This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The Sinking Cruise Ship - A Story of Judgement

One day a teacher told this story about a cruise ship that capsized at sea. A couple managed to get to a lifeboat, only to realize that there was only room for one. The moment when the two came to the lifeboat the man nudged his wife, so she ended up behind him, and then he jumped into the lifeboat. The woman remained on the sinking ship and shouted to her husband.

The teacher asked his students: "What do you think she shouted?"

Most of the students eagerly replied: "I hate you! I have been cheated! "

The teacher noticed a boy sitting silently and she turned to him to hear what he thought the woman shouted: "Ma'am, I believe she shouted: 'Take care of our children!'

The teacher was surprised and asked: "Have you heard this story before?"

The boy shook his head: "No, but it was what my mother said to my father before she died of their disease."

The teacher sighed lightly: "You answered correctly".

The cruise ship sank. The man came home unharmed and raised the couple's daughter on his own.

Several years later, after the man passed away, the couple's daughter found a diary as she was going through her father's possessions.  It turned out that the mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness days before her parents left on the cruise ship. At the critical moment the father took his only chance for survival.

He wrote in his diary: "As much as I wanted to sink to the bottom of the sea together with you, I had to think about our daughter. I am so sad that I had to leave you alone on the ocean floor, forever. "

When the teacher finished the story, the whole class was dead silent.  The teacher realized that the student, who initially sat silently, understood the point of the story. Between all the good and evil in the world, there are many different underlying causes that may be difficult to see.

That is why we should never focus only on the surface and judge others without trying to understand them first.

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