Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also
set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from
beginning to end.
A king wanted to test the wisdom of two of the wisest men
in his court. Two men were given a silver goblet, each containing equal
portions of crystal clear spring water. Each was asked what he saw in the cup.
The first man looked and said he saw a half-empty goblet. The second man
replied, "My cup is half full." The men were then asked to drink the
contents of the cup and relay how drinking the liquid made them feel. The first
man complained that the water tasted fine, but there was not enough, he wanted
more. The second man then took his turn. "The water tastes good and it has
quenched my thirst."
The king smiled and, finally, declared who was the wisest
man in all his court. "It is you," he said, turning to the second
man. Now I will tell you why. Looking to the first man, he said, “The cup
represents one's life, the world in which you live. When you looked into the
cup, what you saw was a cup half empty, even though the goblet contained the
finest spring water in all the land. Instead of sipping and finding
satisfaction in its contents, you desired more. In life, you will never see all
your many blessings, for your greed and lust for more will always cloud your thinking."
The king then turned to the second man. "When you
looked into the cup you saw a cup half full. So, too, will you regard life in
this way, reaping all its many blessings and being grateful for the gifts
bestowed upon you. A half full cup is not a full cup, yet its contents can
still be sweet and satisfying."
The moral of this story is that life is not always
perfect, yet how we view our cup will determine what mind frame we have when
sipping of its contents.
How many people do you know who feel discontentment in
their life? Someone ELSE has the perfect car, job, spouse, or girlfriend, and a
generally much more exciting life. Yet, chances are they think YOUR life is
better and that it is YOU with the perfect spouse, home, job, etc.
Man, in all his fleshly desires, always wants more. Often
this desire for more gets us into trouble, and sometimes we find ourselves
losing the very precious things we thought we never had in the first place.
Dear Lord, thank You for all we have. We pray that we
would be thankful for what we have and not worried about what we don’t have. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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