Wednesday 13 May 2015

Shine bright like a diamond


It’s a cold afternoon on a busy street, in a city you’ve heard of.

A young girl, ignoring the whistling wind that’s burning her exposed cheeks, catches a glimpse of something she can’t ignore.
She pulls on her mother’s hand and runs over to a store window. Through the frosted glass, she sees a large display full of diamond-studded jewellery.
“Mom, I want those,” she says, pointing to a pair of beautiful diamond earrings. Her mom laughs to herself before saying, 
“I would love to buy those for you, but right now it’s not in our budget.”
“But Mom,” she tries to argue before being interrupted.
“Listen honey, I’ll make you a deal. If, on the weekends, instead of going out and playing with your friends, you go to your grandmother’s house and help her by mopping the floors and doing the dishes, I’ll pay you a few dollars. Then, after a few weeks, you’ll be able to buy those instead,” she says as she points to a pair of fake diamond earrings.
For the next few weeks, the little girl does what her mother suggested until she’s earned enough to purchase the fake diamond earrings.
She loves her new earrings and wears them everywhere she goes, but no matter how big her smile, deep down she knows they’re just not what she wants.
One night, her father comes home and asks her, “Do you love me, honey?”
She quickly replies with, “More than anything.”
“Great. I need you to give me those earrings that you’ve worked so hard for.”
“What? Dad, no, not my earrings! Take my Easy Bake Over, or my doll house, but not these, I can’t give them up.”
“Okay, honey.” He gives her a kiss on the cheek, and then leaves.
Two nights later, her father comes home to find his baby girl crying at the kitchen table.
He pulls out a chair, sits down beside her and asks, “What’s wrong?”
“Daddy, I love my earrings so much, but I love you more, so…take them,” she says, holding them out in her hand.
Her father smiles as he takes them from her hand. He pulls out a little black box from his pocket and puts it on the table in front of her.
Confused, she picks it up and opens it carefully, then lets out a scream of joy.
In the little black box is the pair of real diamond earrings she had wanted so badly, ever since first seeing them in the store window.
He looks at her and says, “I’ve wanted to give you these for a while, but I needed you to learn this very important lesson.
Until you are willing to give up ‘good’, you will never touch great.”
The metaphor should be pretty clear. I first heard this story delivered by Eric Thomas, and when I’m trying to decide on what my next move should be, I listen to this story.
Then I ask myself, ‘Am I holding on to ‘good’, or am I making room for ‘great'?’
People talk a lot about how “the timing just isn’t right”. The truth is that life’s timing is always right. What’s wrong is the person you are when it shows up.
Timing is God’s way of showing you what you are worth by delivering the gift of opportunity, or by providing the lesson of what could have been, but wasn’t, because you stayed in ‘good’

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