There is this story a friend once sent to me via email which I have also read on a blog, freelancez.blogspot, and would like to reproduce here with an analysis of the morals it teaches. Please don't assume to have read this story before or known the morals it teaches. Though the morals on both the email and post i have read speak of risk and credit management as per financial matters, I want to add another dimension to it which I believe will bless and inspire you.
When I first read this story, what I want to share here was what came to my mind and IMO, should be the real moral of the story.
Here goes the story:
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800.00 to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800.00 and leaves.
The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?"
"It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.
"Great!" the husband says, "did he say anything about the $800.00 he owes me?"
Nuggets from the story:
1) The price of Ignorance: Ignorance can make you pay dearly for what belongs to you. If only she knew that the $800.00 was thier's, you can imagine what her response to Mr. Bob would have been- Would have been very embarrasing indeed to him. The devil knows what God has promised His children but sad enough, most of God's children don't and that's why they fall for the devil's tricks and do all sort of things to get what belongs to them. No wonder Jesus wept over Jerusalem becuase they do not know the things that pertain to thier peace.
2) The lack of Intergrity (or the compromise of it): The devil's ploy is to steal (or buy) your integrity and he often achieves this using that which he knows you desire or which is in line with your dreams. he tried it on Jesus when he asked Him to bow down to him that he would give Him the whole kingdom of the world. Hope you know this was what Jesus had come to accomplish, to establish God's kingdom here on earth. If Jesus had bowed down to him, He would have lost the boldness to confront the devil when the chips were down during His ministry esp. the later part of it. Remember, He declared that "the prince of this world (the devil) cometh and has nothing in me". Many of us can not bodly defend what we have because of the path we toed in acquiring them.
The devil also tried it on Joseph at Potipher's house when he offered him the ''opportunity'' to sleep with his masters wife which would have been a short cut to a life of abundance. It takes a man of steel integrity to say no to such offers.
I repeat, the devil knows what God has promised his children and would try to act ahead of time to offer them a short cut to it and in the process steal thier integrity (and boldness).
Whats that that the devil has been dangling at you- a job, a husband, a certificate, a promotion, a contract etc-at the expense of your integrity? Many have exchange thier's and have lost thier boldness both before God and man and some others their destinies as well. Do you think that lady would have the boldness to face Bob?
Integrity compromised, is integrity lost. It can not be regained, it has to be rebuilt. You can regain a lost item but not a lost integrity.
A lost integrity is like a broken bottle and like the late Zik would say, "a broken bottle has no mmekotalism"
Protect yours if you have it.
I know there are other morals from this story, please feel free to xpress yours as well on the comments section.
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