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In this thread you may share beautiful and inspiring stories which can be from fictional and non fictional events, stories pertaining to your culture/religion/beliefs, personal experiences e.t.c that carries a good message and moral for us to learn, help us build a good character, and how to overcome or face lifes testing situations. They are not to be long winded stories, but short paragraphs or even a few sentences that only takes a few seconds of our time, but has a lifetimes worth of meaning. The genre can be a cheerful one, or one with sorrow, one of humour or all. As long as it carries a message for us to learn or ponder about.
I'll start of with one. (Bismillah)
THE COFFEE BEANS
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, how things were so hard for her. She didn’t know how she was going to make it, and she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one of her problems was solved, a new one popped up.
Her mother took her into her kitchen, where she filled three pots with water. In the first pot, she placed some carrots, in the second one, she placed some eggs, and in the third pot, she placed some ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word, then in about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished out the carrots and placed them into a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them into another bowl, then she ladled the coffee into yet another bowl. Turning to her complaining daughter, she asked, “Tell me what do you see?”
“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” her daughter replied.
She brought her daughter closer, and asked her to feel the carrots. She did, and noticed that they were now soft. She told her daughter to break an egg, which she did, and after removing the shell, she saw that the egg was now hard – boiled. Finally, she told her daughter smiled as she tasted the rich flavour, then asked, “What’s the point, mother?”
Her mother explained that each of the three objects had faced the same adversity, -- boiling water, -- but each had reacted differently:
The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened, and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water! “Now which are you?” she asked her daughter, “when adversity knocks on ypur door, how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
Think of it like this...
Which am I? Am I a carrot that appears to be strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt, and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I an egg, which starts out with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter, and tough, with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the water! The very circumstance that brings the pain! When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst and trials are their greatest, you get better... and change the situation around you!
I'll start of with one. (Bismillah)
THE COFFEE BEANS
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, how things were so hard for her. She didn’t know how she was going to make it, and she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one of her problems was solved, a new one popped up.
Her mother took her into her kitchen, where she filled three pots with water. In the first pot, she placed some carrots, in the second one, she placed some eggs, and in the third pot, she placed some ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word, then in about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished out the carrots and placed them into a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them into another bowl, then she ladled the coffee into yet another bowl. Turning to her complaining daughter, she asked, “Tell me what do you see?”
“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” her daughter replied.
She brought her daughter closer, and asked her to feel the carrots. She did, and noticed that they were now soft. She told her daughter to break an egg, which she did, and after removing the shell, she saw that the egg was now hard – boiled. Finally, she told her daughter smiled as she tasted the rich flavour, then asked, “What’s the point, mother?”
Her mother explained that each of the three objects had faced the same adversity, -- boiling water, -- but each had reacted differently:
The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened, and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water! “Now which are you?” she asked her daughter, “when adversity knocks on ypur door, how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
Think of it like this...
Which am I? Am I a carrot that appears to be strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt, and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I an egg, which starts out with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter, and tough, with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the water! The very circumstance that brings the pain! When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst and trials are their greatest, you get better... and change the situation around you!
