The Tea Cup

This is from the same daily devotional as The Dragonfly one.
I love it!

The Tea Cup


There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and the shop they visited had a beautiful teacup. They said to the shop assistant, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful." As the lady handed it over to them, the teacup spoke suddenly.

"You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me, rolled me, patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'Let me alone' but he only smiled, 'Not yet.'
"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said,"and suddenly I was spun around. 'Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!' I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.' Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered
why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head, 'Not yet.'

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better', I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'
Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.'

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and I couldn't believe it was me. 'It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.'

'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you would 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 knew it hurt and 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 survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.

Moral: God knows what He's doing for all of us. He is the
potter and we are His clay. He will mold us so that we may be
made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good,
pleasing, and perfect will.

Let this story remind you that God has a perfect plan for your life. He may need to place some obstacles in your life to strengthen your character, so that you may be strong in the days of greater adversity. Don't get discouraged when you feel like
the heat of the struggle is going to burn you. God knows exactly when to pull you out and deliver you from that problem and when He does you will be much wiser and stronger than you were before.

God knows your inner strength and ability to be strong even in the midst of a problem.

~Author Unknown~

http://www.mountainwings.com/past/8204.htm

The Dragonfly

The Dragonfly
Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under the lily pads,there lived a little water beetle in a community of waterbeetles. They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond with few disturbances and interruptions. Once in a while, sadness would come to the community when one of their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a lily pad and would never be seen again. They knew when this happened; their friend was dead, gone forever. Then, one day, one little water beetle felt an irresistible urge to climb up that stem. However, he was determined that he would not leave forever. He would come back and tell his friends what he had found at the top. When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun felt so warm, that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed dragonfly with broad wings and a slender body designed for flying. So, fly he did! And, as he soared he saw the beauty of a whole new world and a far superior way of life to what he had never known existed. Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended. But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood that their time would come, when they, too, would know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life! ~Author Unknown~

Resilience

re-sil-ient
def.- springing back; rebounding; returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, stretched.


This is a story of resilience.
During the Easter season at our church, you could purchase Easter lilies in honor or in memory of a loved one. My mother and father in-law bought one in memory of Caroline. They planted it in our flower bed after bringing it home from church. Although it lost it's blooms, it was flourishing, for a little while anyway. Being that I don't have the greenest thumb, it eventually started to die. It got brown and the leaves began to fall off. So, I yanked it out of the flower bed and tossed it aside, with intentions of later throwing it away. Now it looks like this:

In the last few weeks since I did that look what showed up in its place! Not one, not two, but THREE new plants!




I like how there are 2 bigger blossoms and 1 smaller one. It reminds me that, even if it was for only six months, we were a family of three:)
I think we, people in general, are kinda like that lily. Just when you think you are down and out, conquered, and ready to give up... you bounce back. Thank God for resilience!

Until We're Together Again

Until We're Together Again
© Katherine J. Cochran (BMI)
Vocal by Tiffany Coburn
To listen to this song click here

Some believe
A star shining brightly in the heavens
Represents the love of someone they can't see
Others feel
The butterfly dancing in their garden
Is a symbol of a spirit flying free

But when a gentle breeze caresses your hair
Or you see an eagle soar in the air
Should you smile and remember me in prayer
Oh, I will be there

(chorus)
There's no need to say good-bye
One day we'll be together
Remember me and smile
I'm in your heart forever
I'll feel the love you send
Until we're together again

Close your eyes
You'll find me sailing in the sunset
Riding waves of bluest oceans ever seen
Holding hands
Of all the others here before me
My head upheld to hear the angels sing

I can do all the things I've always dreamed of
I'll be watching over you from above
Don't worry about me because
I brought along all your love

(chorus)
There's no need to say good-bye
One day we'll be together
Remember me and smile
I'm in your heart forever
I'll feel the love you send
Until we're together again

It doesn't matter where you are
My love will shine upon you from that star
Like the butterfly, now I'm free
Ascending through the sky peacefully

(final chorus)
There's no need to say good-bye
One day we'll be together
Remember me and smile
I'm in your heart forever
I'll feel the love you send
All the love you send
And you hold on to the love I send
Until we're together again

We'll be together again

Update

I got to meet Amelia tonight! She is just beautiful! Her brother may get to come home tomorrow~yea!

My dear friend, Lauri, delivered twins on July 3rd! Their names are Amelia Ann & Gavin Matthew. Little Gavin will have to stay in the NICU when she is discharged with Amelia tomorrow. Please keep Gavin, and his entire family in your prayers.

Sometimes

Sometimes when I walk into the spare room (what would have been the nursery), I really can imagine baby 'stuff' being in there. Baby cries, sounds, and smells. I know it sounds crazy, but I picture what her room would have been and what she would be doing now.

Somedays (most days now that school is out)I relish in the joy of sleeping in and being lazy on the couch- watching countless episodes of my favorite shows on TLC. But then...I wish that I wasn't able to sleep in, that it would be time for a feeding or that our baby would be up from her nap and need a diaper change.

Sometimes I am envious of others and their healthy babies and I feel so guilty for it. For example, yesterday we went to the Orioles game and the couple entering in front of us had a tiny baby girl with them. The ticket lady said, "Is this her first game?" When they responded with enthusiasm that it was, the lady explained how they could obtain a special certificate for her. How I long for that day!! I couldn't help but picture Caroline with us, she would have been in her first 4th of July outfit...

Sometimes when I look at her pictures I am astonished at how much she looked like her dad. When I hold the same yellow blanket in my arms that she was wrapped up in in those pictures, I know she was real, that all of this really happened to us. But there is a part of me always thinks of what happened as a dream. All of it- the memories of the pregnancy, the day the doctor told us there was no heartbeat, the labor, and the delivery- it has a dream-like haze over it, like a flashback scene from a movie. And then, I am so quickly reminded that it was not a dream because if it was I wouldn't still have this empty hole in my heart which I long to have filled.

Luckily, it is not sometimes, but all of the time that I am grateful. Through this 'storm' I have come to know Jesus more, to allow Him to hold us in the palm of his hand. It is undeniable that our faith has been strengthened. We have been surrounded by support and love that we so desperately need and for that I know we are blessed.