Responding To Adversity.

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how
things were so hard for her. She did not how she was going to
make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and
struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three
pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots
came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he
placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let
them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering
what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the
burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He
pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the
coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. 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. She smiled as she
tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity,
boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But 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 inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in
the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you," he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks
on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a
coffee bean? "

How about you?
Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity
do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were
you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or
a layoff have you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the
same, but are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and
heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water,
the thing that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor reaches
212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just
tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you
get better and make things better around you .

"The greatest part of our happiness or misery depends on our
disposition and not our circumstances." ---- Martha Washington