A (well known) short story about gratitude

There was a blind boy sitting on the steps of a building with a hat at his feet. He had a sign that said, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – just small amounts of spare change from people as they hurried past.

There was a man walking by and he took a few coins out of his pocket and dropped them into the hat. Then he took the sign and turned it around and wrote some words. The man then put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked past would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were going. The boy recognized the man’s footsteps and asked him, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I just wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking past how grateful they should be to see…

When your life seems full of troubles, it can be difficult to maintain an attitude of gratitude. All we see are our problems, like a blackened storm cloud casting a dark shadow over our lives.

And the times when everything just seems to be going smoothly? We often take these precious moments for granted too. Caught up in the comfort, and familiarity of it all, we can forget to be thankful.

Sometimes all we need is a little break in the dark clouds, one kind word of encouragement, a little sliver band of hope, for us to know that everything is going to be okay.

I hope and pray that someone shows YOU gratitude or appreciation today and that you are able to show gratitude or appreciation of someone who needs it. 

God bless.

Eunice

DSLS