I saw this on the wall of a friend, Marilen Concepcion. LOVE IT and sharing it here
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Category Archives: Today’s Quote
Thanks to my cousin, Cat, for sharing this. I love the baby porcupine photo and love the fable as well which I am sure we can all relate to 🙂
It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.
The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person’s good qualities.
The moral of the story is: Just learn to live with the Pricks in your life.
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A man and his dog were walking along a road.
The man was enjoying the scenery,
when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.
He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road.
It looked like fine marble..
At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, ‘Excuse me, where are we?’
‘This is Heaven, sir,’ the man answered.
‘Wow! Would you happen to have some water?’ the man asked.
‘Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.’
The man gestured, and the gate began to open. ‘Can my friend,’ gesturing toward his dog, ‘come in, too?’ the traveler asked.
‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.’
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.
There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book….
‘Excuse me!’ he called to the man. ‘Do you have any water?’
‘Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.’
‘How about my friend here?’ the traveller gestured to the dog.
‘There should be a bowl by the pump,’ said the man.
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
‘What do you call this place?’ the traveller asked.
‘This is Heaven,’ he answered.
‘Well, that’s confusing,’ the traveller said.
‘The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.’
‘Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s hell.’
‘Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?’
‘No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.’
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My two boys are getting older and the older they get, the harder it is to discipline them. I saw this in one of my friends facebook status and as soon as I saw it, I sent it to my kids 🙂 And I will send it and send it to them so they will understand their INSANE mom! 🙂
Someone has written these beautiful words. Must read and try to understand the deep meaning of it. They are like the ten commandments to follow in life all the time.
1] Prayer is not a “spare wheel” that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a “steering wheel” that directs the right path throughout.
2] So a Car’s WINDSHIELD is so large & the Rear view Mirror is so small? Because our PAST is not as important as our FUTURE. So, Look Ahead and Move on.
3] Friendship is like a BOOK. It takes few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.
4] All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong, don’t worry, they can’t last long either.
5] Old Friends are Gold! New Friends are Diamond! If you get a Diamond, don’t forget the Gold! Because to hold a Diamond, you always need a Base of Gold!
6] Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, “Relax, sweetheart, it’s just a bend, not the end!
7] When GOD solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when GOD doesn’t solve your problems HE has faith in your abilities.
8] A blind person asked St. Anthony: “Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?” He replied: “Yes, losing your vision!”
9] When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you.
10] WORRYING does not take away tomorrow’s TROUBLES, it takes away today’s PEACE.
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What You Should Never Forget
I remember this day like it was yesterday.
This happened a couple of years ago.
I went home excited, mentally planning our Father-Son trip to the mall. (Each week, I try to have a date with my boys. Sometimes together. Sometimes separately. That day, I was going to have a date with my eldest boy, Bene.)
But as I arrived home and stepped down of my car, my phone rang.
“Bo, are you already at the wedding?” my friend asked me.
“Huh? What wedding?” I asked.
“The wedding of Amina…”
Wham! It was like I was hit by a bat on the head. I totally forgot about the wedding!
How can I now tell Bene?
The little guy was so looking forward to our date.
When I entered the house, I greeted him and said, “I’ve got a problem about our date …” I told him about the wedding.
That was when my wife said, “Son, can you go with Daddy to the wedding? That’ll be your date.” (Thank God for my wise wife.)
A few minutes later, my son and I were riding the car in our matching barong tagalogs.
It turned out that we were early for the wedding, so we walked to a coffee shop beside the church, and talked and laughed together as he ate his favorite cinnamon roll.
The wedding was superb!
It was also a wonderful time for me to give mini-lectures to my little pupil—in whispers at the back pew—on marriage, family, and love.
After the wedding, the reception was at the exclusive Polo Club.
While waiting for the dinner to begin, we had a phenomenal time sitting down on the grass (yes, still in our barongs) under the canopy of stars—and chatted the night away.
“I don’t want to be a cowboy anymore, Daddy,” he said.
“No more?” This was a shock to me. It had been his declared dream ever since he was two. In fact, his first word wasn’t “mama”. It was “horse.” (I’m not kidding.)
He piped up, “I don’t want to be a Cowboy anymore. I just want to ride horses for pleasure.”
“Okay. What do you want to be?”
“A businessman.” (Six-year old kids have a way of declaring their dreams as though it’s as sure as the planet is round. I wonder what age we lose that confidence?)
“That’s great. You can own a ranch. How many horses do you want to own?”
“About ten,” he grinned.
“How will you earn to maintain the ranch?” I asked.
“Kids can ride my horses for P20 each…”
“Uh…, isn’t that a bit too cheap?”
“They can also feed my rabbits if they pay something. And I’ll sell my customers snacks and have a restaurant in my ranch.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“My ranch will also have an imaginary forest.”
“A what?”
“An imaginary forest. Parents will be afraid if their kids go to a real forest with real animals. So I’ll make an imaginary forest with robotic animals—even some legendary creatures like dinosaurs, unicorns, mermaids,…”
“Mermaids?”
“Yes, because there’ll be a lake in my ranch. With a shipwreck. Kids can also visit the shipwreck.”
After planning for his future, we got our plates and stood in front of the buffet table for the entire evening. Because the food was so fabulous, we didn’t bother to sit down. That night, he ate seven sticks of barbecue and I gobbled up 50% of the European cheeses there.
In other words, my date with Bene was a ball.
If I didn’t have a weekly date with him, how will I know about his dreams? I would have missed hearing that he didn’t want to be a Cowboy anymore, that he wanted an imaginary forest, robotic animals, a lake and a shipwreck for kids to visit and have fun…
I was even more convinced of my family goals when I read the frightening statistics from David Perdew about “fatherless kids”. According to statistics, children from a fatherless home are:
· Five times more likely to commit suicide
· Thirty-two times more likely to run away
· Twenty times more likely to have behavioral disorders
· Fourteen times more likely to commit rape (this applies to boys)
· Nine times more likely to drop out of high school
· Ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances
· Nine times more likely to end up in a charitable institution
· Twenty times more likely to end up in prison for a long period of time
Fathers—and mothers—your kids need you.
David Perdew says we either pay now or pay later.
And when you pay later, it always costs more.
I suggest you pay now.
Don’t Make The Mistake Of Paying Later…
Most mornings, I bike with my two boys around our village.
Actually they bike and I run after them.
Because I don’t have a bike (mine is broken).
But I don’t mind.
Because that means they win our races. And they have fun laughing at their father who always comes last, my tongue hanging out of my mouth, ready to faint.
This morning, after biking, we also played chess and checkers. Obviously, I beat them in every game. (Sweet Revenge!)
Some days, we play the Wii together. It’s an interactive game console and we have loads of fun doing that. From pingpong to bowling to flying to car racing. (Yes, the old guy looses again.)
And if I can get off from work a bit early, we’ll go running and biking again in the afternoon.
My point?
I spend an enormous amount of time with my kids.
Is it difficult?
You bet.
I do a lot of stuff. I run 12 businesses. I lead 9 non-profit organizations. I preach 300 times a year. I write 80 articles a month.
But I’ve made a decision that nothing is more important than my family.
Why?
Here’s what I learned about life: You either pay now or you pay later. If you pay later, it’ll cost more.
I don’t want to pay later. It’ll cost me 100 times more!
Like some parents I know. Sadly, they never spent time with their kids. In other words, they didn’t pay before.
Today, these parents are paying. They sit restless at night, crying, worrying about their adult children. And they ask these very painful questions:
· “Why is my son hanging out with the wrong crowd?”
· “Is my son drinking too much? Is he taking drugs too?”
· “Why did my daughter choose that bum as her boyfriend?”
· “Will my son ever grow up and take responsibility?”
· “What have I done wrong as a parent?”
I ask you: Don’t pay later.
It’s more painful that way.
No matter how difficult, pay now.
Spend time with your kids.
Make it faithful. Make it fun. Make it fantastic.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
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