Coffee cups

We had a wonderful Women of Purpose dinner meeting tonight to start getting things lined up for the luncheon we are having on November 10. It is going to be fabulous, but while we were finishing up dinner, coffee was being served and the talk turned to the great coffee cups that were used. It reminded me of this story I read before and I asked one of the friends I was sitting by, Michelle, if she'd ever heard or read this story about the coffee cups. She hadn't, so I told her I'd post it here. It was a good lesson the first time I read it, but it just gets better every time....probably because it's true!

Good Coffee
(Author Unknown)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, 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.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee!"