The Teacup Story for Your Widows Group Gathering

I'm starting to compile a widows group directory. Wouldn't it be great to see where other groups are and what they do? Plus it will be an encouragement to the groups to know that they're not alone and to share some ideas that work. Would you like to have your group listed too? Just send me the following at WCplace@gmail.com:

• Name of your group
• How often you meet and what you usually do together (socialize, have a Bible study, use a grief support program, etc).
• Your city, state or area
• A group photo

Here's a lovely idea for a gathering.
Have everyone bring her favorite or prettiest teacup or coffee mug.
Read aloud "The Teacup Story."
Share a meal or light refreshments along with a variety of teas or coffees.
Ask for prayer requests and close with prayer.

This sounds so simple, doesn't it? It is! But be prepared for a flood of conversation and have a box of Kleenex out in case there's a flood of good tears, too.
♥ ferree

* The Teacup Story *
Anonymous

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. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful cup.They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the clerk handed it to them, suddenly the cup spoke."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 and rolled me and patted me over and over. I yelled out, 'Leave me alone,' but he only smiled, 'Not yet,' he said."

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the cup said to the astounded couple."Suddenly I was spun around and around and 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!" the teacup exclaimed. "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, he said.'"

"Finally the door opened. He put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better,' I thought. But then he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I started to gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'"

"Again he put me back into the oven, but not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I'd be destroyed. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening, nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.'"

"There wasn't any hope. I knew I'd 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 said, 'Look at yourself.' And I did. I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.'"

'I want you to remember,' he then said. 'I knew it hurt to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you'd have dried up. I knew 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 knew 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.'"
~ Author Unknown

---

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,

"Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I shall announce My words to you."

Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.

But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel." Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NASB)