When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers. The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed.

It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this:  The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on
and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold – throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.
The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months.

One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized that he had thrown away what he had been looking for for so long.

What had happened? He had formed such a strong habit of throwing the pebbles into the sea that when the one he waited for came along, he still threw it away. – – Author Unknown

We do the same with our opportunities in life. Unless we really know what we want, we easily overlook great opportunities that come our way and throw them away or ignore them. Opportunities are often fleeting and we need to take them up as they come along.

My question is, are you ready? Will you use what is given to you or will you be like the man in the story and discard it out of habit?