Reflecting on Oneself

An old grandfather was talking to his grandson who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him injustice.

“Let me tell you a story.” Said the grandfather. “I too at times have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they did. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.”

“It is as if there are 2 wolves deep inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offence when no offence is intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. He saves all his energy for the right fight.”

“But the other wolf, Ahhh!” the grandfather continued, “He is full of anger. The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing, sometimes it is hard to live with these wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit”

The boy looked intently into his grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which one wins, grandfather?”

The grandfather smiled and quietly said, “The one I feed!”

A son and is father were walking on the mountains.

Suddenly his son falls, hurts himself and screams, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

Curious, he yells, “Who are you?”

HE receives the answer, “Who are you?”

Angered at the response, he screams, “Coward!”

He receives the answer, “Coward!”

He looks to his father and asks, “What’s going on?”

The father smiles and says, “My son, pay attention”

And then he screams to the mountain, “I admire you!”

The voice answers, “I admire you!”

Again the man screams, “You are a champion!”

The voice answers, “You are a champion!”

The boy is surprised, but does not understand.

Then the father explains, “People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE.

Our life is simply a reflection of our actions.

If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart.

If you want more competence in your team, improve your competence.

This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life;

Life will give you back everything you have given to it.”

YOUR LIFE IS NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT’S A REFLECTION OF YOU!

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. It's name is time.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.

Each night it burns the records of the day.

If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow.

You must live in the present on today's deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

And remember, time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is a mystery.

Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.

 A couple went for a cruise tour to enjoy their private honeymoon while leaving their children at home. Unfortunately, the cruise ship was sinking due to catastrophic weather condition. The couple finally made their way to the lifeboat area but there was only space for one person left. The man jumped onto the lifeboat, leaving his wife on the sinking ship…

The wife stood on the sinking ship and shouted to her husband saying…

The teacher paused the above story and asked her students in the classroom, “Let us guess. What do you think she shouted to her husband?”

Most students answered altogether: “I hate you! I was blinded by love!”

The teacher noticed that there was a student who sat quietly and asked him. The student answered, “Teacher, I believe she would have shouted – Take care of our children!”

The teacher was shocked and asked: “Have you heard this story before?”

The student shook his head and said, “Nope, but before my mother passed away to disease, she told my father the exact same words!”

The teacher was amazed and praised: “Your answer is excellent!”

The cruise sunk and the man returned home and brought up their children single-handedly.

Many years later after the death of the man, their daughter who had been accusing her father found her father’s diary while tidying his belongings, and she found out the truth.

It turns out that when her parent went onto the cruise ship, the mother was already diagnosed with an incurable disease. During the crucial moment on the sinking ship, her father rushed to the only space left on the lifeboat. He wrote in his diary, “I wanted to sink with you together on the sinking cruise. But for our children, I could only let you sink alone into the deep cold ocean bed.”

The daughter burst into tears after reading this diary.

The teacher finished the story and the whole class went silent.

The teacher knew that her students had understood the moral of the story that she wanted to pass on to them.  In this world there are good and evil. Sometimes the situation could be very complicated and indistinguishable of good and bad. So, we must not jump to conclusion easily and look at the surface only. We must not make hasty decision or assumption without any attempt of investigation or using our critical thinking. We must not judge others without understanding them first. We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

• For those who usually pay the dinner bill, it is not because they are rich but they treasure friendship more than money.

• For those colleagues who take the initiative at work, do so not because they are stupid but they understand the concept of responsibility.

• Those who apologizes first after a fight, do so not because they are wrong but because they value the people around them.

• Those who are willing to help you, do so not because they owe you anything but because they see you as a true friend.

• Those who text you frequently does not mean he or she has nothing better to do but because he or she was missing you terribly.

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife

Who judgement upon you must pass;

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think your a straight-shootin' chum

And call you a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear up to the end.

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life

And get pats on your back as you pass.

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Peter "Dale" Wimbrow Sr.

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farm house had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire had caused him to miss an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pick-up truck refused to start.

As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. When we arrived he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked to the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles; he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed by the tree and my curiousity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.

“Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, they don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So, I just hang them on the tree when I come home in the evening and then I just pick them up again in the morning.”

“Funny thing, though.” He smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick’em up, there aint nearly as many as I remembered hanging there the night before.”

 “Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical ‘glass half empty or glass half full’ question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, ‘How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?’

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

She replied, ‘From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter.  It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.’

As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, ‘Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.'

“Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical ‘glass half empty or glass half full’ question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, ‘How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?’

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

She replied, ‘From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter.  It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.’

As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, ‘Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.'”

A young couple moved into a new neighbourhood.

The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the washing outside.

“That laundry is not very clean; she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”

Her husband looked on, remaining silent.

Every time her neighbour hung her washing out to dry, the young woman made the same comments.

A month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, “Look, she’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?”

The husband replied, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”

And so it is with life… What we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look. So don’t be too quick to judge others, especially if your perspective of life is clouded by anger, jealousy, negativity or unfulfilled desires.

“Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are.”

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealers showroom and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. AS Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. On the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study.

His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box Curious but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Holy Quran. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, “with all your money you give me a Holy book?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.

He never contacted his father again for a long long time. Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family but realized his father was very old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.

Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Holy Quran, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Holy Quran and began to turn the pages, AS he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Holy Quran. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation and the words PAID IN FULL.

Moral: Do not miss life’s blessings just because they don’t come packaged as we expected.

There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best. 

He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He's very proud of her and always wanted to show off her to his friends. However, the merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other men. 

He too, loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person, always patient and in fact is the merchant's confidante. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times. 

Now, the merchant's 1st wife is a very loyal partner and has made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her. 

One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, "Now I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I'll be alone. How lonely I'll be!" 

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word. 

The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you so much for all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is so good over here! I'm going to remarry when you die!" The merchant's heart sank and turned cold. 

He then asked the 2nd wife, "I always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated. 

Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !" 

Actually, we all have 4 wives in our lives 

a. The 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die. 

b. Our 3rd wife ? Our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they all go to others. 

c. The 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave. 

d. The 1st wife is in fact our soul, often neglected in our pursuit of material, wealth and sensual pleasure. 

Guess what? It is actually the only thing that follows us wherever we go. Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen it now rather than to wait until we're on our deathbed to lament

The good you find in others, is in you too.

The faults you find in others, are your faults as well

After all, to recognise something you must know it.

The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well.

The beauty you see around you, is your beauty.

The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are.

To change your world, you must change yourself.

To blame and complain will only make matters worse.

Whatever you care about, is your responsibility.

What you see in others, shows you yourself.

See the best in others, and you will be your best.

Give to others, and you give to yourself.

Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful.

Admire creativity, and you will be creative.

Love, and you will be love.

Seek to understand, and you will be understood.

Listen, and your voice will be heard,.

Teach, and you will learn.

Show your best face to the mirror,

And you’ll be happy with the face

Looking back at you.

The story of the curious puppy is all about self-reflection. It begins in a wooded place far away. There in the depths of the forest was an abandoned house. A house no one seemed to have lived in for many years. The puppy noticed the house but was scared of it. He kept away from it for fear of finding something he wouldn’t like.

However, the puppy was curious. The next day he returned and went a little closer to the house, but didn’t dare to go in. The sun began to beat down and the temperature became unbearable. The puppy needed a place to hide from the hot rays.

After hesitating a bit, he decided to enter the house. The place was completely deserted. “Hello!” said the dog, but nobody answered him. In one of the corners there was a staircase, and he decided to approach. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, and he started to climb the stairs very carefully. This is when the story of the curious puppy takes a quite surprising turn…

When the puppy got up the stairs, he came across a large living room. To his surprise, he found hundreds of puppies just like him! And they all seemed to be waiting for him.

The curious puppy was so happy. The other dogs seemed very friendly. That gave him confidence to raise his little paw and greet them. Everyone greeted him back instantly. The little dog gave a friendly bark, and the others did the same. “What a nice place!” thought the little dog. “I’ll come back whenever I can!”

The days went by and this time another dog arrived. This one was different; he was much more fearful and forewarned. He went through the same process as the first one. When he saw the house, he didn’t want to go near it. He was too afraid and stayed away from it.

The second dog saw that there were many nice places in the area. He decided to go back, but he always kept his distance from the abandoned house. However, one day there was a torrential downpour, and he had no choice; he had to enter the house.

Like the first dog, he entered through a hole that he dug. Once inside, he looked at everything very cautiously. In the background, he could see the stairs, but he didn’t go near them. Time passed and he got cold. He thought that if he went up to the second floor he may get a little warmer, and so he summoned up his courage and went up.

The dog got to the top and saw the same great hall. He sniffed around and it seemed the place was uninhabited. But then he too found hundreds of dogs just like him. He immediately got ready to attack, and the other dogs did the same. He barked aggressively and so did the others! The dog left the house as quickly as he could, saying to himself that he would never go back. “What a terrible place!” he thought.

He left so quickly that he failed to see an old sign on the floor. The sign said “House of Mirrors“. Neither the first puppy nor the second, had realized that all they had seen were reflections of their own images.

Moral: The story of the curious dog shows us a truth that we often overlook. What we see in others is basically a reflection of ourselves. We receive from others basically what we give. Whoever relates to the world kindly receives kindness. And whoever does it aggressively will get aggression. The story is trying to teach us about the importance of self-reflection.

Human beings are genetically gifted with enormous sociability. We were born to live in groups; it is part of our biological and cultural composition. We may be selfish, but the group is always there on everyone’s horizon.

The rest of the group is an essential point of reference; they act as a “house of mirrors”. What we see in them has a lot to do with what we see in ourselves — just like in the story of the curious puppy.

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.”

A group of graduates, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the simple and cheap ones.

While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee.

In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups…Then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this:

- Life is the coffee; the jobs money and position in society are the cups.

- They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. Enjoy your coffee!

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. “They just make the best of everything.”

●      Live simply.

●      Love generously.

●      Care deeply.

●      Speak kindly.

●      Leave the rest to God. You are the miracle, my friend; Your life either shines a light OR casts a shadow! Shine a light and enjoy the coffee!! COFFEE OR CUP

The little boy walked slowly into the room where his mother was sitting at her desk writing. She glanced down at him and saw that he was carrying a very precious vase that her grandmother had given her. Almost absentmindedly she said to him, “Robert, go put the vase down before you drop it and break it.”

“I can’t,” he replied, “I can’t my hand out.”

“Of course you can,” she said, “you got it down there.”

He said, “I know, mom, but it won’t come out.” The neck of the vase was very narrow and his hand had fit it neatly inside and it was now up to his wrist. He continued to insist that he could not get it out. Growing a little concerned, his mother called out to his dad.

Dad calmly took control and began gently pulling the arm trying to extract the hand from the vase. He tried loosening it up with soapy water. Still nothing. He then got some vegetable oil from the kitchen and poured it around the wrist and let it seep into the vase. He wiggled it some. It still did not budge.

“I give up,” the dad said in desperation. “I’d give a dollar right now to know how to get it out.”

“Really?” little Robert exclaimed. Then they heard a clinking sound and his hand slid right out of the vase. They turned the vase upside down and a penny plopped out. “What’s this?” they said in unison.

“Oh, that’s the penny I put inside. I wanted to get it out so I was clutching it in my hand. But when I heard Dad say he would give a dollar to have the vase free, I let go.”

How often do we cling to things when they are nothing in comparison to what could be ours? 

A kindergarten teacher had decided to let her class play a game. The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates. So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes, some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry the potatoes in the plastic bag with them wherever they go for 1 week. Days after days passed, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.

The teacher asked: “How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?” The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: “This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime?”

Moral: Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry burden for a lifetime. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take. Negativity about someone will keep peace of your mind away from you. Remember the good things about him/her, and let go of the hatred.

People visit a wise man complaining about the same problems over and over again. One day, he decided to tell them a joke and they all roared with laughter.

After a few minutes, he told them the same joke and only a few of them smiled.

Then he told the same joke for a third time, but no one laughed or smiled anymore.

The wise man smiled and said: ‘You can’t laugh at the same joke over and over. So why are you always crying about the same problem?

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”

And the old man says no.  Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:

“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers:

“Well, I became a teacher.”

“ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.

“Well, yes.  In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher.  And the young man tells him the following story:

“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it and I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed the flight and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you. Then you went to the class:

‘This student's watch was stolen during classes today.  Whoever stole it, please return it.’

I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.  Then you closed the door and told us all to get up and you were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.  But you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

So we did, and you went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it.  You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’

You didn't tell me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either.  That day you saved my dignity forever.  It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day my dignity was saved and I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor even scold me or took me aside to give me a moral lesson, I received your message clearly.

And thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.  Do you remember this episode, professor?

And the professor answers:

‘I remember the situation, the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket, but I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’

This is the essence of teaching:

If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach "

When I was a small child , I was very selfish, always grabbing the best for myself. Slowly, everyone left me and I had no friends. I didn’t think it was my fault but I criticized others.

My father gave me 3 sentences to help me in life.

One day, my father cooked 2 bowls of noodles and put the 2 bowls on the table. One bowl had one egg on top and the other bowl did not have any egg on top. He said ”My child. You choose. Which bowl do you want”. Eggs were hard to come by those days! I only got to eat eggs during festivals or New Year. Of course I chose the bowl with egg! As we started eating. I was congratulating myself on my wise choice/decision and walloped up the egg. Then to my surprise as my father ate his noodles, there were TWO eggs at the bottom of his bowl beneath the noodles ! I regretted so much! And scolded myself for being too hasty in my decision. My father smiled and said to me, ”My child. You must remember what your eyes see may not be true. If you intend on taking advantage of people, you will end up losing!”

The next day, my father again cooked 2 bowls of noodles: one bowl with an egg on top and the other bowl with no egg on top. Again, he put the two bowls on the table and said to me, ”My child. You choose. Which bowl do you want?” This time I was smarter. I chose the bowl without any egg on top. To my surprise, as I separated the noodles on top, there was not even a single egg at the bottom of the bowl! Again my father smiled and said to me, ”My child, you must not always rely on experiences because sometimes, life can cheat you or play tricks on you. But you must not be too annoyed or sad, just treat this as learning a lesson .You cannot learn this from textbooks.

The third day, my father again cooked 2 bowls of noodles, again one bowl with an egg on top and the other bowl with no egg on top. He put the 2 bowls on the table and again said to me, ”My child. You choose. Which bowl do you want?”. This time, I told my father, ”Dad, you choose first. You are the head of the family and contributed the most to the family.”. My father did not decline and chose the bowl with one egg on top. I ate my bowl of noodles, sure in my heart that there was no egg inside the bowl. To my surprise, there were two eggs at the bottom of the bowl.

My father smiled at me with love in his eyes, ”My child, you must remember, when you think for the good of others, good things will always naturally happen to you !”

One young man went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the initial interview, and now would meet the director for the final interview.

The director discovered from his CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent. He asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "no".

" Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"

"My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.” he replied.

" Where did your mother work?"

"My mother worked as clothes cleaner.”

The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

" Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?"

"Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go home today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back home, he asked his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to her son.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother winced when he touched it.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fees. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, when he asked: "Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered," I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

“I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, I would not be who I am today. By helping my mother, only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done on your own. And I have come to appreciate the importance and value of helping one’s family.

The director said, "This is what I am looking for in a manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life.”

“You are hired.”

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop an "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying our children instead?

You can let your child live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch on a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your child learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.