God ordained every good thing to be hard to get. Every great thing – being it enormous riches, an inspiring life, an overwhelming promise, a fulfilling relationship, a rewarding career, a breathtaking victory or an exceptional character – is rare and hidden. Because they are hidden admirable things are hard to find and therefore expensive.
This is the lesson the legend Muhamed Ali gave to his daughters.
Apparently there was an incident when Muhammad Ali’s daughters arrived at his home wearing clothes that were quite revealing. In the book: More Than A Hero: Muhammad Ali’s Life Lessons Through His Daughter’s Eyes, one of his daughters, Hana, gave this story:
“When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father’s suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare We exchanged many hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day. My father took a good look at us. Then he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them.” He looked at me with serious eyes. “Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.”
As you probably know I am neither a moralist nor a fashion specialist advising people what to wear for each occasion. The integrity of this story for me is, as already mentioned,
God ordained every good thing to be hard to get. Every great thing – being it enormous riches, inspiring life, overwhelming promise, fulfilling relationship, rewarding career, breathtaking victory or exceptional character – is rare and hidden. Because they are hidden admirable things are hard to find and therefore expensive.
There are two ways to pay for an expensive item, by cash in advance or by installments. Usually the latter is more expensive than the former. Anything that is obviously cheap is definitely not so illustrious. But if it is really great, it will cost you dearly in the long run.
Baruch Spinoza once said, “all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare”. So if you aspire for great things in life my sincere advice to you is to get rid of ‘cheap’ mentality and be prepared to pay a due price in full. Trust me, cheap is cumulatively expensive. Don’t cut yourself short by taking short cuts. Never permit temporal circumstances force you to compromise your integrity or self-worth. You are too precious to sell yourself short.
Is God making you pay a hefty price for something that others get away with so easily? The likelihood is that your ‘thing’ is far superior. So keep on keeping on. Hang in there and you’ll surely get your reward. What ever you pay for is legally yours!
Dreamlife Mission 