An old monk prayed many years for a vision from God to strengthen his faith, but it never came. He had almost given up hope when, one day, a vision appeared. The old monk was overjoyed. But then, right in the middle of the vision, the monastery bell rang. The ringing of the bell meant it was time to feed the poor who gathered daily at the monastery gate. And it was the old monk's turn to feed them. If he failed to show up with food, the poor people would leave quietly, thinking the monastery had nothing to give them that day. The old monk was torn between his earthly duty and his heavenly vision.However, before the bell stopped tolling, the monk had made his decision. With a heavy heart, he turned his back on the vision and went off to feed the poor.
Nearly an hour later, the old monk returned to his room. When he opened the door, he could hardly believe his eyes. There in the room was the vision, waiting for him. As the monk dropped to is kness in thanksgiving, the vision said to him, "My son, had you not gone off to feed the poor, I would not have stayed."
The best way to serve God is to reach out in service to our brothers and sisters, especially those less gifted than ourselves
According to scientists ,the bumblebee's body is too heavy and its wing span too small. Aerodynamically , the bumblebee cannot fly. But the bumblebee doesnot know that and it keeps flying. When you don't know your limitation , you go out and surprise yourself. In hindsight , you wonder if you had any limitations. The only limitations a person has are those that are self-imposed. Don't let education put limitation on you.
Three Persons were laying bricks and a passerby asked them what they were doing . The first one replied " Don't you see I am making a living ?" . The secondone said "Don't you see I am laying bricks?". The third one said "I am building a beautiful monument." The three people doing the same thing gave totallydifferent replies.
Would their attitude affect thier performance? YES.
Excellence comes when the performer takes PRIDE IN DOING HIS BEST
"You must be happy in your cells to have so much freedom."
All inmates were upset. He replied:
"Oh you forgot that you have all the time in the world, you are fed, clothed and housed. But I have to go back home to clean up the house, make supper, buy clothes and put the kids to bed." Hearing this, the inmates felt a lot better.
Lesson to be learned: One should realize that there are always different ways to perceive reality.
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for fligh t once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!
As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg.
No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.
I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. "Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and , at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free."
I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging on to a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?
