Poor self-esteem

A young executive with poor self-esteem was promoted but he couldn't reconcile himself to his new office and position. There was a knock at his door.

To show how important and busy he was, he picked up the phone and then asked the visitor to come in.

As the man waited for the executive, the executive kept talking on the phone, nodding and saying, "No problem, I can handle that."

After a few minutes he hung up and asked the visitor what he could do for him. The man replied, "Sir, I'm here to connect your phone."

The Fruit of Patience

One day, Akkosa Baradvaja, whose name itself meant "wrathful brahmin," came to the Buddha and furiously pointing his forefinger at Lord Buddha, began cursing Him vehemently..

The reason was that his younger brother had become a disciple of the Buddha, thus renouncing Brahmanism, their Vedic Religion.

He swore the Buddha, and blasphemed against the Dhamma He preached. Being wrathful by nature, the brahmin did not lack abusive terms to fling non-stop at the Buddha, who appeared unperturbed by his verbal assault.

As his wrath cooled off after a tirade of heated abuse, the brahmin noticed that the Buddha was eyeing him with a look of compassion and without any sign of rancour.

He became somewhat subdued.

"Gottama, (he addressed the Buddha by His surname.) don't you feel angry with me for all I've said?" said the brahmin.

"No, brahmin, " replied the Buddha, "Let's look at things like this, Supposing a friend paid you a visit, and you gave him some presents before he left. If that friend did not accept your gift. What would become of it?"

"It would be left with me," said the brahmin.

"By the same token brahmin, I don't accept those abusive words of yours, so they remain with you," said Lord Buddha.

The brahmin saw the point, and became afflicted with remorse for what he had done.

 

Morel of the Story: Do not accept bad words and refuse to react on such behavior.  

The Richest Man on Earth

 

Someone asked Bill Gates, is there any person richer than you?

He said, yes, only one. 

 

Many years ago, I had been dismissed and I had gone to New York airport. I read titles of newspapers there. I liked one of them and I want to buy it. But I didn't have change (coin). So abandoned the idea, suddenly, a black boy called me and told me, “This newspaper for you.” I said, but I don’t have change. He said, “No problem, I give you free”.

After 3 months, I went there. Coincidentally, that story happened again and that same boy gave me another free newspaper again. I said, I can’t accept it. But he said, “I give you from my profit.”

After 19 years, I had been rich and I decided to find that boy. I found him after one and half month's search. I asked him, do you know me? He said, “Yes, you’re famous Bill Gates.”

I said, you gave me free newspaper 2 times many years ago. Now, I want to compensate it. I am going to give you everything that you want. Black young man replied, “You can’t compensate it!”

I said, why? He said, "Because I gave you when I was poor. You want to give me when you are rich. So, how do you compensate?"

Bill Gates said, I think that black young man is richer than me.

You don't have to be rich or wait to be rich to give......

Real attitude of giving is when you give out of your lack.

A Farmer and His Wife - A Moral Story

A farmer said to his wife, “You are lazy. You work slowly and lethargically. You waste your time."

The wife was angry at the words of her husband.

She said to her husband, “You are wrong. Stay at home tomorrow. I will go to field. I will do your work there. Will you do my works at home here?"

The farmer said happily, “Very well. I will do your works back at home."

The wife said, “Milk the cow. Feed the pigs. Wash the utensils. Take care of our hen. Spin the yarn."

The woman went to the field. The farmer stayed back at home. He took a vessel and went to the cow to milk it. He tried to milk the cow. He received a good kick. He then went to the pig-sty. He hit his head against the beam. He went to feed the hen. He forgot to spin.

The wife returned from the field when it turned evening. The farmer hung down his head in shame. Thereafter he did not find fault with his wife. They lived happily together for a long time.

A Rich Man and His Son - A Moral Story

 

A rich man's son was graduating college.

For months, the son was asking his father for a new car, knowing that his father had more than enough money.

When graduation day came, the young man's father called him into the study. The father handed him a wrapped gift and congratulated him about his graduation and his achievement.

Looking disappointed, the son opened the gift to find a lovely, leather bound journal, with the young man's name embossed on the cover. He angrily raised his voice, threw down the journal and stormed out.

The young man had not seen his father since graduation day. He became successful and was wealthy like his father, with a beautiful home and family. He came to realize his father was aging and it may be time to put the past behind them.

Just then, he received a message that his father had passed, and he had to return home to take care of the estate.

As the mourning son regretfully returned home, he began searching through his father's important papers and saw that still new journal, just as he had left it.

He opened it, and as he flipped through the pages a car key dropped from the back of the journal.

A dealer tag was attached to the key that read "Paid in full. Wherever this car takes you, write about it to remember it forever. Love, Dad"

Moral of the Story

No matter what you expect, be grateful for what you are given. It may be more of a blessing than you think.

If you found value in this story, please share so we can make more.

Thank You!

The Ugly Duckling

Mummy Duck lived on a farm, and in her nest, she had five little eggs and one big egg. One day, the five little eggs began to crack with gentle taps. Out came five adorable, yellow baby ducklings.

Then, the big egg started to crack with loud bangs. An enormous, unattractive duckling emerged. "That's strange," thought Mummy Duck. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to play with him. "Go away," his brothers and sisters said. "You're ugly!"

The ugly duckling felt sad and decided to search for new friends. However, each animal he approached told him to go away. The pig, the sheep, the cow, and the horse all rejected him. Feeling cold, the ugly duckling found shelter in an empty barn, where he lived alone and lonely.

Eventually, spring arrived, and the ugly duckling left the barn to return to the pond. Thirsty, he dipped his beak into the water and saw a beautiful, white bird. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "Who's that?"

"It's you," replied another beautiful, white bird.

"Me? But I'm an ugly duckling."

"Not anymore," said the other bird. "You're a beautiful swan, just like me. Would you like to be my friend?"

"Yes," he smiled.

All the other animals watched as the two swans flew away, destined to be friends forever.

Focus on self-improvement instead of criticizing others or letting their criticism affect you.

Have Close Friends And Family

In December of 2003, Joyce Vincent died of an asthma attack in her North London flat. The television was left on.

The mail continued to be delivered. Her rent was set up to be automatically deducted from her bank account.

The days rolled by and no one noticed she was gone. Those days turned into weeks and the weeks into months.

There were large trash dumpsters on the side of the building next to her unit, so the neighbors never thought much of the smell emanating from her flat.The floor was full of noisy kids and teenagers and no one questioned the constant thrum of television noise in the background.

Eventually, Joyce’s bank account dried up.

Her landlord sent her letters of collection. These letters, like the others, simply fell into the stacks scattered about her floor. They went unanswered.

Finally, with more than six months of overdue rent, the landlord got a court order to forcibly remove her from the premises.

The bailiffs broke down the door, and it was only then her body was discovered. By then, it was January, 2006, more than two years after she passed away.

In that time, nobody ever came looking for Joyce Vincent. No family or friends. No co-workers. No neighbor knocked on the door to see if things were all right.

Morals:

Set close friends and family on speed dial and have those who have kept on you on the same. Be checking on your friends and family now and then.

 

Canute and The Sea

 

Canute was a great king. He was also a great soldier. He feared God. He loved his people. One day he went to the sea-shore. He sat on a chair close to the water. His friends stood behind him.

One of the friends said, “My Lord! You are the master of the world. Even the waves of the sea will obey your orders."

The king said nothing in reply. He turned to the waves and said, “This is my order to you. Don’t come near me. Go back! I am your master. Obey me!"

But the waves came nearer. They flowed over the king’s feet.

The king then said to his friend, “I am not great! God alone is great! He rules the world. The Sun, The Moon, The Stars and The Sea obey only His Orders."

Canute put aside his crown. He did not wear it from that day.

The Wolf in Sheep Skin

 

A wolf was walking in the countryside. He found a sheep-skin spread on the ground. He thought, "If I wear this skin and get mixed up in the flock, the shepherd will not suspect me. At night, I will kill a stout sheep and then take him away with me".

The wolf covered himself with the sheep-skin and got mixed up with a flock of sheep. As he had expected, the shepherd took him as a sheep and shut him also in the pen. The wolf was waiting for the night.

The shepherd had a feast that night. He sent a servant to fetch a fat sheep. The servant saw the sheep-skin covered wolf by chance. That night, the guests had the wolf for supper.

MORAL : Evil thoughts have evil ends.

The False Human Beliefs

As a man was passing the elephants, he 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 any time can break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer 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.”

The man 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 onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

MORAL: Failure is a part of learning. We should never give up the struggle in life. You Fail not because you are destined to fail, but because there are lessons which you need to learn as you move on with your life.

Bad Temper

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry. The wound is still there."

 

MORAL

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

Best Mother On Earth - Think Positive

 

One day a mentally troubled child came home and gave a letter to his mother. He told her,

“My teacher gave this letter to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”

Reading through the letter, the mother could not believe her eyes. Gradually her eyes filled with tears.

"Mum is there a problem?

Did I do something wrong in school" the boy asked.

With a shaky voice, the mother slowly began to read the contents of the letter to her son.

“Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself.”

The boy was dumbfounded.

The next morning, Nancy Edison pulled her son out of the school and from that day, began to teach him diligently at home.

Many years later, Thomas Edison had grown into the most prolific inventor of his time.

He had invented the electric light bulb, the first electric generator, the first record player (called the phonograph then), submarine radar, a cinema, and about one thousand other inventions that helped to usher in the modern age.

He was celebrated worldwide as the father of inventions.

Meanwhile, his mother had passed away quietly.

One day he was going through her closet and found the letter which was given to him by his teacher for his mother.

He remembered it was the same letter that made his mother pull him out of school and undertake many years of homeschooling.

So he opened it.

The message written in the letter was,

“Your son is mentally ill. We can not let him attend our school anymore. He is expelled.”

Thomas Edison then realized what his mother did, which probably saved his life and future.

For several hours he sat motionless with tears streaming down his face.

Finally, he gathered enough strength and wrote in his diary,

“Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally ill child whose mother turned him into the genius of the century.”

LESSON - A single word can make or destroy a child's future.

As parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa etc.) and teachers, we all have a role to play in building and activating the glorious destiny of children...

Be Inspired

Tell them positive things.

A Wise Old Owl

 

There was an old owl that lived in an oak. Everyday he saw incidents happening around him. Yesterday he saw a boy helping an old man to carry a heavy basket. Today he saw a girl shouting at her mother. The more he saw the less he spoke.

 

As he spoke less, he heard more. He heard people talking and telling stories. He heard a woman saying that an elephant jumped over a fence. He also heard a man saying that he had never made a mistake.

 

The old owl had seen and heard about what happened to people. Some became better and some became worse. But the old owl had become wiser each and every day.

 

Moral of the story :

You should be observant, talk less but listen more. This will make you a wise person.

A Moral Story : Honesty is The Best Policy.

 

A milkman became very wealthy through dishonest means. He had to cross a river daily to reach the city where his customers lived. He mixed the water of the river generously with the milk that he sold for a good profit. One day he went around collecting the dues in order to celebrate the wedding of his son. 

 

With the large amount thus collected he purchased plenty of rich clothes and glittering gold ornaments. But while crossing the river the boat capsized and all his costly purchases were swallowed by the river. The milk vendor was speechless with grief. At that time he heard a voice that came from the river, “Do not weep. What you have lost is only the illicit gains you earned through cheating your customers.

 

MORAL : Honest dealings are always supreme. Money earned by wrong methods will never

A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

 

Mohan and Sohan were friends. They lived in a village. Once they made a plan to go to Varanasi. They passed through a forest. Wild animals lived in that forest.

 

On the way, they saw a bear. Sohan was selfish. He climbed up a tree to save his life. Mohan could not climb up the tree. He lay down on the ground. He held his breath. The bear smelt him and took him to be dead.

 

He went away. Sohan came down. He asked Mohan "What was the bear speaking in your ears?" Mohan replied, "He advised me to beware of those friends who run away in time of danger".

 

Moral: A friend in need is a friend indeed.

The Hidden Treasure

A farmer had five sons. They were all lazy. The farmer wanted to see them as hard-working young men. He was worried about their future. One day he fell ill. He was on his death-bed. He called his sons. He told them that there was a treasure hidden in his fields. He passed away the same day. 

The sons went to the fields. They dug up every inch of the fields. They did not find the hidden treasure. After a few days, it rained heavily. Someone advised them to sow seeds in the fields. They did the same. They got a good crop. They became rich. Now they understood the value of hard work. They got the hidden treasure from the fields in the form of good crops.

 

Moral: No pains no gains or work is its own reward

The Best Gift

 

There is a story of a man who visited an infirmed old lady who used to work for a very wealthy man.

As the visitor sat next to the lady's bed, a frame hanging on her wall caught his attention.

Looking closer, he exclaimed, "Do you know that this is actually the last will and testament of your employer? It names you as the sole beneficiary of all that he has!"

For 50 years--since the day her employer passed on--that poor lady had worked day and night eking out an existence for herself, when all of her previous employer's estate had been given to her to enjoy.

The story is a great reminder that you received the greatest gift of all - the Lord Jesus Christ.

So quit focusing on your failures, regrets, and fear of aging.
Focus on God by memorizing and meditating His words.

Life is short and might as well enjoy it.

Here's one of my favorite verse that you can memorize.

"Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered--how fleeting my life is." - Psalm 39:4

This memory verse will help you to focus on what really matters in life.

The Folly of Imitation: Embracing One's Natural Abilities

Once upon a time, there was a hawk that resided atop a hill. At the bottom of the hill, a banyan tree stood, serving as a perch for a foolish crow. This crow had a peculiar habit of imitating others.

Every day, the hawk would descend from the hill in search of food. The crow observed the hawk, witnessing how it would circle in the sky for hours, then swiftly dive down to catch its prey. The hawk possessed keen eyesight, allowing it to spot its target from the hilltop before swooping down to seize it.

Watching the hawk, the crow thought to itself, "Ha! If the hawk can do it, so can I. What makes it so special? One day, I'll prove to the hawk that I can do the same." Fueled by misguided confidence, the crow made a plan.

A few days later, while the hawk was circling overhead, the crow decided to imitate its hunting technique. Just then, a baby rabbit emerged from the bushes. Both the hawk and the crow spotted the rabbit simultaneously.

Before the crow could make a move, the hawk swiftly descended, capturing the rabbit with its sharp talons, and disappeared into the sky with its prey. All the crow could hear was the whooshing sound as the hawk vanished. Filled with anger, the crow muttered, "That's not such a great skill after all."

In that moment, the crow noticed a plump mouse emerging from a hole. Without wasting a second, the crow attempted to imitate the hawk's hunting technique, swooping down to catch the mouse with its claws.

However, the mouse spotted the crow and swiftly evaded its grasp, causing the crow to crash into the hillside. In pain, the crow let out a cry of distress.

At that very moment, the hawk descended once again. "I hope you now understand that hunting is not easy, and neither is blindly imitating others," the hawk remarked before flying away.

From that day forward, the crow abandoned its habit of imitation and embraced its own natural abilities. It lived a content life, appreciating the unique gifts it had been bestowed with.

Shark Bait

 

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

 

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

 

Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

 

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

 

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral: Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.