5OCT

Carrots, eggs or coffee. Which one are you?

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how difficult things were going for her.


She didn’t know what else to do and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting. It seemed like as soon as one problem was solved, another arose.
Her father took her into the kitchen, filled three pots with water and placed each one over a high flame. It wasn’t long before the water came to a boil.


He put carrots into one, eggs into another and in the last one he put coffee beans.


He allowed all of them to boil and without saying a word.


His daughter was impatiently waiting, trying to figure out what he was doing.


About twenty minutes later, he turned off the stove. He fished out the carrots and put them in a bowl. He did the same with the eggs and as well as with the coffee beans.


He turned to her and asked: "What do you see here?"


"Carrots, eggs and coffee," she said.


He asked her to try the carrots. She noticed how tender they were.

He asked her to take an egg and crack its shell. She did and after pulling off the shell, she observed how the egg had hardened after being boiled.


Finally, he asked her to take a sip of coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma and asked, "What does this all mean, dad?"

He explained how each one of them had faced the same adversity, the boiling water, but each one reacted differently.


The carrots went in strong, hard and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became tender.


The eggs were fragile. Its thin outer shell protected its liquid center, but after being put into the boiling water, its inside hardened.


However, the ground coffee beans were uniquely different from the others. Once they were put into the boiling water, they ended up changing the water.


"Which one are you, my child?” asked her father.


When adversity comes knocking on your door, how do you answer?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
Are you like the carrots that seem strong, but after enduring some pain and adversity become tender and lose their strength?


Or are you like the eggs, that start off with a soft heart, but after enduring difficulties becomes harder and harder?


Or are you like the coffee bean? It changed the boiling water, the same thing that was causing the pain. The coffee bean was able to extract its best flavor.

The hotter the water, the better tasting’s the coffee. When things get worse, you become better and improve everything around you as well.


How do you handle adversity?

Bishop Macedo