The story is told of a couple who used to go England to shop at
a beautiful antique store. This particular trip was to
celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked
antiques and pottery, and especially tea-cups, and so spotting
an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never
seen a cup 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 just a lump of red clay.
My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and
over and I yelled out, Don't do that. I don't like it! "Let me
alone," but he only smiled, and gently said; "Not yet!!"
"Then, WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I
was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it ! I'm getting
so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!', I screamed. But the master
only nodded and said, quietly; 'Not yet.' He spun me and poked
and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then..
... then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I
yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. " Help! Get me out
of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read
his lips as he shook his head from side to side, ' Not yet '
"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door
opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I
began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much
better," I thought.
But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted
me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag.
'Oh, please, Stop it! Stop it !' I cried. He only shook his
head and said. 'Not yet...'
Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not
like! the first time. This time it was twice as hot and I just
knew I would suffocate. I begged... I pleaded... I screamed. I
cried... I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to
give up and just then the door opened and he took me out and
again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and
waited, wondering ' what's he going to do to me next?'
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 !'
Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember then,' he said, 'I
know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I
just 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 hurt 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 color in your life. And if I hadn't
put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived
for long because the hardness would not have held.
Now you are a finished product. .... Now you are what I had in
mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this:

The Lord knows what He's doing for each of us; He is the potter, and
we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, and expose us to just
enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a
flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect
will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and
patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world
seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you
are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems too hard
to bear, try this.... Brew a cup of your favorite tea in
your prettiest tea cup, sit down and have a little talk with
the Potter.