There was a couple who went to England to shop in a beautiful antique store. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially tea cups. On a trip to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, they found an exceptional cup. They asked "May we see that cup? We've never seen a tea cup quite so beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea cup spoke, "You don't understand." the cup said, "I have not always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over, and I yelled out, 'Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone.' But the potter only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet!!"
Then, WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. "Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, "Not yet." He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then...Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet." When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better, I thought. But, after I cooled, he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Oh, please, Stop it, Stop it!!" I cried. He only shook his head and said. "Not yet!"
Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited... and waited, wondering what he is going to do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself," and I did. I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful... I'm beautiful!"
Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember this," he said, "I know it hurt to be rolled and patted, but had I left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."
The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing in each of us. He is the potter, and we are his clay. He will mold us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.
So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink", try this...Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then... Have a little talk with the Potter.
Story from: http://www.lightyourfire.com/unanswered_prayers.htm
"Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much. I beg of you to spare the life of the unborn child I have spiritually adopted, who is in danger of abortion." - Archbishop Fulton Sheen
"Be like the violet, which blossoms unseen. This modest little flower grows in the midst of the loftier plants which surround it, being itself unheeded and unknown, Charming indeed it is in its robe of purple; delightful is the fragrance it diffuses; yet it knows not that it is so sweet and fair. Do you resemble this flower? The more firmly this tendency to pride is implanted by nature in the heart of woman, the more edifying and meritorious it is when she, with the aid of divine grace, fights against the tendency and gradually eradicates it, planting in its stead the fragrant violet of humility, causing it to take root to flourish and blossom. The violet of humility is indeed one of the fairest ornaments of woman, and of the young girl more especially. "- Father Lasance, The Catholic Girl's Guide 
Now
He told a parable to those who were invited, when He marked how they
chose the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by any
one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a
more eminent guest than you be invited by him; and he who invited you
both will come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you
will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited
go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say
'go up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit
at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and
he who humbles himself shall be exalted."- Luke 14:7-11
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
