"The Potter was known for His beautiful bowls, pots, cups, and plates: never once making a mistake. He turned the wheel as He led His hand through the hills and valleys of each design."

God develops us into who He wills, and His will is beautiful, good, perfect, and pure (Romans 12:2b). "Hills and valleys" was the wording based off of Tauren Wells' song "Hills and Valleys," which refers to ups and downs of life.

"Everyday each creation would experience ups and downs. Most days were gruesome work, but there were special occasions the creations felt a great sense of reward. It wasn't just the Potter working on the project, but the different projects had its fair share of work too: each clay had to let the Potter do His work and develop its formation based on what the Potter wanted."

Ups and downs goes back to the hills and valleys. The hard work with a reward can mean one of two things: the reward we receive when judged on our works in Revelation (Colossians 3:24) or seeing what God is able to do through our spiritual gifts after development (1 Timothy 4:14 and, depending on your interpretation of various commentaries, Romans 12:6). We must "let go and let God" and follow His instructions like the Clay did (Matthew 11:28-30, Proverbs 3:5-6, and Revelation 14:12).

"One day, a specific Clay decided it was tired of the long, monotonous hard work each day brought. The resolution the Clay came up with was to take over the work solely. As it spun around and around, more and more valleys created. "None of these crevices will eradicate," the Clay thought. He continued to spin, but the Clay then started to feel its walls thinning, the work feeling more gruesome than before."

When life seems rough, I know I tend to try to do things on my own. This will lead to harder work. God wants to help us (Psalms 55:22). Also, often times when I give into temptation instead of following God, situations in my life start to develop (like when the Clay went from thick walls to thin) and/or other situations get even worse than before (like when the Clay saw some crevices in its formation get deeper). The Bible says things will get worse when we turn from God (2 Peter 2:20-22).

"The Clay no longer knew what to do in order to resolve the new problem it faced. The only idea it could think of was to add more clay, so the Clay hopped off of the turning wheel to go retrieve fresh ingredients. As it hopped into the water and then into the cornstarch, it attempted to grow thicker and stronger. But once more, nothing worked. On the inside the Clay felt hardened."

This paragraph is about when we look to other things besides God: this specific example is about gaining worldly knowledge instead of Godly knowledge. The only knowledge we need comes from God because He knows all things (Proverbs 2:6, Romans 11:33-34). And much like when we ignore God, we harden our hearts instead of listening to His voice, which is what happened to the clay (Jeremiah 18:12, Hebrews 3:7-9).

""Maybe if I would have continued to allow Potter to help, I wouldn't have gotten into these situations and would've been done by now."

This segment of the story explains what happens when we turn back to God. We realize how wonderful it would've been to have His help in the first place (Matthew 7:7, Psalms 107:28-30).

"So He did, and the Clay was formed into a beautiful bowl to be used. The Clay was filled with joy in its softened heart."

Now God can use Clay just like He can use us after polishing up our spiritual gifts, testing us, etc (Romans 12). Through God we find joy (James 1:2-3, Romans 15:13).

Find the original piece here.