{"id":31742,"date":"2011-04-21T13:18:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T17:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/31742\/always-look-on-the-inside\/"},"modified":"2011-04-21T13:18:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T17:18:34","slug":"always-look-on-the-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/31742\/always-look-on-the-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Look on the Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Always Look on the Inside<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember reading a story once about a man<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

who was exploring some caves by the seashore.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In one of the caves he found a canvas bag<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

with a bunch of hardened clay balls.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was like someone had rolled up some clay<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

and left them out in the sun to bake.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThey didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

so he took the bag out of the cave with him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As he strolled along the beach, to pass the time,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

he would throw the clay balls one at a time<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

out into the ocean as far as he could throw.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He thought little about it until he dropped<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Inside was a beautiful, precious stone.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Excited, the man started breaking open<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

the remaining clay balls.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Each contained a similar treasure.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He found thousands of dollars worth<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then it struck him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He had been on the beach a long time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

he could have had tens of thousands,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

but he just threw it all away.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

You know sometimes, it’s like that with people.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We look at someone, maybe even ourselves,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

and we see the external clay vessel.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn’t look like much from the outside.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It isn’t always beautiful or sparkling<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

so we discount it;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

we see that person as less important than<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

someone more beautiful or stylish<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

or well known or wealthy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But we have not taken the time to find<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

the treasure hidden inside that person.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is a treasure hidden in every one of us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We are wonderfully made.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not just our physical bodies, our spiritual selves,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

which are sometimes hidden from others<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

by the “earthen vessel.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But if you take the time to get to know that person,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

and if you ask the Spirit to show you that person<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

the way He sees them,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

then the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We come to love, not by finding the perfect person,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

but by learning & seeing an imperfect person, perfectly.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

LOVE cannot be seen nor heard, it must be felt by the heart.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

nor the kindly smile,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

nor the joy of companionship;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

it is the spiritual inspiration that comes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

to one when he discovers that someone else<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

believes in him and is willing to trust<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

him with friendship.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

that I have with each of you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Love & Light,
\n\u2665Angel Love\u2665<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember reading a story once about a man who was exploring some 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 up some clay and left them out in the sun to bake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[2676,3067,3066,49,59,3068,32,316],"class_list":["post-31742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendburst","category-life","tag-angel-love","tag-balls","tag-clay","tag-friends-2","tag-friendship","tag-gems","tag-love","tag-treasure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}