Life Issues

The Prodigal Son

Forgiveness must be one of the hardest things in life to learn. When somebody does something that in turn affects the way that you live your life and the choices that you make it is hard to come to terms with what they have done and to forgive them.

Acceptance is another hard lesson to learn. Some things will never change, cannot change. Nothing you can do, no matter how hard you try can alter a situation to suit you more. Sometimes all you really have to do is to sit back and look at the way things actually are, not the way that you want them to be. And often you will find those things aren’t actually that bad after all, that the situation does suit you a lot more than you originally thought it did. Accepting the way that things are can be uplifting. You don’t always have to fight for change.

Understanding is so important in life. To take a step back and try not to be judgmental, to try to see how a situation is from someone else’s point of view. Stresses and strains, hopes and dreams are different for everyone in life and it is unfair of us to make rash judgements on those around us unless we can relate to what is happening or has happened in their life.

Aran had to learn all these lessons. He thought that life on the farm was a dead ended one for him and he chose to try to make his own way in the world. Unfortunately he didn’t have too much in the way of good ideas and soon fell into bad ways, gambling and drinking the family money away.

But one thing that he had left after he lost everything else was his pride. He was happy enough to sit amongst the pigs and share their food but he had too much pride to go back to his family and ask for their help.

Luckily he was convinced by Jess to go home and to eventually confess the truth to his family.
It was a hard lesson for him to learn but it was just as hard a lesson for his brother Ben who found it almost impossible not to place the blame for the way that life had turned out for him on his brother.

Both Aran and Ben finally learnt the lessons of forgiveness, acceptance and understanding the hard way. But at least they got there in the end.

Perhaps if more of us took the time to think about things before we made rash decisions or judgements life might be a lot easier and happier for us all.