What do you see when you look at a person? Do you let a first glance define the person? A friend passed along a story that I want to share...

 Clay  Balls    

A  man was exploring caves by the Seashore.   In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of  hardened clay balls.  It was like someone had rolled clay  balls and left them out in the sun to  bake. They  didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the  bag out of the cave with him.  As he strolled along the  beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the  ocean as far as he could.

He  thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls  and it cracked open on a rock .  Inside was a beautiful,  precious stone!  

Excited,  the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls.  Each  contained a similar treasure  He found thousands of dollars  worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had  left.  

Then  it struck him. He  had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of  the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.   Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have  taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it  away!

It's  like that with people.  We look at someone, maybe even  ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel.  It doesn't  look like much from the outside.  It isn't always beautiful  or sparkling, so we discount it.

We  see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or  stylish or well known or wealthy.  But we have not taken the  time to find the treasure hidden inside that  person.

There  is a treasure in each and every one of us.  If we take the  time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that  person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and  the brilliant gem begins to shine  forth.

 
May  we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have  thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden  in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees  them.  
 

I  am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you..   Thank you for looking beyond my  clay vessel.
  
  APPRECIATE  EVERY SINGLE
 THING  YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!
 LIFE  IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!
  

Do  not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps if you are not willing  to MOVE your  Feet'