By Tony Sharp
The next night, Jimmy finished his bath. He put on his pajamas and got into bed. He had done a lot of thinking all day wondering why he had not got into trouble.
“Mommy!”
“Yes, Jimmy.”
“I’m sorry. I broke my promise not getting home by six in the evening.”
“Ah” said, his mother. “You are growing up, so you remember your promise.”
Sometimes, we run the wrong way against the flow of life. Things go wrong, and sometimes we break promises. Jimmy had just shown respect to his mother as he was big enough to say sorry. There are a lot of things to say sorry for. Saying sorry to those you love will happen many times in your life.
“Jimmy, I’ll tell you a true story about a six-year-old Asian girl whose family was very, very poor. Her mother had fifteen children. Two of her sisters and one brother died before she was five years old. The little girl was very smart. She learned to grow flowers, and she used old tins for pots. After growing many, many flowers, one morning she put them in the bottom of a very big plastic bag. It was so heavy that she could hardly lift it. At eight in the morning, she went to the market where she put out her flowers on the foot path to sell. This made the shop keeper very angry, and he made her go away out into the very hot sun.
“Please lady. Buy my flowers. I want some rice and fish!”
Even when it started raining, she kept calling out.
“Please buy my flowers.”
Finally at six in the evening, there were no more flowers to sell. She then spent all her money to buy five kilos of rice and some fish. She arrived home at seven in the evening.
“Where have you been all day?” asked her mother.
“I had to stay till all the flowers were sold.”
When her mother saw the fish and rice. The big tears welled up in her eyes. Her mother said sorry that she had been angry with the little girl.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, Mommy?”
Her mother felt sorry because her tiny girl was just six years old. All day she had to work so hard out in the sun and rain for them to eat.Jimmy asked,
“Even if you are grown up, still you have to say sorry?” He continued, “What happened to the little flower girl?”
“Ah, because she was such a good person though she was so small and because she had learned to give all she had, God has given her a blessing. Poverty taught her to be clever, and she grew up to be a very wealthy lady.”
