A father came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door.
Son : "Father, may I ask you a question?"
Father replied : "Yeah sure, what it is?"
Son : "Father, how much do you make an hour?"
Father said angrily : "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?"
Son : "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"
Father : "If you must know, I make $20 an hour."
"Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.
Looking up, he said. "Father, may I borrow $10, please?"
The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such childish behavior."
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. Father sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?
After about an hour or so, the father had calmed down, and started to think, "Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn't ask for money very often."
The father went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
"Are you asleep, son?" Father asked.
"No father, I am awake," replied the little boy.
"I have been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said the father. "It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $10 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you father!" He yelled.
Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.
The father seeing that the little boy already had money, he started to get angry again.
The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.
"Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.
"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.
"Father, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."
Moral Message :
Share this story with someone you like. But even better, share $20 worth of time with someone you love. It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life.
We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.
But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work that to our family. An unwise investment indeed!
Text Two
The story goes back some time ago, a father punished his 3 year old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the little girl tried to decorate a box.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said. "This is for you, father."
The father was embarrassed by his earlier over reaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. Father yelled at his 3 year old daughter, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present (gift), there is supposed to be something inside?
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, father, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, father."
The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.
Only a short time later, an accident took the life of his little girl. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years, and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of his little girl who had put it there.
Moral Message :
In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family members and friends. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.