Power of Appreciation

Question :What is the best advice your mother ever gave you? 

Answer By Jonathan Pettit

I was about ten. My mom had just finished creating one of her amazing meals, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Delicious. Later, as I was washing the dishes, my mom came up to me. “Sorry, dinner was so awful again,” she said.

I was shocked. “What? No, it was great. I loved it.”

“Really?” she said, with mock surprise. “You always eat so quietly, never saying anything. You’ve never told me you liked my cooking, so I thought you hated it.”

“No, you’re the best cook I know.”

“Then you should tell me that,” she said. “Whenever someone does something nice for you, you should thank that person. If you don’t, then she might think she’s not appreciated and stop doing those nice things.”

Something clicked right then. From that day onward, I thanked everyone for literally everything. If anyone did something that even vaguely helped me, I thanked that person profusely. It became a habit, something I didn’t even think about, and that’s when the magic started happening.

People liked me more. They talked to me more, shared with me, were more friendly. In my first year of high school, during the final week, I came home and found a giant freezie (a kind of sweet frozen snack) waiting for me. “Thanks, mom!” I said instinctively.

“This isn’t from me, she said. “This is from your bus driver.” He had been driving that bus for years, and my siblings and I were the first people to ever thank him as we got dropped off. Those two simple words made a huge difference, so much so that he went out of his way to tell our mom and give us a present.

That’s the power of appreciation. When you have it, all is right in the world, but when it’s missing life is empty. My mom taught me many things, but taking two seconds to say ‘thank you’ every time, in any situation, was the best.

*Debriefing of this Story*

You would have met people who call themselves as good critics but have you ever met a person who says I am good at appreciating others? Isn't that a sad part of our society?

Let's start appreciating people more frequently especially people who are close to us. 

"The sweetest of all sounds is praise"

*Sending you good vibes to start with positive energy*

🙏🙏🌹

Mother's prayer- story

 

“Susanna Wesley”

It would be an understatement to say Susanna Annesley came from a large family. She was the twenty-fifth child of a well-known London minister. She was also an intelligent, deeply spiritual girl. Susanna’s daily prayer was “Dear God, guide me. Help me do Thy will. Make my life count.”

Susanna lived in fear that her father would be arrested for his preaching. He was a preacher in the Dissenters’ church. The Dissenters were Christians who worshiped God in their own way rather than following the rules of the Church of England. In the late 1600’s it was against the law to preach for any church other than the Church of England. Dissenters had been branded, had their ears cut off, and been burned alive. Once, soldiers came to the Annesley’s  home and took many of their belongings as a fine because of her father’s preaching.

Susanna dearly loved and respected her father. From him she learned to study and pray at the same time every day—a habit she would one day teach her own children. When she was nineteen, Susanna married Samuel Wesley. Samuel was not only a very committed minister, but he too was highly intelligent and well educated. He also loved to write. Unfortunately for Susanna, he was not a practical man.

Their first home was drab and tiny. Samuel’s job at a small church in a village near London paid very little. They soon had a baby boy and named him Samuel after his father. Susanna prayed that God would use their son and the children that would come later to make a difference in the world.

After a few years, Samuel got a job in a bigger church in the country, one hundred miles from London. Although his pay was better and a house was provided for them, the move was difficult for Susanna. One hundred miles was a long way to be separated from family and friends when the only means of travel was by horse and carriage. She might never see them again.

Samuel spent most of his free time writing magazine articles and poetry, so it was up to Susanna to see that their growing family was clothed and fed. But in spite of Samuel’s shortcomings, Susanna loved him.

Her strong faith saw her through many hardships. Three of their first seven children died. Her oldest son had never talked. On top of that, Samuel made an important man angry by telling the woman he was living with is not his wife and what they were doing was sinful. This meant he we sure to lose his job.

During those dark days, Susanna turned to God for help. She was given a ray of joy when little Samuel finally began to talk when he was five years old. She began teaching him to read and found he had a very quick mind and memorized easily.

Then her husband was offered a job in another town. It paid better still, and a big house on three acres of land was included. Now they could grow their own food. But there were moving expenses, their growing family needed more furniture. They also needed to buy equipment and animals before they could do any farming. All of this put them in debt equal to a year’s salary.

The unschooled church people in the new place didn’t get along well with the Wesleys, who were educated and had famous and important ancestors. They also didn’t like Samuel’s political ideas and his loyalty to the king. A lonely Susanna turned to God for comfort.

One time while Samuel was away, the family was kept awake by gunshots and an angry mob’s pounding and shouting. Because Susanna was recovering from giving birth, a nurse was taking care of her baby across the street. When the mob finally left, the tired nurse fell into a deep sleep and rolled over on the baby and smothered it.

Some time later, an angry church member demanded that Samuel pay him some money he owed him right away. Samuel couldn’t, so the man had him put into prison for three months. While he was gone, one of his enemies killed all their cows, Susanna’s main means of support. Friends helped her and paid Samuels’s debt.

In 1702, a fire ruined two-thirds of their home. Rebuilding the house put them deeper in debt. Seven years later, another fire destroyed nearly everything they owned.

As if constant money troubles and problems with the townspeople weren’t enough, seven more of Susanna’s children died. Of their nineteen children, only nine lived to be adults.

Through it all, Susanna spent six hours a day teaching them. Determined that her children would learn their duty toward God and their neighbours, she wrote three religious textbooks for them. Her teaching was so effective that every one of them grew to love learning and godly living. Somehow, Susanna managed to spend two hours a day in her own Bible reading and prayer.

In the end, Susanna’s teaching, her daily prayers for her children, and her own godly example made a great impact on her world. While her sons John and Charles were studying at college, they started a club with other students who wanted to know and serve God better. The group became known as Methodists, because they had methods for praying, fasting, and studying the Bible at set times.

    Later, tens of thousands would hear John and Charles. John led the Methodist revival in England, which turned people back to the true gospel. And Charles carried the message to countless churches through the hymns

🍚Salt vs Rice🍛

 *Very Beautifully written, can’t stop sharing*

*Salt -VS- Rice...*

If you were to cook 3 cups of rice, would you add 3 cups of salt to it ?

Certainly not !

So, in every preparation of rice, the rice always outnumbers the salt, yet a little salt makes a huge difference /impact in the overall outcome.

In the room in which you currently are, look up at the ceiling... 

What is the size of the bulb compared to the size of the room ? 

It is probably a ratio of 1:5000.

Yet, darkness flees the entire space once the small bulb is flipped on.

If I am the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, then "little me" has the ability to make big things happen..

Sometimes, because we feel outnumbered or overwhelmed at the sheer magnitude of evil or wrong-doers, we then choose powerlessness, and decide to go with the flow, not standing up for what we believe is right.

Little doesn't mean insignificant.

You are significant.

Your presence should make a BIG difference. 

Stop waiting to be on the side of the majority.

They may be the majority, but they are the trivial majority, and you are the impactful minority.

They are the rice of the world, and you are the salt of the world..

They are the room and you are the light.

Make your influence felt!

Remember:

You are the world's seasoning, to make it beautiful...

So if we can just do the right seasoning to  make even one life beautiful our life is worth living. 

Have a blessed day😊

Onwards and Upwards ! 

Be the salt or the light in someone's life today🌟

👨‍🏫Specialty of teachers 👩‍🏫

 

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”⁴

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.

I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed that his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.

Then you addressed the class saying, ‘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.

You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.

You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.

However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

We did as instructed.

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 on 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 I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.

I received your message clearly.

Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.

Do you remember this episode, professor?

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

_This is the essence of teaching : one need not humiliate to teach._

_*Happy Teachers day !*_

🏵The Daffodil day💐

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."  I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call. 

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren. 

"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!" 

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."  "Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her. 

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."   

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience." 

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden."  We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. 

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers. 

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.  "Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. 

On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958." 

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. 

Daffodil garden is one of the greatest principles of celebration. 

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world ... 

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!" 

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?" 

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....

Until your car or home is paid off

Until you get a new car or home

Until your kids leave the house 

Until you go back to school

Until you finish school 

Until you clean the house

Until you organize the garage

Until you clean off your desk

Until you lose 10 lbs.

Until you gain 10 lbs.

Until you get married 

Until you have kids

Until the kids go to school

Until you retire

Until summer

Until spring

Until winter

Until fall

Until you die..

There is no better time than right now to be happy . 

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So work like you don't need money.

Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching. 

If you want to brighten someone's day, pass this on to someone special.

I just did!

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!

Emotional Intelligence

A car ahead was moving like a turtle and not giving me way inspite of my continuous honking!   I was on brink of losing my cool when I noticed the small sticker on the car’s rear!

“Physically challenged; Please be patient.”

And that changed everything!! 

I immediately went calm & slowed down!! 

In fact, I got a little protective of the car & the driver!!! 

I reached home a few minutes late, but it was ok!

And then it struck me.  

Would I have been patient if there was no sticker?

Why do we need stickers to be patient with people!?

Will we be more patient & kind with others if people had labels pasted on their foreheads?

Labels like —

“ Lost my job” , 

“Fighting cancer”, 

“Going through a bad divorce”,

“Suffering Emotional abuse",

"Lost a loved one”,

“Feeling worthless”,

“Financially broken”,

....and more like these!!

Everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. 

The least we can do is to be patient, kind & compassionate.

*Let us respect the Invisible Labels !!*

Knowing each is carrying multiple ones.

EVERYTHING HAS A REASON TO BE ✨🍃🙌

 

After the attacks of September 11, a company that had its offices at the World Trade Center invited its executives and employees who had for some reason survived the attack to share their experiences.

People were alive for the smallest reasons were small details like these:

- The director of a company was late because it was his son's first kindergarten day;

- A woman was delayed because her alarm clock didn't ring in time;

- One was late because he was stuck on the road where there was an accident;

- Another survivor missed the bus;

- Someone threw food on themselves and needed the time to change;

- One had a problem with his car, which did not start;

- Another one returned to answer the phone;

- Another one had a baby!

- Another didn't get a taxi.

- But the story that impressed the most was that of a man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, and before he got to work he had a blister. He stopped at the pharmacy for a band aid and that's why he's alive today.

- Now when I get stuck in traffic; - when I lose an elevator;

- when I return to answering a phone;

And many other things that desperate me, I think first:

′′ This is the exact place you should be right now "...

- Next time your morning seems crazy, the kids take time to get dressed, don't find the car keys, find all the red lights...

- don't get angry or frustrated.

YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE... AT THE EXACT TIME.

-copied

🎖Medals🥉-🥈facts🏆

 

*_Have you noticed that a bronze medalist is generally happier than a silver medalist at the end of the game._*

*_Its not incidental finding but proven fact in many research studies after studying reactions of silver medalists vs bronze medalists!_* 

*_Ideally, a silver medalist should be more happy than the bronze. But, human mind doesn't work like mathematics._* 

*_This happens because of phenomenon of counterfactual thinking._* 

*_A concept in psychology in which there is human tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already happened, that would be contrary to what happened._*

*_Sliver medalist thinks, "Oh I couldn't win the gold medal." Bronze medalist thinks, "At least I got a medal."_*

*_Silver medal is won after losing, but Bronze medal is won after Winning._*

*_This happens in our life also, we don't appreciate what we have but feel sad with what we don't have.  Our blessings far outweigh our problems._*

Master piece- motivated thoughts

 When God made you He saw that you were good....

If only He had found faults in you He would have reworked on you.....

Never give in to the lie that you are short of perfection...

Your maker is a maker of perfect things.....

He has never been and can never be wrong...

When people say that you are good for nothing....

Tell them that your Father God is upto something....

He did not create you and then assign a work for you....

He made a plan and to execute that He created you with a purpose....

Your life is purpose driven!

*Psalm 139:14*

*I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well*

YES YOU ARE HIS MASTER PIECE! HE FINDS NO FLAW IN YOU!! PRAISE GOD FOR YOU ARE OF INCREDIBLE WORTH!!!

😜How to be happy😛- story

Since I was not using it for a long time, my old Moped (Pleasure scooty) was becoming obsolete. 

I thought why not resell it online. So I put out an advertisement, quoting its price at Rs 30,000/- only. 

There were many offers ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 28,000. I thought if people are willing to pay Rs 28,000, someone might be ready to pay Rs 30,000 as well. 

One person offered Rs 29,000 but I did not confirm and kept him waiting too. 

One morning a person called and said, 

*"Hello Sir, I saw the advertisement for your moped and liked it too. I tried a lot to earn Rs 30,000 but have only been able to collect Rs 24,000 until now.*

*My son is in his final year of engineering. He has worked very hard. Sometimes he walks to his college, or uses a bicycle, and sometimes travels by bus or takes a lift from someone. I thought at least in his final year he should have his own vehicle. I request you Sir, please reserve your scooty for me.*

*A new one will cost more than twice as much. I would not be able to afford it at any cost. Please give me some time, I will arrange for the money. Selling my mobile phone will also get me some money. But I pray to you, please do not sell it to anyone else."*

I just said a formal *"Okay"* and hung up.

Then a few thoughts came to mind, and I called him back. 

I said, *"Don’t sell your mobile phone; just bring the Rs 24,000 tomorrow morning, and take the vehicle. I will sell it to you in Rs 24,000 itself."*

So I was going to sell my scooty to an unknown person for Rs 24,000, even though I had an offer for Rs 29,000.  

I thought of how much *pleasure* or joy this must have brought to that family.

Tomorrow, they would have a *‘Pleasure’* scooter at home, and it wasn’t really causing much loss to me.

God has been gracious and given me a lot; *the biggest wealth probably is the ability to help someone in need*. May God keep this family happy.

The next morning he called at least 6-7 times. 

_*Sir, what time should I come?*_

_*I hope it will not disturb your schedule*_

_*Are you sure I should come now?*_

_*Shall I bring my son along, or should I come alone?*_

_*But Sir, please don’t give the vehicle to anyone else*_ 

He brought with him a collection of Rupee notes in various denominations – 2000, 500, 200, 100, and 50.

His son had also joined him. It seemed he had collected the money from a lot of different sources – maybe withdrawn savings or borrowed from many.  

The son was looking at the moped with great eagerness and gratitude. I handed him both the keys, and the documents. The son was gently running his hand over the vehicle, and wiping it with his handkerchief. 

He asked me to count the money, and I said, *"It's okay, you must have counted and brought it."* 

As they started to leave, I took out Rs 500 and returned it to him saying, *"Do take some sweets for your family."*

I was wondering whether they would have any money for fuel. 

And in any case, then they could get both fuel and sweets with this money. With tears of gratitude in his eyes, he bid farewell to us and took away his ‘Pleasure’ (moped). 

Bowing down politely, he kept thanking me again and again till he left.

*Reflection*

It was on that day, while selling my *Pleasure* that I really understood the meaning of pleasure or joy.

We simply say *‘it's my pleasure’*

_At some occasions in life, one should not see profit or loss._ 

_We should also consider if we are bringing joy to someone through our actions and dealings._