Want to be a better person? Pause and choose wisely!
Every day that we live on this earth we make choices. Things happen, we make decisions, and that shapes our life. It’s that simple, but do we put enough thought into how we react to things that happen to us?
Sometimes we’re so busy that we just react rather than think. As with many things, a slight pause will create a moment of increasing awareness of the words we choose to speak or the actions we choose to take. This affects every single aspect of our lives, and it’s especially true in relationships.
It’s been a while since we had started our training, just like the other day we started our 5th day with a very inspirational story. It is the story of Potatoes, Eggs and Coffee Beans. There was a girl who always complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high temperature. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He took the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked. “What do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.
“Look closer”, he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.
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. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.
He explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity – the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.
The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.
“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk and writer. He said, “To hope is to risk frustration. Therefore, make up your mind to risk frustration.” What happens when adversity knocks on your door? Viktor Frankl, the Jewish psychologist who spent time in a Nazi concentration camp in Germany said, “They stripped me naked. They took everything—my wedding ring, watch. I stood there naked and all of a sudden realized at that moment that although they could take everything away from me—my wife, my family, my possessions—they could not take away my freedom to choose how I was going to respond.”
There’s a wonderful verse in the New Testament we need to think about Romans 12:12 says: “Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer.”. God knows what he’s doing in our lives, even if we don’t. He is working quietly, taking the worst situations and turning them into good.
Against great obstacles William Wilberforce, a committed Christian Member of Parliament, fought for the abolition of the African slave trade and against slavery itself until they were both illegal in the British Empire. The battle consumed almost 46 years of his life (from 1787 to 1833). The defeats and setbacks along the way would have caused the ordinary politician to embrace a more popular cause.
Though he never lost a parliamentary election from age 21 to 65, the cause of abolishing the slave trade was defeated 11 times before its passage in 1807. And the battle for abolishing slavery itself did not gain the decisive victory until three days before he died in 1833. During those 46 years, he battled illness (eye problems and ulcerative colitis)—he was on opium to help with the pain. His friends deserted him, but he battled on. He persevered against great adversity. But slavery was abolished.
In life, things happen around us, and things happen to us. The only thing that truly matters is your choice of how you react to it and what you make of it. Learn, adapt and choose to make the best of each experience.
Today I don’t know what adversity you face. But I can tell you how the Apostle Paul handled it, and gave this divine word, which applies today: Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance; And endurance, approvedness; and approvedness, hope; And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
One of the crucial thing that we had discuss is about the Data Privacy , in the cyber world. We all know that we are prone to hacking or a language of steeling on someones data property/properties. that’s why the Republic of the Philippines has its own act regarding this matter, which is the Republic Act 10173 or known as Data Privacy Act of 2012, please click the link above to know about the act.
