{"id":989,"date":"2020-06-06T09:39:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T09:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disciple4.com\/?p=989"},"modified":"2023-03-27T21:10:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T21:10:46","slug":"dilapidated-people-the-leaking-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/dilapidated-people-the-leaking-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Dilapidated people: the leaking pot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever felt a bit \u201cdilapidated\u201d? Feeling a failure because of your many flaws? Looking at other people and see the wonderful gifts and qualities and great exploits? It is more common than you think. Much more common. Sooner or later nearly all of us hit this wall of feeling a failure. Inferiority is an emotion that we find in all, yes, all<\/em> people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you are today feeling a bit dilapidated,\nmaybe this story will help get some perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a water bearer in India who had\ntwo large pots. Each hung on the ends of a pole that he carried across the back\nof his neck. One of the pots had a small crack in it near the bottom. The other\npot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of a\nlong walk from the stream to the master\u2019s house, but the pot that was broken\narrived only half full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master\u2019s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, bragging constantly about its full measure of water when it arrived. But the poor broken pot was ashamed of its imperfections and miserable that it was able to retain only half of what it was supposed to hold. After two years of what the cracked pot perceived as a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am ashamed of myself and want to\napologize to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d asked the pot bearer. \u201cWhat are you\nashamed of?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been able, for these past two\nyears, to carry only half my load because this crack that I am afflicted with\ncauses water to leak out all the way back to your master\u2019s house. Because of my\nflaws, you have to do all this work, and you don\u2019t get full value from your\nefforts,\u201d the pot said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The water bearer felt sorry for the poor broken pot, and in his compassion, he said, \u201cAs we return to the master\u2019s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they went up the hill, the old pot\nnoticed the sun warming some beautiful wildflowers on the side of the path, and\nthis cheered the pot a little. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad\nbecause it had leaked out half of its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer\nfor its failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bearer said to the pot, \u201cDid you notice\nthat there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot\u2019s\nside?\u201d That\u2019s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage\nof it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we\nwalk back from the stream, you have watered them. For two years I have been\nable to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master\u2019s table. Without you\nbeing just the way you are, my master would not have this beauty to grace his\nhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author Unknown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken from: Broken crayons still color, by Shelley Hitz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life comes in stories: use this link to subscribe to occasional stories via email: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/vfd32z4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever felt a bit \u201cdilapidated\u201d? Feeling a failure because of your many flaws? Looking at other people and see the wonderful gifts and qualities and great exploits? It is more common than you think. Much more common. Sooner or later nearly all of us hit this wall of feeling a failure. Inferiority is an emotion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}