Lessons from the “good room” of precious China
In the 1970s, an Irish family owned perhaps one of the best and finest china in Ireland. It was so precious that the mother kept her fine collection in a small room she called the “good room.”
The room had a key, and no one could open it lest use the plates. She was saving it for her children and for those really special occasions to come. After all, the kids were still young.
In the 1970s, intense rioting and violence erupted in Northern Ireland. The British Armed Forces‘ Operation Banner deployed the army in Belfast and Derry.
As the tanks passed into their street, the ground shook, and like an earthquake, homes rattled. Then they heard the sound of crashing plates in the room above. The mother rushed to the good room, and she cried profusely. The china was shattered into pieces. The mother died a few years later.
Perhaps she was saving the china for her children’s wedding or christening of her grandkids, but she will never be able to use these plates ever, even if they did not break.
The lessons from the good room are straightforward. First, life is short. If your good room of valuables is tight shut, open, and use what’s inside it to create memories now, not in the future. We never know what tomorrow will bring.
If you have talents hidden away, use them for God’s glory, and don’t allow fear to take over. Remember, whatever we have belongs to God; it is not for us to keep but to share.
