Clay Balls

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.

In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay

balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the

sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so

he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach,

he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as

he could.

He thought little about it, until he

dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was

a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the

remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found

thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had

left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the

beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with

their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of

dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he

had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at

someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It

doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or

sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than

someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have

not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one

of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God

to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel

away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and

find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the

gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as

God sees them.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I

have with the friends I have found here at StrokeNet. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE

THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!

LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!

Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps

if you are not willing to MOVE your Feet.