You're Inspiration

My parents inspire me indirectly through their lives – their willingness to work hard rather than depending on inheritance. My dad refuses the portion of his inheritance because he doesn’t want to make his mother sad. He chooses to work hard with his bare hands. My mother loves my dad’s honesty and values despite of her rich dad. Therefore, they are still married though there are still bound to different perspectives in seeing a matter. From there, I learn both of their perspectives and understand them.

My mother often shares about my grandfather’s difficult life experiences during his younger days. He left his Hokkien Henghua village to earn income for his poor family. He came to Singapore to work as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Those were the days where the employees were mistreated. Little mistakes were berated. Next destination is Indonesia. Naively, he signed a contract he didn’t understand which was written in Indonesian language stating he owed money when he didn’t owe that stranger’s money. Hence, he was locked up. A kind Chinese man passed by and realized something was amiss. Therefore, he rescued my grandpa from prison and explained about the danger of blindly signing a contract. He thanked the man and kept in contact. Gradually, my grandpa learns Indonesian language and worked as a bicycle wheel repairer. Gradually, he sends money to his village then he saves money and start a business. At the age of 24, he fetched his mother and my grandmother from the village and married her. Though he is a kind man, he is strict with his children’s character and moral development. One of his employees who stole the company’s money was given a second chance to work. Therefore, that employee turned over a new leaf and faithfully works for him through his lifetime. One day, when his kind rescuer’s business went bust and passed away, he took care of his son and gave him a lifetime stable job.

My ex-boss (in a shipping company I work before) is a kind boss though he has a fierce look. He cares the welfare of his employees well. He even talks to me in a friendly manner to follow up about my job scope.

His son is a humble man who dislikes to be known as the boss’ son and identifies with the employees.

From them, I learn a lot of their values in their lives. Nurture good inner character values are important for them despite their good looks. And I adore my dad’s character and good looks. Few people have such values in life. This basically remind me of the Bible where God sees the heart in 1 Samuel 16:7.