I have a short story to share with you. Back in 2008, I was to write an exam which will determine my chance of ever going to college. Inability to earn a pass mark will spell a doom. Chemistry has always been my greatest hurdle, so I shared my problem with an elder whose words changed my life forever. He said “I will give you a textbook despite the fact that I don’t know you. It has been marked with luck and it carries with it, a symbol of success. All my three children read it and passed chemistry at a sitting, so I belief that your story will be indifferent from theirs.”
Image Courtesy: Thinkerspool
Image Courtesy: Thinkerspool
Lo and behold, he fulfilled his promise and gave the book to me. To shorten the long story, I passed my exam not because there is a mystical power attached to this book, but because of love that accompanied it, and the fact that I don’t want to break the success cycle. So I poured my heart into reading it. If he had just given out the book to me without sharing his conviction with me, the book would have gone down as just any other chemistry textbook in my life.
Today, I am a graduate students of Mechanical Engineering, and this was made possible because of love that came with it. As you already know, gift is an act of love. But little do we understand that we can express extra love while we give, this in fact, will increase worth of every gift that we give (big or small). If giving is compared to a vehicle, love is the engine that powers it. Imagine how much you have given to people without realizing that you have giving so much with little love. Giving as a result of empathy that you feel towards mankind is quite different from those sympathetic ones. The world is filled with people who give just because they want to give out something. The amount of love that you embed in your gift will set you apart. So many philanthropists donate to several NGOs that has never done anything significant to impact human lives, this happens because many givers never made concerted effort to know whether their money is being used for intended purpose or not. What distinguishes Jay-Z from others is; his effort to go close to the poorest poor and see how far his gift has helped them. Magnitude of a gift is a measure of how much love that’s in it.
Image Credit: Wikimedia
A popular adage says “monkey sees monkey do.” Ironically, we put so much efforts into training our kids, we ensure their academic and extracurricular success. But we have failed to demonstrate to them, importance of giving. We are yet to make them realize that there are millions of kids like them, who beg to have a meal per day. Perhaps, if we do this, they will likely grow up to become cheerful givers. When you give as parent, teach this act of gifting to the kids, it is also a measure of how much you put into giving. Give with love.
