Clay Balls
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a burlap 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 one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, 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.
About 4 weeks ago, I got called to be the 1st Counselor in Young Women's. I am really excited about this calling. I've already done a lot with the YW this past year. We have a really neat group of girls. Anyway today I had to teach combined YW. The lesson was on Individual Worth. I came across that story. I had fun making my own clay balls with a Lindor Truffle inside. Ron helped me. The color of clay depends on whether you are from Arizona or Nevada. To me clay balls are red sandstone and to him they are gray.
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 one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, 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.
About 4 weeks ago, I got called to be the 1st Counselor in Young Women's. I am really excited about this calling. I've already done a lot with the YW this past year. We have a really neat group of girls. Anyway today I had to teach combined YW. The lesson was on Individual Worth. I came across that story. I had fun making my own clay balls with a Lindor Truffle inside. Ron helped me. The color of clay depends on whether you are from Arizona or Nevada. To me clay balls are red sandstone and to him they are gray.
I even whipped up a burlap bag to pass them out in.
9 comments:
What an awesome object lesson for the girls. I bet they will remember it for a long time. It's so cool--an inspired--that you are in young women's.
That is an awesome story. What a great way to get the girls feeling better about themselves.
That was really a neat story. How cool. I bet the girls enjoyed their clayball. What a neat idea
That is really neat. I am going to have to remember to do that for my girls next year at girls camp. Remind me as it gets closer. Taht is a wonderful story!
I am so loving that you are in YW now! Great story and object lesson :)
Holy Martha! Great story and great object lesson. I bet the girls loved it!
That's awesome, vicki.
What a great message;
I know the girls will absolutely LOVE having you in YW.
Thanks for sharing that story I am going to borrow that for a FHE. You are definitely a gem.
I love this idea.
(So can you tell it's been a really long time since I've blogged since it is Oct 20th and I am getting around to reading these. I still am not blogging myself today, just thought I'd better check on my friends.)
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