Once upon a time, there lived a loving husband and wife, happy in their own small world – John and Maria. John was a busy business person but he always tried to make time for his own family. They both lived a happy life.
After a very busy big week, John asked his wife how about going out to dine on that weekend – to deviate from their usual busy days of professional life. But Maria said she has already made plans for weekend housecleaning and maybe they will do this on some other day.
Two weeks later, Maria asked John if they can go out to the city on that day evening at 5pm to roam around. John readily agreed and promised to come back to home by 5pm that evening to take out Maria to the city to spend the evening in a beautiful way. While John left the house in the morning, Maria reminded him that he also needs to buy medicines for her on his way back home. John made a mental note of this too in his mind.
The busy day for John started at his office as usual. But he was always remembering his word to Maria that he will be back by 5PM that day to take her out to city. He got out early from his office and soon went to the doctor to take her medicines.
On seeing the long queue, John quickly jumped the queue and reached the counter to seek an urgent appointment. When he was finally seated before the doctor, the doctor asked him what made him jump the queue to come to him so quickly. John replied to the doctor that he had promised to his wife that he will be at home that day by 5pm , so he had to hurry indeed.
Doctor asked him then about the medicine he needs for his wife and John revealed that his wife is suffering from alzheimer’s disease. Hearing this, the doctor was both confused and furious. He screamed at John saying “So you jumped the queue to reach home on time – the time you had promised to your wife who has alzheimer’s disease – and due to that she would never even remember that you had promised to her that you will reach home today at 5PM.”
To this, John paused and took a moment and then replied “I know clearly that she wont ever remember that I promised to her to reach home today by 5PM, due to her disease. But still, that doesn’t change the fact that I had given her my word that I will be there at her side today by 5PM at home for the evening outing which we both had planned. I would never break my promise with her, even if she is able to verify it later or not. It’s me who gave my word and I would never break my vow.”
Thoughts
This is a great story which tells us how important are our vows or promises that we give to others, be it our life partner or to someone else. We all tend to keep our word or promise to someone just because of our fear of the repercussions that will arise if we have not fulfilled our promises or vows. And here we have in this story, a husband who is so keen to keep his word to his life partner even when he fully knows that she will never find out that he has broken his word due to her special condition.
Think deeply on this topic. Are you keeping your vows? Are you keeping your word to your business partner or life partner? Even when they have no chance to verify that you have indeed taken the action that you have promised to them?
BE A MAN OF HIS WORD.
