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Friday, June 5, 2009

CLAY BALLS!

I have had 2 wonderful days with FRIENDS!
I thank my God for every one of them!

Philippians 1:3
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you...

Father God,
Please help us to see people around us with YOUR eyes;
help us to not look at the outside – but to see what is inside....
the precious jewel that You have created that is in there somewhere!
Thank you, LORD!

This email was sent to me by a very dear person!
A precious one – who means the world to me!
(Thank you, Sandy)
I’m sending this off to all of you and praying for each one to know how precious YOU are.
May this writing bless you today!

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.
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!

Have a wonderful, joyful day - filled with gems galore! Ruthie

1 comment:

  1. That is a beautiful expression of how we should see each other and that is a precious picture!!!
    Janet

    ReplyDelete

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