“Sweet is Thy Will”

A person once dreamt that he visited heaven. An angel showed him around. There was a big passage way with the most beautiful ever flowers on both sides. It lead to a huge hall named the administration block. The admin block had different sections, one for receipt of petitions, another for packing and mailing, and yet another section for receipt of acknowledgements.

There was hectic activity in the petitions section because lakhs and lakhs of human beings had prayed for various things. The prayers that were accepted were sent to the mailing section for packing and delivery of God’s grace and blessings. There was reasonable activity here too. Then there was this other section where record of acknowledgements was kept. The clerk there sat idle most of the day because very few people returned acknowledgements for the gifts delivered to them by God.

This story, quite common on the internet forwarded mails, points to the fact that while we strive for a lot of things and pray for them, when we do get them we get so lost in their enjoyment and ascribe the credit for obtaining them to our own efforts, that we forget to acknowledge God’s help in our getting those things. Simply said, we don’t say thanks to God for all the innumerable things that make our life possible and enjoyable.

Well what blessings should we acknowledge?

Let us see.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your body, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank and cash in your wallet, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.  

If you have your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who have this opportunity.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.   

If you have never experienced fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... You are ahead of millions in the world.

If you can hold your head up, and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique and exceptional to all those in doubt and despair......."

If you are attending a session in Toastmaster, you are ahead of more than a billion illiterate people in the world and still more billions who do not have purpose of life, or think of self-development. 

Saints say that the kind of life we should lead is simple living and high thinking. Our desires should be minimal and they should be controlled. We should live a life of ‘Sweet is Thy Will’. Only when we show our gratitude to God that we would be content, happy and have peace of mind.

                If we can live a life of gratitude and contentment, what a good life we would lead – full of peace and tranquility. We will sleep in peace and