Blessed are the poor in spirit!

My daughter Vaidehi is teaching her daughter Sneha,certain words that she should use liberally,when she talks to others.
“Sorry,Thank you,Please,Excuse me”.My daughter spends quite sometime with Sneha teaching her daughter how and in what context she should use these words.The ‘manners’ session gets over and Sneha runs away.
I tell Vaidehi,my daughter,”Vaidehi,there are“two magic phrases that will make miracles happen in your life.Do you know what they are?”
1.I can’t do it,.Please help me.2.Iam sorry.” These are the phrases”


Vaidehi is in no mood to listen,she politely nods her head and walk away.


As I am sitting by my window and gazing out, my thoughts are rushing in my mind.I know that I have used these phrases quite often in my interaction with my friends,my colleagues (when I was working )and my family members.It never occurred to me to register the effect, using these phrases had in my life.

All of us are ordinary humanbeings.Each and every one of us have our weaknesses.None of us can get up and say,”I know everything,I possess supreme knowledge in all matters, in all facets of life.”But very rarely we come across a person who admits his failings,his weaknesses,the fact that he/she needs help and guidance in accomplishing cerain things in their lives.But when a person gathers his courage and admits to the fact that he is poor in certain areas,he does not know how to go about doing certain work,then he becomes a stronger person.

“I have got a problem,can you help me?”
“I don’t understand this issue,can you explain it to me?”
”I just don’t know how to go about this.Will you advise me?”
The confessions mentioned above give a new beginning to the life of the person who is not afraid to ask for help.Success comes to the person who is able to ask for help.Many of us think that if we ask for help, our ego gets a beating,we come down in the esteem of others,they may look down on us.On the other hand,when we admit our lack of knowledge in a certain areas,when we admit to our weaknesses,it makes us persons of emotional and intellectual integrity.People will trust us,go along with us and that will give a boost to our self esteem.

I want to share with you my experiences on this account.
The year was 1984.I had joined St.Patricks High School as a teacher.Everything went very smoothly and I enjoyed teaching English and Social studies.Examinations arrived.We teachers had to set question papers.Some senior teachers asked me,”Mythili madam,do you want help in setting the question papers?”
I said,”No,thank you.I will set the question paper for my subjects myself.”
I went ahead set the papers,the Principal was happy with the question papers that I had set up and I was very happy.
The school was closed for holidays.But we teachers had to work for ten more days to finish correting the papers and tabulating the marks.We had to give ranks to all the students.

It was the last working day for us teachers.By 4 o clock in the evening we had to submit the tabulated mark sheets with the ranks specified and I was sitting in my place with tears in my eyes.Fact was, I did not know how to tabulate the marks and arrive at he ranks.It was 1.30 pm and my marksheet was incomplete.I swallowed my pride and approached the other teachers,experienced ones ,who had finished their work and were ready with their class mark sheets.

I told them,”I need your help.”

“What,what help Mythili madam?Why do you look so sad?” asked one teacher.

Isaid,”I don’t know how to tabulate the marks and find out the ranks,will you please help me?”
“Ofcourse,we will help you”was the chorus answer.

My colleagues came over to where I was sittng and they vied with each other to help me tabulate the marks of my class students and they also arrived at the ranks secured by all the students.By 3 o’ clock my mark sheet fr the class and the Progress reports were ready.

Something wonderful happened in my life that day.All these days,my colleagues were courteous with me and were on ‘hello hello’ basis with me.Once I told them about my lack of knowledge in tabulating the marks and once I sought their help,believe me,my colleagues became my friends.All these days, I was more or less a recluse in the staff room,but with this confession of mine about my inadequacy,I was surrounded by friends all the time.

Are you at a juncture in your life where you are helpless,you have a problem but you don’t know how to find a solution?Stretch your hands,ask for life because there is always somebody to help anybody.Fact is, we should let others know that we have problems for which we are not able to find solutions.If you pretend that you have absolutely no problem ,then no one is going to bother about you.
Let us be humble.Let us not mistake humility for inferiority complex.Humility is self knowledge,knowledge of one’s nothingness before God.

Ok,what about the other phrase?’Iam sorry’,.How does uttering this phase often ,help us?Oh,dear, this phrase when used generously at the right times, produces wonderful results that make us very rich.When one admits to making a mistake or hurting somebody and when that person confesses to making a mistake and says,”Sorry.Iam a human being.I made this mistake or I hurt you,God has forgiven me,you also please fogive me,then you will expeience the miracle working power of this magical phrase”Iam sorry.”

Some months back, an incident appened in my home.I was sitting before my pc,thinking about what to write.I was not getting any new ideas.At that time my maid came to me and started pestering me,pestering me to have steam inhalation.I waited for some time,finally I lost my cool and shouted at her very badly.My maid’s face became very small and she went away.I just could not continue sitting before the pc.I was contrite.I felt vey bad that I shouted at my maid,Kalyani for no reason at all.I had no right to do that.She was trying to do her duty and this was the way I rewarded her!I called her to my side and said to her,”Kalyani.I should not have shouted at you.What I did was wrong.Iam very sorry about it.Forgive me.”

Kalyani’s eyes filled with tears.She said,”Amma,please don’t say anything like that.You are like my mother.”

I was rlieved once I said ‘sorry’ to her.I felt happy to see her being happy,she was humming a song and doing dusting.

When I admitted that it was wrong on my part to have shouted at her,I was on my integrity trip and not on an ego trip.Integrity trip is the road to real happiness.on the integrity trip we can be proud of ourselves for being open ,honest and humble.Where as an ego trip proves fatal to our self esteem.

All of us need this humble attitude.Once we start being honest,in all of our lives confessing the weaknesses that we have we will be amazed to see the results.
Lord Jesus Christ put these ideas in a nutshell.He said,”Blessed are the poor in spirit,for their’s is the kingdom of heavan.
Blessed here means being happy.Poor in spirit means accepting one’s weaknesses,lack of knowledge in particular areas.
Being humble brings successes,gives us lifelong friends ,solves our problems and more than anything else we are sure to be admitted in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">Kingdom</st1laceType> of <st1laceName w:st="on">Heaven</st1laceName></st1lace>.



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