The granddaughter nodded her head in agreement and wishing the science experiments in seventh grade had been as instructional. ‘’Which one are you?’’ the grandmother asked her granddaughter. ‘’When adversity knocks on your door, how do you react? Are you a carrot which seems strong but with pain and adversity, do you become soft and lose your strength; or are you the egg that starts out with an adaptable heart but changes with the heat? Do you have a fluid spirit usually, unless something bad happens like a death, a break up or a job loss, and then you become hardened and inflexible? Do you look the same on the outside, but inside do you become bitter and tough?’’  The granddaughter was listening and trying to make sense of every word her grandmother said.  ‘’Are you like the ground coffee beans that actually changed the hot water; the very circumstance that brought the pain? When the water gets hot, it releases the wonderful coffee smell and takes on the flavor of the coffee. If you’re like the bean, when things are at their worst, instead of giving up, you get better and stronger and change the situation around you,” the grandmother explained.

The young woman hugged her grandmother and with clarity, went to go talk to her husband. As she was almost outside the door, her grandmother said, ‘’Be the coffee honey. Always be the coffee.’’

In the end, the happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best everything, and every day isn’t filled with lollipops and unicorns – it’s just that happy people make the best of whatever comes their way.

The brightest future is built on a forgotten past. It was a wise person who gave this great life advice: ‘you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failure and heartaches.’

Don’t let adversity knock you so low that you can’t get up again. Try to learn from it, forgive, and know that trials help make you strong; sadness keeps you human and happiness helps make you sweet.

I so love this story and the lessons learnt. We don’t call forth adversities but they do come and the choice is ours to make what we can out of it; hopefully, the best. When life throws us lemons, we make lemonades, right?

When life throws us stones, we use them as building blocks, right?

Proverbs 24:10 says, ‘’If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.’’  (MSG)

May we find strength to pull through, remembering that there is nothing that comes our way that God hasn’t already equipped us to handle. All things are working out for our good. What was intended to harm us will eventually announce us for good, Amen.

Shalom!

If at the end of the day all you have is God, then you have more than enough.

LOVE LIVES HERE

#God is Love#

#diaryofanunconventionallady#

#missbarnabas#

#daughterofencouragement#