The Egg, The Coffee Beans and The Potato

A short story

A little boy named John lived in a beautiful home with his parents. One day, his father found him crying and asked if something was wrong. John said meekly, “I have so many problems in life, and talked about his ‘problems’. John’s father patiently listened to him. Then he brought a bowl and placed a potato, an egg and some coffee beans in it. He asked John to touch and feel the ingredients in the bowl, and say what he felt about them.

John described how he felt about each of them on touching them. The father smiled and asked John to place them all in three different bowls, pour water in them and boil them. He then boiled them all. After a few minutes, the father turned off the stove and placed all the bowls on the counter to cool them down. When they had cooled down, John’s father asked him to touch them once again and feel the egg, potato, and coffee beans. John had a different answer this time. He said, “the potato’s skin is easier to peel as it has turned very soft, the egg has hardened, and there is a fresh coffee aroma coming from the beans.”

Listening to John, his father smiled and told him how the potato, egg, and coffee beans reacted to adverse situations. The potato had become soft, the egg had turned out very strong, and the coffee beans had changed their form completely during their testing time in the boiling water.

Morals

Afflictions lift your stars! How you react to your seasons of trials and pain is what determines the outcome of your battles! Problems are part of life. They can make you hard as the egg or soft as the potato, etc. Battles can make us bitter or better! They can make you acidic or full of sweet aroma for living.

No wonder William Ward wrote: Adversities causes some men to break down; others to break records.” May your pain and adversities, cause you to break records!