I remember an article I read that is so interesting I want to share it with you.

The title of that article: Are You A Carrot, An Egg, or Coffee?

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She said, “Father, I do not know how I am going to make it. I just feel like giving up. I’m tired of fighting and struggling. It seems as though every time one of my problems is solved, a new one comes along. I just can’t take it anymore.”

Her father took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed them each on the high heat. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one pot of boiling water, he placed carrots. In the second, he placed the eggs, and in the last pot, he placed the coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what was he doing.

Twenty minutes later, he turned off the burners. He strained the water from the carrots and placed them in a bowl. He lifted the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He lifted the eggs out and placed them in another bowl. Then he ladled the steaming coffee into a bowl. Turning to her he asked, “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 and mushy.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 flavor and smelled the rich aroma. She humbly asked, “But what does it mean, Father?”

He explained the each of them had plunged into the boiling water, but each had reacted differently. The carrot went into the water strong and hard 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 soft, liquid interior. But after sitting in the boiling water, it became hard on the inside.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, the water did not really change them. They changed the water! “Which are you?” the father gently asked his daughter.

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you more like a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

How about you? Are you the carrot that started out strong and hard long ago, but with the pain and adversity in your life struggles, did you become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg that started out soft inside? Were you a fluid spirit, but after pain of death, abuse, rejection, poor health, divorce, or a layoff, have you become hardened? Your outer shell might look the same, but you have become hard-boiled and toughened in your spirit and your heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean that was plunged into the rapidly boiling water and actually changed the hot water and gave it flavor and aroma, reaching its peak flavor at 212 degrees Fahrenheit! THAT IS HOT WATER THERE MY FRIEND!

When people say bad things about you, how do your praises to the Lord continue. or do you blame Him? When the hour is darkest and your trials are their greatest, does your worship elevate to a higher level, or do you desert Him? When you feel burned by our own troubles, do you still reach out and and help others? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

When you are plunged into hot water, into anything that brings you pain, like being immersed in the adversities of life, be like the coffee bean. When things are at their worst, you will get stronger and make things better around you, and … you will always leave an aroma that’s most pleasing to others as well as to yourself.

You know what? This article is so nice I don’t want to add anything to it anymore.

If you love someone, ask them for nothing.

Don’t hold them back from their destiny.

Don’t keep them from going off in search of their own answers.

Don’t ask them for commitment.
You will know commitment is real when it is something given willingly and not as something obligatory.

Don’t ask them for promises.

If you are patient, if you have faith, you will know in your heart when the right time for promises has come.

And when that time arrives,
then you will see that you have both lost nothing by setting each other free,
and have instead gained a richer, fuller life,
a wealth of experiences,
and a stronger certainty of your desires.

But should they not return to you,
then life hasn’t cheated you because no promises were broken.
Your bitterness will not last long,
and you will feel thankful and blessed that at the very least,
this beautiful soul has colored your life,
that knowing them has already made life infinitely more meaningful.

By setting a person free,
you run a risk of them not returning.
But always remember that you found them beautiful precisely because they were free.
People are like sunlight. You can feel their warmth, and their glow,
but you can’t hold them in your hand and keep them with you forever.

People CHOOSE to stay.

But a choice is made more meaningful when it is made despite so many other options.

Love has no restrictions and it is through mistakes that sometimes we see the right answer.

Because if you love someone,
you ask them for nothing
and they will come back to you.

“To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk revealing your true self.
To place you ideas, your dreams, before a crowd
Is to risk rejection.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk disappointment.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard
In life is to risk nothing.
Those who risk nothing, do nothing, have nothing,
And become nothing.
They may avoid present suffering and sorrow, but they
Will not learn, feel, change, grow, love, or live.
Chained by their fear, they are slaves who have forfeited
Their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
And the realist adjusts the sails.”

—William Arthur Ward