Those that Read it "Knead" it!

I have gone through some pondering this week. I have had several friends reading the blog and giving their advice and opinions on the way the blog is going. Each friend is in a different stage of life, marital status or different sexes. It was interesting to me as I spoke with four friends in person this week that none mentioned the same post in their top two. They each had a different top two posts with not one favorite post being repeated twice. That surprised me.

The last person I was getting input from was my 19 year old daughter. During the first week of the blog, she told me she was just looking at the pictures as she knew the stories. She also said that she wasn't interested in learning to craft as she doesn't have a house to decorate or a place to put crafts. This discouraged me as I felt that younger people wouldn't be interested in the blog. Also, I got conflicting suggestions on color schemes, fonts, and layouts.

For some reason, all this different input overwhelmed me. I felt like I wasn't connecting with people on a daily basis but just once in awhile if that. Also, looking at my schedule from yesterday's post you can see I have a busy life. With that said, I was considering giving up this blog.

I had prayed about it and knew that I was supposed to write a blog and was feeling overwhelmed and unsure as to what to write about due to the varied interest. I was talking to my 19 year old after she moved home Saturday night and she mentioned that she enjoyed the "Penny" and the "Tire-d swing" posts. I was a bit taken back as I thought she wasn't reading them. She said she liked the writing and the play on words and the ideas. I told her I needed to hear that as I was thinking about stopping.

I was writing in my journal last night and had just finished the post and I had the strongest feeling that I needed to stop worrying about what others think and the thought came to my head, "Those that read it need it" or "Those that need it will read it."

I opened up the blog and started typing the title and the thought came to changed "need" to "knead" for the post.

That is how I feel my life is. I am this clay that the Master Potter is kneading. When a potter gets his clay ready to use, he has to knead it to get all the air bubbles out and make the clay uniform. If the clay has any air bubbles left in, it will make the pot weak and flawed and will break. Our bodies are clay. They will break down into soil. We are like the clay; we are being kneaded by the master through our trials to get all the flaws and bubbles out.

Once the clay is kneaded, it is shaped. Sometimes, if there is a bump or motion while the pot is being made, it has to be beaten back down, kneaded and worked again and again before the perfect pot is made. I think this is the learning part of our lives. I think we are all being worked on by that Master Potter and he has a vision of what perfect pot, instrument or lamp he wants for us to become with the just the right color of glaze.

He will work us into that perfect item, put on the glaze and then put us to the test to see if we can stand up to the heat of the kiln or test at the time and when we are "fired" we are a strong pot capable of carrying the living water. We can carry food to share; we can carry the burdens of others. Or, we can be made an instrument to lift with music or a lamp to light the way for others.

Each day we are being molded, fired, or are being used. We are sometimes carrying something. We can carry burdens. Sometimes our pot is so full of our own burdens that we have no room left in our pot for anything or anyone. At those times, others may come and take some of our burdens to help us along.

However, if we empty that pot through the atonement of Christ, we then have room to carry his water, food and the burdens of others.

I had a field trip with the third grade and we saw a Master Potter who taught at the college level.

He made pots and talked of how they were made etc. After it was over, he gave some of the children little pots as a reminder of what he taught them. He also gave us some clay and showed us how to mold it and make it into a whistle. He had all types of whistles in all shapes and I made mine into a bird. I realized when looking at that whistle that not all of us are meant to be pots.

Whatever God is shaping us for, I pray we will be worked quickly so that when fired, we can withstand any future fire and any flaws and be strong enough to do the work that God has for us.