We thank you for taking your time to read this narration of “The disobedient child”. Her message is easy to relate if one’s circumstances were right. We hope you have enjoyed it and wish you every success in your endeavours.

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The disobedient child

This short parable has a powerful moral lesson that many of us can easily relate to. It’s teachings reveal why so many people suffer through life in an environment where happiness is easily available to them.

The parable suggests that in every failure there are two truths hidden and that to avoid failure, we must get to know them. The message in this story is based on the fact that, All failures are due to ignorance; and, All ignorance and it’s consequences has a lesson hidden in it for us. It is beautifully presented by the story-teller and it revolves around a little girl who lived with her mother in a simple cottage far from all modern day amenities.

According to the story, every evening her mother would take out an oil lamp to light up their cottage. And each time, without fail, the little girl would plead with her mother to let her play with the oil lamp!

Her mother of course would ignore her pleas, and very often, would give her an earful instead! This really frustrated her, and she realised she can never satisfy her curiosity of playing with fire as long as mother is watching! So one evening, as the story goes, when mother was out of sight, the little girl decided to help herself to the oil lamp that was left lighted on the table.

As a result of her disobedient act, that evening, her mother’s worst fears had come to pass. The little girl’s finger was badly burnt from a flame in the oil lamp…

“A Lesson from The Disobedient Child”

The two hidden truths mentioned at the beginning of the story can be summed up as follows:-

• Wanting to play with fire was Ignorance;
• Getting her finger burnt was the Lesson.

MORAL OF THE STORY

• If the disobedient child learns her lesson, she will realize that “fire burns” and will not want to touch that lamp  again! And so her sufferings will end here.
• But if the lesson is not learnt, she will continue to want to play with fire and will continue to get burnt. And so her sufferings will continue.

The story further suggests that people cannot solve their problems by complaining about their sufferings and then go back to do the very things that made them suffer. For in real life, our “fires” do not burn immediately following an “act of ignorance” like in the case of the disobedient child. And as such, many are unable to recognize that a painful experience now is the direct result of past actions. Hence, the lesson is usually not learnt and the cycle repeat itself through a lifetime of sufferings…

THE END

We thank you for taking time to read this narration of the disobedient child and wish you every success and happiness life has to offer you.