Whatever Happens, It Happens For Good

This story is about a king who was fond of hunting and was always accompanied with a minister who was very close to him.  This minister had a habit of saying to everyone, "Whatever happens, it happens for good" and this annoyed other ministers in the court.
During one of the hunting excursions, the king's thumb was chopped off and as per his habit the minister could't stop himself from saying "Whatever happens, it happens for good".  Since the king was the victim this time, he got very annoyed with the minister and put him in jail.
In an another hunting trip, the king was captured by Cannibals and was about to be killed, when they noticed one of his thumb missing.  As per their tradition, they were not allowed to kill a person whose any body part was missing.  So, they set him free.
The king recalled the words of his minister and realised how true were his words.  He went to the minister in jail and apologised for his mistake. However, the minister said that it was good that he was jailed.  Otherwise, he would have accompanied the king for the hunting trip and got eaten by cannibals.
Many times we are taken aback by the short term impact of an event and don't realise that each of these events has a design for shaping our long term future.  It is nature's way of controlling our lives.

Carrot, Egg & Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.  she was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.  Her mother took her to the kitchen.  She filled three pots with water and placed each on high fire.  Soon the pots came to boil.  In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.  She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.  In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.  She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.  Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.  Turning to her daughter, she asked,"Tell me, what do you see?  Carrots, eggs and coffee."  The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"  Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity....boiling water.  Each reacted differently.  The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting.  However, after subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.  The egg had been fragile.  Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee bean were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter.  "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"