How are you building your life? (A short story)
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An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He has a student who has been learning carpentry at him for a long time.
One day the carpenter called his student and told him “I’m going to stop my profession. Till today we have built so many houses. You followed my orders always. By following my orders, you have built so many houses. Finally, build a house for me. Don’t worry about expenditure. I will spend any amount of money. Use a high quantity of wood. Use high quality of products and items whatever you use for this house. I’m ready to give and spend any amount of money for this house. But build my house carefully”
The student accepted the order of his master. He took a lot of money from him but bought cheap and despicable material. He built the whole house with low and cheap quality items. But he gave shining to the house to look better. Finally, he gave the keys of the newly built cheap quality house to his master.
Then the master returned the keys to his student and said “My dear, take these keys. This house is yours. I wanted to give a wonderful gift to you. Take this house and be happy”.
What a shock !!!!!!!!!!!!
If the student had known he was building his own house, he would have built the same house wonderfully. Now he had to live in the cheap home he had built. He lost the one and only opportunity in his life.
Friends, we too are building our lives in a negligent way. At important points, we do not give our best efforts to our work. We spoil many opportunities. we neglect many things. After some time, we will realize our deadly mistakes. Then there will be no use of regretting about our mistakes.
How are you building your life?
“Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Today is the result of what you did yesterday. Tomorrow will be the result of what we do today. Your life will be the result of your attitude, actions and the choices you make today. Let us take cautions now. Let us be careful and use every opportunity in a useful way.
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Questions
1. What did the carpenter tell his student?
2. Why did the student build the house with cheap and despicable material?
3. What shocked the student at the end?
4. What important lesson do you learn from the story?
Word Bank
elderly (adjective) = old (“Elderly” is more polite than “old”)
Regret (verb)= to worry about something you have done
despicable (adjective) = very bad
Expenditure (noun) = the act of spending money; an amount of money spent.
Negligent (adjective) = failing to give enough care or attention to someone or something
Attitude (noun) = the way that you think and feel about someone or something
