Spilt Milk and Food on the Floor

A weak and frail man moved in with his son, daughter in law, and grandson who was four years old.

This old man’s hands were shaky due to old age, his sight was blurry, and he walked with an uneasy step.

The family would eat at the table, but this granddad’s trembling hands and blurry eyesight made the task of eating extremely difficult. At dinner peas fell off his spoon onto the floor. When he took his glass of milk, he spilt the contents on the tablecloth and his son became extremely irritated by all this.

“We have to do something about granddad.” The son said.

“We have had enough of him spilling milk everywhere, making too much noise while he eats, and his food going all over the floor.”

So the husband and wife prepared a small table in one corner of the dining room. The granddad ate there alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the dining table together.

Since the granddad had broken a couple of plates, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family would glance at the old man, they would sometimes notice his teary eyes because he was alone in that corner.

Even so, the only words the couple would tell him were ones of stern disapproval every time he would drop a fork or spill food onto the floor.

One evening, the four-year-old grandson was playing on the floor with some surplus pieces of wood he had found in the house.

His dad noticed he was playing on his own and so he asked:

“What are you doing?”

The boy answered:

“I am making a wooden bowl for you and mom to eat from when I grow up.”

Very powerful message, isn’t it?