Carrots, eggs or Coffee. Which are you?

Housesitter · 06-18-2008, 04:43 PM

I received the following as an email. I have no idea who wrote it so sorry I can't acknowledge the author.

Carrots, Eggs, & Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know 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 mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without once saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she said, "Tell me what you see.'"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She
did and noted that they were soft.

The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, 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 being in the boiling water, they did something the other two didn’t.

They changed the water. They changed the environment that had created the adversity. And the beans came through the ordeal having created something pleasurable and wonderful to behold.

"Now which would you like to be?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity strikes, how do you respond? Do you go soft and fall apart, like the carrot? Do you get hardened inside, like the egg? Or do you change the very environment that sought to change you? Which would you like to be like," she asked again. "The carrot, the egg or the coffee?"

When adversity strikes, no matter how horrible or overwhelming it may be, we are still in control of one very important factor, possibly the most important of all, and it’s this…

We get to choose how these circumstances will affect us. That’s right. We choose how we’re going to respond. Nobody, nor any circumstance, can dictate our response to adversity. We can make all the excuses we want to explain our bitterness, our pain, our suffering, but it’s just an expression of our self-absorbed nature. In the end, it’s our responsibility to decide how we’re going to respond.

Christ calls us to transform the world, not be transformed by it. Perhaps He was a coffee drinker…

Jax · 06-18-2008, 07:58 PM

What an excellent story !

Mark_18 · 06-18-2008, 08:23 PM

I'l be coffee.

But I just quit drinking coffee.

Ash · 06-18-2008, 08:26 PM

that's great, I am sending this to my sister. She was just complaining to me last night how she feels like no matter what she does nothing gets better for her, this story just might help to inspire her. Thanks for sharing!

Dusty · 06-18-2008, 09:06 PM

I loved the story.Thanks for sharing. Great example. I will email it to my friends.

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