MORE EXPERTS, MORE PROBLEMS
How do you measure your worth in life? How do others measure you, or should they at all? Should your station in life be determined by the job you have, the mo ney you make, the kind of house you live in or its location, the clothes you wear or all the material things you enjoy above and ahead of all others? We have multi plied our possessions, but reduced our values. Is this really what it’s all about?
Most of us have learned to make a living, but not a life. We learn to do larger and bigger things, but not better things. We have more degrees but make little sense, acquire more knowledge, but express poor judgment. These days, there are more so-called highly-paid experts, yet more problems that don’t get fixed.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We read more, but really learn less. We do more planning, yet accomplish much less. We rush about, but can’t wait.
These are also the times of big men with inflated egos and small character. These are the days of shallow relationships, fancier houses and broken homes. It is a period in mankind’s history where technology can bring this post to you with just a click, and a time when you can choose either to share these insights with others, or to just hit delete button thinking that no one cares anyway so what’s the use?
AN INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND
These are the times of throw-away moral ity, of times when we hesitate to cross the street to meet a new neighbour. These are the times where we communicate less and less but criticize more and more. These are the days where we have all types of pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill – all as convenient instant fix es to cope with the reality of life.
These days, we spend our time doing very little reading, doing too much TV but pray too seldom, if at all. And if we do, we tend to always ask for things rather than praise and thank the One who created us all. And when you don’t get what you want, your faith falters, not realizing that it’s your inability to understand His profound responses. Consider:
When you ask for strength, He gives you difficulties to make you strong. When you ask for wisdom, He gives you problems to solve. When you ask for courage, He gives you dangers to overcome. When you beseech Him to grant you patience, He places you in more situations that make you wait. When you ask for love, He gives you troubled people to help. When you ask for favours, you get opportunities that you dismiss as being too hard to tackle. Yet, you think you’ve received nothing from Him but in truth have received everything you needed. Then you curse the day you were even born.
IT TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by every moment that takes your breath away.” The author of this quote comes from a school teacher who prefers to remain anonymous even while it is widely attributed as originating from a famous stand-up comedian who just used it in one of his acts. But anyway, her name is Hillary Cooper if you really want to know.
So now, allow us to relate to you a profound story we think will be one of those moments in your lives that can take your breath away and for some, one that will perhaps open their eyes about how to value the real worth of a person’s life.
It starts one evening in the home of a wealthy patron of a school that’s been around for a long time. His dinner guests are sitting comfortably around a long coffee table in the living room discussing life.
One man, a Director-CEO of a successful company that distributes a popular brand of tea, decides to take the floor to explain the problem with education. He starts the argument this way: “What’ can children possibly learn from someone who has decided that his or her best option in life is to become a teacher?”
To stress his point he says to another guest sitting quietly across the table; “You’re a teacher, Priscilla. So be honest. What do you earn?”
This Filipina grade school teacher in her mid-30s, who has a well-known repu tation for honesty and frankness, pauses for a moment as if to better understand what point he is trying to drive home and then replies, “Sir, do you want to know what I make?”
“Well, let’s see. I make kids work harder than they ever think they can. I make kids sit through 40-minutes of class time when their parents can’t even make them sit for 5 without an iPod, Game Cube or movie rental.”
She pauses again for a second time and then looks at each and every person around the table. “You want to know what I really make?”
From this point onward, she quickly enumerates her points without pause:
“I make kids wonder.”
“I make them question”.
“I make them apologize and mean it.”
“I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.”
“I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn’t every thing.”
“I make them read, read, and read”.
“I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator.”
“I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.”
“I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.”
“Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.”
Priscilla pauses one last time and then continues, “Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing that money isn’t everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant.”
“You want to know what I make?” she adds, “I make a difference.”
“Now sir, do enlighten us all here. What do you make?
He was silent.
P.S. Tongue in cheek we say, that this isn’t a story on page we spray and for you to just walk away. Go ahead, share it. That’s what those three little buttons you see below are in any case for!
During the Spanish
Filipinos in Hamilton 