You and Your Word

Matthew Kelly on pages 51-52 in his book A Call To Joy shares the following story. 


There once was a successful businessman who owned a very large company.  Business was not too good, however, and his company was in a lot of trouble.  It looked like the company might go down, and his competitors were ready to pounce on his market share.  But this man had a plan that he knew, without a doubt, would revive his company.


It was Saturday morning and he was preparing a speech to give at his company's annual staff dinner that evening.  In his speech, he wanted to show them the first part of his plan.  But more than that, he wanted to emphasize that if his plan was to be speedily and successfully implemented, it was dependent on the individual response of each one of his employees.


That morning while writing his speech, his wife had to go out shopping.  Ten minutes after she left, he heard a knock on the study door.  There stood his seven-year-old son, who complained, "Dad, I'm bored."  The father attempted to play a game with the boy and write the speech at the same time.  This went on for nearly two hours until the father realized that unless he could find some other way to amuse his son, he was not going to finish his speech in time.  So he picked up a magazine and flipped through the pages until he found a large, brightly colored map of the world.  He tore the page out and ripped it into many pieces.  Throwing the pieces all over the living room floor, the father said, "Son, if you can put the map of the world back together, I will give you a dollar."


The child rushed to the task, eager to earn some extra money, while the father returned to his study believing that he had just bought himself two or maybe three hours to finish his speech; he knew that his seven-year-old son had no idea what the map of the world looked like.  But within ten minutes, he heard another knock on the study door, and there stood his smiling son with the completed puzzle in his hands.  Amazed, the father said to the child, "Son, how did you finish to so quickly?"  The child smiled larger than ever, "Well, dad, I had no idea what the map of the world looked like, but there was a picture of a man on the back.  I put a piece of paper down on the floor.  Then on top of that piece of paper I put the picture of the man together.  I put another piece of paper on top and turned them both over.  I took the top piece of paper off and there was the world, complete and in order."


As the father stood there in awe, the boy continued, "Dad, I figured if I got the man right, the world would be right."


And so, the moral is simple.  Get the man (woman) right, and the world will fall in order!  A great lesson to have before us.


Father Schuster