学进去

An elderly carpenter (木匠) was ready to retire. He wanted to leave the house building business. He planned to live a relaxing life with his family. He told his manager about his plan.

The manager was sorry to know his good worker was leaving his company. He asked the carpenter if he could help the company build just one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his heart was not in his work. He didn’t spend enough time choosing good materials. He wasn’t willing to spend too much time and energy building the last house.

After the carpenter finished the work, the manager came to inspect (检查) the house. Then he handed the front door key to the carpenter and said, “This is your house...my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have built it carefully.

Sometimes we are like the carpenter. We do some things carelessly. We may think the things have nothing to do with us. But with a shock we realize that things belong to us. If we could know that, we would do them carefully. But we can’t let the time go back.