Thursday, January 15, 2009

Hot Chocolate and more

I have seen this as e-mail, with absolutely adorable children’s pictures in a PPS. If you receive it, the photos are beautiful. But I post it below without the shots in order to post the thought here. And to comment at the close.

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

”The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

”What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

”Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups.

”They are just tools to hold and contain life.

”The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.

”Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

”Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.”

Everybody say “Ohhh.” Especially if you got the one with the photos of those absolutely adorable babies.

Let me assure you – this is too simplistic for a life view. Life is not always as sweet as hot chocolate, and some do not enjoy its taste. We not only want the best container for ourselves, but for our family. Yet there is a simple truth – our life is not defined by its container. How we wrap the days we live around our soul should take into consideration where our soul will spend all of its existence.

If we believe we have a soul, a spiritual existence that we share with others, the beast container for our lives is God’s will. The choice is ours to do so – or not.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14)

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