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-          Oh yes, she is doing very well in her studies. All teachers love her…

For my surprise and amazement my dad replied with this to the question of his friend.

I was 8 years old, a first grade graduate from school. Because of my enough better studies teachers gifted to me few small books, around 1 centimeter in width, with stories at the end of the year. And after that we had 3 months Summer holidays. When they gave me books they told me to read them…so I tried my best.

Everyday I used to open the book and read 1-2 sentences and afterwards mark the place with colorful marker. And afterwards putting a side a book I used to run out for playing games with my friends. In this way for three months 3-4 pages of the book was nicely colored with different colors like read, yellow, green…

 A new school year started. Classes started. Now I was a in the second grade.

One day I was doing my homework. And how was I doing it? Teacher told us to read nicely the given text and get ready to read that at the classroom for the next day and that we will count the words per minute. So I opened the text, it was quite big for me, with 5-6 sentences. I tried to read. Caaat, doooog, …skkkyy…it was so difficult for me to recognize letters because of that I used to read very slowly. Too slowly. And after such like a hard work just closed the book and was going to complete my homeworks and GO OUT FOR GAMES!

But suddenly I saw my father coming to my room. I was sitting on the carpet on the floor. And books, notebooks were around me still. So my dad asked me with smile if I have done already my homeworks. I said “yes” with a cheating smile. Then he requested me to show what have I done. I told that I have to read and teacher will qount the words per minute. He said:

-oh that is nice! Please, let me also see how You read, dear!

I opened back the book and started to read.

-caaaat, doooog…skkkyyyy

My father was hearing me with silence and with full attention but I did not saw his face. Because I was so shy to show to him my eyes. I became too shy. I felt my face became hot which means read also.

Hearing my reading and seeing my pitiful condition my dad told with compassion:

-oh, my dear, You read very slow, it is not so good, not so good. But lets try to read it again and again! Please, read the whole text again!
I did.

-again!

I did.

-again!

My dad was not tired to to hear me so he requested me again and again to read the same thing.

I read again and again and could feel that by each repetition my reading was going better and better. Ever increased speed increased my desire to read.

…

In this way after 2-3 hours hard work with my father I was able to read that text very fast. But now I was afraid that my father will tell about my bad reading to others.  I became so fearful of that.

So for whole day I followed my dad's speech with whomever he talked that day. Hours past, it was evening. A guest came to our house. He was my father's friend. He greeted him nicely and invited him to sit on the special sitting place outside in the yard. Days were hot so usually we used to sit outside for taking dinner. They sat and took dinner. I was still worried about my reading. That my father will tell about my bad reading to his friend. So I moved around them, hearing their talks. 1-2 hours they talked. And at the end dad's friend asked about me.

“- oh my God! It is time! My dad will disclose everything! And I am finished! My reputation and all…”

I thought.

But for my surprise my dad smiled and told with enthusiasm that she is a very nice student.  “She does her studies perfectly. She has desire to read and learn more and more. She is my golden child!”

“Oh my God!”  Hearing those words I was filed with joy! My love and gratitude to my dad increased and overflowed from my heart. I was grateful to him.

And from that day on I promised within my heart that further more my studies will be in the first place in my life. That from that day on I will try my best to gain knowledge and learn more and more things. His words gave me desire for books. He was not concern with what was bad but was remembering only good side that I am able to read if I try hard. So I promised that I will do my best in order to make true the words of my dad.

-My dear Father, You are my hero. No matter You are karmi or a Devotee but You helped me so much and gave me desire to learn. Because of You I used to yearn for newer and newer books as a result I came in contact with Bhagavad Gita which I later shared with You, which You read and became in love with Srila Prabhupada and decided to dedicate whole Your life to him (which is another nice story of my life…).

Words and thoughts are energy that carry power, and we need to choose them with care, if we want to progress in any spiritual path. Radhanath Swami says we must fix our words, our actions and our mind on a higher principle to achieve a higher goal.

References: http://www.radhanathswami.co/power-of-words