I received an email yesterday which in a round about way talked about looking at the world through another pair of eyes. The email itself ended with the story recorded below. It’s one I vaguely remember reading some time ago but it was good to be reminded about learning to see things slightly differently:
There is a wonderful little story about a minister who, one Saturday morning, was trying to prepare his sermon under difficult conditions. His wife was out shopping. It was a rainy day and his young son was restless and bored, with nothing to do. Finally, in desperation, the minister picked up an old magazine and thumbed through it until he came to a large brightly colored picutre. It showed a map of the world. He tore the page from the magazine, ripped it into little bits and threw the scraps all over the living room floor with the words: “Johnny, if you can put this all together, I’ll give you a quarter.”The preacher thought this would take Johnny most of the morning. But within ten minutes there was a knock on his study door. It was his son with the completed puzzle. The minister was amazed to see Johnny finished so soon, with the pieces of paper neatly arranged and the map of the world back in order.“Son, how did you get that done so fast?” the preacer asked.“Oh,” said Johnny, it was easy.
On the other side there was a picture of a man. I just put a piece of paper on the bottom, put the picture of the man together, put a piece of paper on top, and then turned it over. I figured that if I got the man right, the world would be right.”The minister smiled, and handed his son a quarter.
“And you’ve given me my sermon for tomorrow, too,” he said. “If a man is right, his world is right.”There’s a great lesson in this idea.
If you are unhappy with your world and want to change it, the place to start is with yourself. If you are right, you world will be right.
Napoleon Hill
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