An Interview with God

I dreamed I had an interview with God. 

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

 “If you have the time” I said.

 God smiled. “My time is eternity.”

 “What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered...

• “That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.”
•  “That they lose their health to make money...and then lose their money to restore their health.”
•  “That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.”
•  "That they live as if they will never die, and die as if they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked...“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”

• “To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved.”
• “To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.”
• “To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.”
• “To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them.”
• “To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.”
• “To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings.”
• “To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.”
• “To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.

"Is there anything else you would like your children to know?"

GOD smiled and said, 

“Just know that I am here... always.”

A Cup of Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well-established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: 'Notice that all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases, it is just more expensive, and in some cases, even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate; man chooses the cups. 

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. 

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly…And enjoy your hot chocolate