The carpenter story

Once there was an elderly carpenter who was ready to retire.
He told his employer-contractor of his plans.

To leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.

He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.

The carpenter unwillingly said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.
It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house.
The contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift for your retirement as a token of my appreciation."

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house.
He would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best.

At important points we do not give the job our best effort.
Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built.If we had realized that we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house.Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely.

It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."

Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

The Mouse Story

A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain?

He was aghast to discover that it was a mouse trap. Retreating to the farmyard the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mouse trap in the house, a mouse trap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house, a mouse trap in the house!"

"I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "You say, Mr. Mouse. A mouse trap? Like I am in grave danger....NOT!"

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever.
Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient and killed the chicken.

His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well and a few days later she passed away.
So many people came for her funeral, that the farmer had the cow slaughtered, to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we all may be at risk.

We are all one family on this planet Earth!

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Great inspirational speech from Arnold given at Emory University.

Steve Jobs

He was adopted by a working class family; he grew up in apricot orchards that would later become Silicon Valley. He dropped out of Reed College because he couldn't pay the tuition; he co-founded Apple in his parents' garage in 1976. He was ousted from the iconic brand in 1985 after power struggle with chief John Scully but returned to Apple in 1996 and created the iPod and iphone revolution. When away from Apple he also started Pixar animation, creator of hits like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, that was later sold to Disney. Jobs now is the ceo of apple, sits on Disney's board as its largest shareholder.He is now worth more than $6 Billion

Check out his inspirational speech at Stanford University

Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong

His family fled China in 1940 and settled in Hong Kong. At age 10 he had to drop out of school and work to support his family, at age 15 his father died. He worked hard and at age 19 he became the general manager of his company; he later started his own plastic flower manufacturing factory which eventually grew as Cheung Kong Industries into a conglomerate with stakes in supermarkets, property and cell phones. Today he is worth $23 Billion.

Read More about him and his life in this exclusive inspirational interview

The Butterfly Story

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

Noble Deed

This is a story of a poor Scottish farmer named Fleming. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog.

He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself.

Farmer Fleming saved the boy from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "Yes" the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me take your son and give him a good education. If he's anything like his father, he'll grow to be a man you can be proud of." And that he did.

Over time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. This is not the end.

The nobleman's son also made a great contribution to the society. For the nobleman was none other than Lord Randolph Churchill, and his son's name was Winston Churchill.

Let us use all our talent, competence and energy for creating peace and happiness for the nation.

The Donkey Story

One day a farmer's donkey fell into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway - it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to scoop dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realising what was happening, cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he became quiet.

A few shovels later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He shook it off and took a step up.

As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he shook it off and took a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and totted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is too not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up. Shake it off and take a step up