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Are You a Carrot, Egg or Coffee Bean?

Each day, I have a choice on how I react to the circumstances, challenges, opportunities, failures and successes in my life. What I do know is that the more I learn, the more I read, the more I open my heart and my mind, the closer I get to being the woman that I believe God wants me to be. But, through trials and tribulations, it often isn't easy to remember the "why."


I just finished reading the book Satisfy My Thirsty Soul, by Linda Dillow and it paralleled nicely to the Soul Care conference I attended with Dr. Rob Reimer over the weekend. I found this story, which Linda tells in her book, to be a great way to look at it. When something starts to boil in my life, am I going to be a carrot, egg or coffee bean? Read on, and tell me how you normally respond to trials and tribulations in your life.

A young woman told her mother that the pain in her life was so difficult that she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. As soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose. The mother took the girl to the kitchen and filled three pots with water. 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 saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, the woman turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in the bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” came the reply. The mother then brought her daughter closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the girl 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. She smiled as she tasted its rich flavor, and then asked, “What’s the point, Mom?”
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity—boiling water—but each reacted differently.
The carrot went in 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 liquid inside, but its inside had become hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
“Which are you?” the mother asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?” - Satisfy My Thirsty Soul, Linda Dillow

Today, I long to be a coffee bean...I hope you can smell my aroma.


Photo Credit: Kim Roberto

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My overall goal is to help create healthy, happy humans through sharing the Christian Wisdom and Servant Leadership principles as I discover them along the way.  I also have a very aggressive goal in life....

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