Showing posts with label adversity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adversity. Show all posts

Thursday 11 June 2015

Struggles of life

Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café t...
Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café tostado (natural). Bahasa Indonesia: Biji kopi alami yang telah disangrai. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STRUGGLES OF OUR LIFE

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.


The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked.

 “Daughter, what do you see?”
 “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,”
 she hastily replied.
“Look closer”,
 he said,
 “and touch the potatoes.”
 She did and noted that they were soft.
 

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?”
she asked.
 

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity - the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.
The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.
However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?”
 he asked his daughter.
 “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
MORAL:

 In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about learning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

Friday 16 October 2009

Character is built


"Character is built,
you don't just reach up and grab it."
- Robert Rowe

Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln

"The true character of ministry is a servant heart."
- Unknown author

“A man of twisted purposes is a cause of fighting everywhere:
and he who says evil secretly makes trouble between friends.”
Proverbs 16:28

“Be free from the love of money and pleased with the things which you have;
for he himself has said, I will be with you at all times.”
Hebrews 13:5


"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us,
because God's love has been poured into our hearts."
Romans 5:3-5

God our Father, let all the trials that come to me form me.
I always give the right targets at love after
and that I with good intentions may reach to the correct character.
Give me the right good character,
that I ask you in Jesus name, amen.
Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Karakter wordt opgebouwd

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Your struggles develop your strengths

Dutch version / Nederlands > Uw strijd ontwikkelt uw sterke punten


"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue."
- Francis Bacon

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 1:5-8

Lord God, I am grateful that Jesus has conquered death for me.
Give me that I have the perseverance to surmount the difficulties of this world to overcome.
Let me always walk virtuous by the life in Christ Jesus' name, Amen.



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2015 update: adding of related articles

Monday 2 March 2009

Be willing to access joy in the face of adversity


"Be willing to access joy

in the face of adversity."
- C.W. Metcalf


"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us,
because God has poured out his love into our hearts."
Romans 5:3-5


Though our hope in Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation,
we rejoice already now. Even though many tests in our lives come over us,
let us be stronger than this and give that we ourselves still feel happy.
Let us stand and win life.
You have the victory wreath of life promised. We hope for it.
Lord, protect me in my expectations
and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Don’t disappoint me.