A Story of Ingratitude

Here’s a story I shared in church today. I shared this story today because this is thanksgiving week. This story was shared to me first by mom as an attempt to get me to return a favor, a service or, a compliment. Something that when I was a child, I was really bad at. I have to tell you, it worked. It worked more than the sharp pinches she gave in my kidney section or the severe reprimands on the spot.

The story goes as follows.

There was once a boy born of a single mom who happened to be a very poor woman. She loved her son, he was her world, so she fed and dressed him to the best of her ability by working real hard as a family maid. She had him in the best schools and sacrificed tremendously to educate him all the way up through Law School.

On his graduation day she ironed her ragged dress expecting to walk her son down the isle as his matron of honor. To her surprise, her son had invited his preppy girl-friend instead. So instead of causing a scene she found a seat in the middle of the auditorium to watch the ceremony. During the ceremony she laughed and cried as scenes from all the different phases of her son’s life ran through her head like a movie.

At the end of the ceremony the short old lady squeezed her way through the circle of people that were congratulating the man who had graduated at the top of his class. His friends were there, his professors were there, the owners 0f the law firm he interned at were there; smiling, hugging, posing for pictures and shaking his hand… and, there was this little old lady standing behind him pulling the back of his robe fighting for his attention. At one point someone in the circle pointed to the lady to which he looked and said: “- Hi Maria!” As he dismissed her, he looked back to the crowd and said “-She’s my maid”.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:56 AM in Culture, Pastor Felipe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.