Parable*
One afternoon, a woman noticed three old men with long white beards sitting outside her house. Although she had never met them before, she felt sorry for them.
«You must be hungry,» she said kindly. «Please come inside and have something to eat.»
One of the old men asked, «Is your husband at home?»
«No,» she replied.
«Then we cannot enter,» they answered.
Later that evening, when her husband returned, the woman told him what had happened. He immediately invited her to ask the old men to come in.
When she did, they replied, «We never enter a house together. Only one of us may enter.»
The woman looked puzzled.
The oldest man pointed to one of his companions.
«This is Wealth.»
Then he pointed to the second.
«This is Success.»
Finally, he smiled and said,
«And I am Love&Respect.«
«Go inside,» he continued, «and decide which one of us you wish to invite into your home.»
The husband said, «Let’s invite Wealth so our family will never struggle financially.»
His wife suggested inviting Success instead.
Their daughter, who had been listening quietly, said, «Why don’t we invite Love&Respect? If our home is full of love, everything else will have greater meaning.»
The parents agreed.
The woman returned outside and said, «Love&Respect, please come into our home.»
Love stood up and walked toward the house.
To her surprise, Wealth and Success stood up and followed him.
«But I only invited Love!» she exclaimed.
The three old men smiled.
«If you had invited Wealth or Success, only one of us would have entered. But wherever Love goes, Wealth and Success follow.»
Moral
When love&respect is at the centre of our lives, true success and lasting prosperity are more likely to follow.
Parable is a short simple story used to illustrate a moral or a spiritual lessons. Derived from the Greek word parabolē (meaning «comparison» or «casting beside»), it works by placing a familiar, everyday scenario alongside a deeper, abstract truth to make the lesson easier to understand.