Family
F A M I L Y
I ran into a stranger
as he passed by, "
Oh excuse me
please" was my reply.
He said, "Please
excuse me too; I wasn’t watching for you."
We were very polite,
this stranger and I.
We went on our way
and we said goodbye.
But at home a
different story is told,
How we treat our
loved ones, young and old.
Later that day,
cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside
me very still.
When I turned, I
nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the
way," I said with a frown.
He walked away, his
little heart broken.
I didn’t realize how
harshly I’d spoken.
While I lay awake in
bed,
God’s still small
voice came to me and said,
"While dealing
with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
but the family you
love, you seem to abuse.
Go and look on the
kitchen floor,
You’ll find some
flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers
he brought for you.
He picked them
himself: pink, yellow and blue.
He stood very quietly
not to spoil the surprise;
you never saw the
tears that filled his little eyes."
By this time, I felt
very small,
And now my tears
began to fall.
I quietly went and
knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little
one, wake up," I said.
"Are these the
flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I
found ‘em, out by the tree.
I picked ‘em because
they’re pretty like you.
I knew you’d like
‘em, especially the blue."
I said, "Son,
I’m very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn’t have
yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh,
Mom, that’s okay. I love you anyway."
I said, "Son, I
love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."
FAMILY
Are you aware that if
we died tomorrow,
the company that we
are working for
could easily replace
us in a matter of days.
But the family 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 into our own
family, an unwise investment indeed, don’t you think?
So what is behind the
story?
Do you know what the
word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU
