A friend sent me this piece that I decided to share with the rest of you:
>>A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands.
Her mum came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile: my sweetie, could you give your mum one of your two apples?
The girl looked up at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple, and then quickly on the other.
The mum felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.
Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mum,and said: mummy, here you are. This is the sweeter one.
No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay judgement. Give others the privilege to explain themselves. What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others.
Which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.
Those who like to pay the bill, do so not because they are loaded but because they value friendship above money.
Those who take the initiative at work, do so not because they are stupid but because they understand the concept of responsibility.
Those who are willing to help you, do so not because they owe you any thing but because they see you as a true friend.
And finally, those who apologizes first after a fight, do so not because they are wrong but because they value the people around them, and understand well how a simple thing can be perceived quite differently from how it was intended to be understood.
A Wonderful story; with a good lesson for life.
Remember when we were young the old folks use to tell us count ten before you react.
Tony, Thought I would just mention something about doing good which might be relevant to the different acts of goodness mention in you post.
The Islamic teaches on goodness is that there are three grads of Goodness.
First: doing good to receive good. The same as; do to others as you would have them do to you. This is the lowest grade of goodness.
Second: that is to take the initiative in doing good out of pure benevolence. This is the middle grade where sometimes there is a flaw in ones benevolence, which cause him to deemed the person who he helped as ungrateful because that person turn against him. That is, "O those who do good to others–---good that
should be based on sincerity–----do not render it vain by
reminding them what favours you have done them or
by inflicting injury on them.
And third: and highest grade of doing good, is graciousness as
between kindred. God Almighty directs that in this
grade there should be no idea of benevolence or any
desire for gratitude, but good should be done out of
such eager sympathy as, for instance, a mother does
good to her child. This high grade of doing
good cannot be exceeded.
