There was a story of a man named Fleming, who was a poor Scottish farmer. Although I cannot verify whether the story is true or not, there is a lesson everyone can learn.
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| Image courtesy of ipage.com |
One day, while trying to make out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby swamp. He dropped his tools and ran to the swamp. There, mired to his waist in black mud, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Fleming saved the boy from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The following day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"I'll make you a deal," the nobleman said. "Let me take him and give him a good education. If the boy is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."
And that he did. In time, Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. Do you know what saved him? Yes, you're right, the penicillin.
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| Alexander Fleming (Image courtesy of brendacaroline.wordpress.com) |
Have you ever wondered what the name of the nobleman was? Well, it's Lord Randolph Churchill. And his son's name? Sir Winston Churchill, a well loved prime minister who received a Nobel Prize in 1953.
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| Randolph Churchill (Image courtesy of nndb.com) |
True giving is done without the slightest trace of expecting to receive. In the words of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, "He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either."
As William Penn said it best: "I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good things I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now, and not defer it or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."
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| Image courtesy of new-muslims.info |
In the Bible, Jesus addressed a
large crowd, saying: “Do not store up treasure
for yourself here on earth where moth or rust can destroy it and where thieves
can steal it. For where your treasure is, there also, your heart will be."
