what is the meaning of the word family?
many of us are neglecting of the word FAMILY especially those who are working and not giving too much attention to people beside them. i personally experienced the same thing but when i've read the story below, it all change my perspective about the people around me. it is a story of a son who wants to buy the time of his father. a very touching story, a simple but very effective in changing the person's life. i got it from an email to me, i don't know where this story originated so i consider this as a God's Letter to all the people who do not know the real meaning of the FAMILY. here it goes—
a man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year-old son waiting for him at the door. “daddy, may i ask you a question?”
“yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
“that's none of your business. why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
“i just want to know. please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“if you must know, i make $20 an hour.”
“oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down.
looking up, he said, “daddy, may i please borrow $10 from you?”
the father was furious, “if the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. think about why you are being so selfish. i work hard everyday for such this childish behaviour.”
the little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. the man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. how dare he ask such questions only to get some money? after about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn't ask for money very often. the man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
“are you asleep, son?” he asked.
“no daddy, i'm awake”, replied the boy.
“i've been thinking, maybe i was too hard on you earlier,” said the man, “it's been a long day and i took out my aggravation on you. here's the $10 you asked for.”
the little boy sat straight up, smiling. “oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled. then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. the man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. the little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.
“because i didn't have enough, but now i do,” the little boy replied.
“daddy, i have $20 now. can i buy an hour of your time? please come home early tomorrow. i would like to have dinner with you.”
share this story with someone you like... but even better, share $20 worth of time with someone you love. it's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. we should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
if we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. but the family and friends we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. and come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family an unwise investment indeed.
so what is the moral of the story? don't work too hard... and know who you are working for... and... you know what's a family?
F = father
A = and
M = mother
I = i
L = love
Y = you
family day is the name of a statutory holiday in israel and the canadian provinces of alberta, ontario and saskatchewan, and a public holiday in south africa.
while in the united states of america, the country celebrates family day on 4th monday of september. i was unaware of the holiday until recently when i saw it online while i was browsing. in order to state my curiosity, i decided to do a couple of quick google & wikipedia searches to see what this holiday was all about. i’m really not any closer to finding the exact meaning of the holiday, but i suppose, on a very base level, it is about family and spending time with them and appreciating them. but do we really need a specific holiday to do that? shouldn’t that be something we do on a daily basis?
what does family day mean to you? is it another day off of work? is it another long weekend you can use to get drunk? do any holidays nowadays have the meaning they once did “back in the day” (as it were)?
so what say you parent bloggers out there, if we spare some time during this school holiday seasons to join ‘nuffnang friso family day out’, the first nuffnang parenting bloggers gathering courtesy of friso!
they are throwing in a big incentive for parenting bloggers to write as creative as they can to attend this event. the best creative blog post written will be rewarded with a dream vacation of a 3D/2N trip to disneyland hong kong for 2 adults and 2 children fully sponsored by friso!
but it's not just that... there are lots of other prizes for your family that you can win. among them are;
many of us are neglecting of the word FAMILY especially those who are working and not giving too much attention to people beside them. i personally experienced the same thing but when i've read the story below, it all change my perspective about the people around me. it is a story of a son who wants to buy the time of his father. a very touching story, a simple but very effective in changing the person's life. i got it from an email to me, i don't know where this story originated so i consider this as a God's Letter to all the people who do not know the real meaning of the FAMILY. here it goes—
a man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year-old son waiting for him at the door. “daddy, may i ask you a question?”
“yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
“that's none of your business. why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
“i just want to know. please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“if you must know, i make $20 an hour.”
“oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down.
looking up, he said, “daddy, may i please borrow $10 from you?”
the father was furious, “if the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. think about why you are being so selfish. i work hard everyday for such this childish behaviour.”
the little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. the man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. how dare he ask such questions only to get some money? after about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn't ask for money very often. the man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
“are you asleep, son?” he asked.
“no daddy, i'm awake”, replied the boy.
“i've been thinking, maybe i was too hard on you earlier,” said the man, “it's been a long day and i took out my aggravation on you. here's the $10 you asked for.”
the little boy sat straight up, smiling. “oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled. then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. the man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. the little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.
“because i didn't have enough, but now i do,” the little boy replied.
“daddy, i have $20 now. can i buy an hour of your time? please come home early tomorrow. i would like to have dinner with you.”
share this story with someone you like... but even better, share $20 worth of time with someone you love. it's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. we should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
if we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. but the family and friends we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. and come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family an unwise investment indeed.
so what is the moral of the story? don't work too hard... and know who you are working for... and... you know what's a family?
F = father
A = and
M = mother
I = i
L = love
Y = you
family day is the name of a statutory holiday in israel and the canadian provinces of alberta, ontario and saskatchewan, and a public holiday in south africa.
while in the united states of america, the country celebrates family day on 4th monday of september. i was unaware of the holiday until recently when i saw it online while i was browsing. in order to state my curiosity, i decided to do a couple of quick google & wikipedia searches to see what this holiday was all about. i’m really not any closer to finding the exact meaning of the holiday, but i suppose, on a very base level, it is about family and spending time with them and appreciating them. but do we really need a specific holiday to do that? shouldn’t that be something we do on a daily basis?
what does family day mean to you? is it another day off of work? is it another long weekend you can use to get drunk? do any holidays nowadays have the meaning they once did “back in the day” (as it were)?
so what say you parent bloggers out there, if we spare some time during this school holiday seasons to join ‘nuffnang friso family day out’, the first nuffnang parenting bloggers gathering courtesy of friso! they are throwing in a big incentive for parenting bloggers to write as creative as they can to attend this event. the best creative blog post written will be rewarded with a dream vacation of a 3D/2N trip to disneyland hong kong for 2 adults and 2 children fully sponsored by friso!
but it's not just that... there are lots of other prizes for your family that you can win. among them are;
- 10 X RM100 MPH voucher
- and they are also rewarding parenting bloggers who write the best post event blog post with a 32” LCD TV from Sony!
so what are you waiting for mommy, daddy and/(or) parent bloggers out there? go here to find out more about this. now put on your thinking cap and let your fingers do the blog posting! who knows, your blog post might just win your family a trip to disneyland!hmm... shall i say that i will meet you all there with my megat? i know i will, insya allah... :~)
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