How Do You Face Adversity?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, how things were so hard for her. She didn’t know how she was going to make it, and she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that as one of her problems was solved, a new one popped up. 

Her mother took her into her kitchen, where she filled three pots with water. In the first pot, she placed some carrots, in the second one, she placed some eggs, and in the third pot, she placed some ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word, then in about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners.

She fished out the carrots and placed them into a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them into another bowl then she ladled the coffee into yet another bowl. Turning to her complaining daughter, she asked, ‘Tell me, what you see?’ ‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ her daughter replied. 

She brought her daughter closer, and asked her to feel the carrots.  She did, and noticed that they were now soft. She told her daughter to break an egg, which she did, and after removing the shell, she saw that the egg was now hard-boiled. Finally, she told her daughter to sip the coffee.  The daughter smiled as she tasted the rich flavor, then asked, ‘What’s the point, mother?’

Her mother explained that each of the three objects had faced the very same adversity — boiling water — but each had 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 insides became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water!

 ‘Now, which are you?’ she asked her daughter, ‘when adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?’

Think of it like this…….Which am I? Am I a carrot that appears to be strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt, and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I an egg that starts out with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter, and tough, with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually CHANGES THE WATER!!  The very circumstance that brings the pain!! When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better……and change the situation around you! When the hours are the darkest, and trials are their greatest, do you elevate to the next level?

— Author Unknown

 
How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?