Author: Unknown
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups – porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups…”
He then pauses and says, “Now consider this:
Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money, and position in society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold and contain life.
The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.
God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.
The happiest people don’t have the best of everything.
They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
And enjoy your hot chocolate!!”
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Yet another email forward that got me thinking…
What cup would I have chosen? Personally, I don’t think that I would have picked the most expensive crystal cup with the gold trim, but I know I would not have picked the plain cheap one… but hopefully something in between; something that was definitely clean. Anyway, as the analogy goes… that is not what I do many times in life. Many times I would choose to buy something that is more expensive or flashy yet does the same function as the cheap one. Why is it that because we have money, we think we must spend it? Why not spend what you need to and give what you don’t need to those who need, those who have nothing? I pray that the Lord would give me the wisdom to not spend mindlessly as we are brainwashed to do, to know that I don’t need everything the media tells me I need, and to know the difference between something that I need or something I want.