenges you are facing, but I do want to help you put them into perspective. They are only temporary, and God has something much greater in store for you. Compared to the glory that will be revealed in us one day, our suffering doesn't merit discouragement. Hang on. Don't give up. Keep going. One day God will replace your discouragement with incomparable glory!

Pancakes

Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard, and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.

He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk, and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor

which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad. He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove, (and he didn't know how the stove worked!). Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor.

Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky. And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him. Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process.

That's how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky, we insult a friend, we can't stand our job, or our health goes sour. Sometimes we just stand there in

tears because we can't think of anything else to do.

That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets allover Him. But just because we might mess up, we can't stop trying to "make pancakes," for God or for others. Sooner or later we'll get it right, and then they'll be glad we tried ...

~ Author Unknown ~

 

Cocoon

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.

Baking A Cake

A little boy is telling his Grandma how "everything" is going wrong. School, family problems, severe health problems, etc.. Meanwhile, Grandma is baking a cake. She asks her grandson if he would like a snack, which, of course, he does.

"Here, have some cooking oil."

"Yuck" says the boy.

"How about a couple raw eggs? "

"Gross, Grandma!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"

"Grandma, those are all yucky!"

To which Grandma replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way. Many times we wonder why he would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!"

God is Crazy About You. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

Act Like A Mule

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer  heard the mule 'braying' - or - whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened ... and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back ... a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back ... HE SHOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up ... shake it off and step up ... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought 'panic" and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, STEPPED TRIUMPHANTLY OVER THE WALL OF THAT WELL! What seemed like would bury him, actually blessed him ... all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

THAT'S LIFE! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity ... THE ADVERSITIES THAT COME ALONG TO BURY US USUALLY HAVE WITHIN THEM THE POTENTIAL TO BENEFIT AND BLESS US!

Remember that FORGIVENESS--FAITH--PRAYER--PRAISE and HOPE ... all are excellent ways to "SHAKE

IT OFF AND STEP UP" out of the wells in which we find ourselves!

5 Sponges

There are 5 sponges lying on your kitchen counter top. Each member your of your family has been cleaning up different areas of your home, but the sponges all look the same. You are curious as to what

You squeeze each sponge to see what comes out. As you squeeze the first sponge, you see that cola comes out, and so you decide that someone cleaned the kitchen with that one.

Upon squeezing the second sponge, you find tub and tile cleaner, that one was used to clean the bathroom.

Next, in the third sponge, you find motor oil — hubby was cleaning the garage!

In the fourth sponge, baby powder puffs out when it is squeezed —yep, the baby's nursery was done with that one!

And finally, in the last one, is floor wax — that was the one you used on the hall floor!

As you lay the last one down, you look again at their similarity -and they all look the same until they're squeezed. Christians are the same way. As life squeezes us, different things come out — anger from one, a need for revenge from another, tears from one, remorse from yet another — also greed, untruth, lust — and finally, from one saint, pours forth the love of Christ.

Just like the sponge, we can only squeeze out what is put in — stay in the Word daily, and be in  continuous prayer, so that when life puts the squeeze on you (and it WILL), Jesus, and Jesus ALONE will shine forth from you!

Have a blessed, squeaky clean day!