Do We Treat Strangers Better Than Our Loved Ones?

I found this very cute and too true story the other day and had to share it, it’s about how we treat the ones we love:

I ran into a stranger as he passed by, ‘Oh, excuse me please’, was my reply. He said, ‘Please, excuse me too, wasn’t even watching you’. We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and said good-bye. But at home a different story is told. How we treat our loved ones young and old.

 Later that day, cooking the evening meal, my daughter stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked her down. ‘Move out of the way,’ I said with a frown. She walked away, her little heart broken; I didn’t realize how harshly I’d spoken. While I lay awake in bed, a still small voice came to me and said. ‘While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use. But the children you love, you seem to abuse. Look on the kitchen floor, you’ll find some flowers there by the door. Those are the flower she brought for you, she pick them herself, pink, yellow and blue. She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise, and you never saw the tears in her eyes. By this time I felt small and how my tears began to fall. I quietly went and knelt by her bed, ‘Wake up, little girl, wake up’. Are these the flowers you picked for me? She smiled, ‘I found them out by the tree. I picked them because they’re pretty like you, I knew you’d like them especially the blue’. I said, ‘Daughter, I am sorry for the way I acted today, I shouldn’t have yelled at you that way’. She said, ‘Oh, Mom, that’s okay. I love you anyway’. I said, ‘Daughter, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue’.

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