A Thought for the Day...  

Submitted by Terry Doughty

WISDOM IN HOT CHOCOLATE

Some graduate students were visiting a retired professor that had inspired them. Their conversation about everyone's successful lives began to turn into shared complaints about the stresses found in their work, lives, and relationships. The professor offered them hot chocolate and set out an assortment of cups and told them to help themselves. Then he shared his thoughts.

“Notice all the nicest cups were taken first, leaving the plainest and cheap ones untaken. It is human nature to select the best available for ourselves but I believe that this tendency is the source of your problems and stress. The cup you drink from adds nothing to the quality of the chocolate. In some cases, using the most expensive and fancy cup even detracts or hides what you are drinking. What everyone really wanted initially was a cup of hot cocoa, not the cup; but even so, everyone took pains to select the best cup—even eyeing what everyone else chose.

However, please consider this: Life is the hot chocolate--your job, money, position in society are the cups. They are the tools to hold and contain life. The cup you hold does NOT define nor does it change the quality of the life you are living.”

Often when we concentrate on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. Always remember that God brews the hot chocolate. He does not choose the cup.

The happiest people do not have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. So...

Live simply

Love generously

Care deeply   

Speak kindly

Leave the rest to God

And remember the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least. Enjoy your hot chocolate.”