One of the childhood stories came up in a conversation today. When do we hear this story and when do we choose to act on it in life seems to make a difference!

A father had three children, and he wanted to teach them a few valuable lessons from his experience in life.

He sits them down one day and says…

“If God were to appear in front of you and gives you $100 to spend every day, how would you spend it? You need to spend ALL the money. You cannot keep some aside from tomorrow and you cannot borrow some from tomorrow. You ONLY have $100 to spend. What would you do?”

His children smiled and came up with beautiful answers. It reflected their personalities, one would spend it on themselves, one would spend it on doing fun activities with friends and family and the third one would spend it on the betterment of the community.

The father smiled and continued…

“Great! Now, what would you do if everyday God were to deposit $100 in your bank. You need to spend it fully today. You cannot borrow from tomorrow nor save for tomorrow. However, everyday he will put $100 in your bank for you to spend. What would you do?”

His children started thinking and discussed with each other.

“What all can one do with $100? Eat, sleep, have fun, help someone else, spend on your needs & wants, spend to help the community…. ” the brainstorming continued..!

Father was happily smiling and said…

“For just $100 you started thinking about how wisely you would spend it and put so much of thought behind it. Makes me proud of all of you…!”

One of the children asked “Does it ever happen in reality? When do we get anything free everyday?”

Knowing that he has caught their attention, father responded…

“What if I were to tell you all of us get 86,400 free everyday..! Yes. We all get 86,400 seconds everyday for free. What we fill it with is up to us. How we choose to live, what we do with those 86,400 seconds is left to us. We need to use up all of them every single day and we get a fresh 24 hours the next day (86,400 seconds). Now, tell me how would you value it and how would you like to spend it?”

The children understood what the father was trying to explain.

We all hear this story at some point of time in life. When we hear this story, and when we choose to act on it might be two different points of time in life. The way we choose to live our life changes the moment we choose to act on it.