Temptation

Father was working on his laptop. It was a holiday, but he had lots of mails to clear so he had brought his laptop home. His little son Sirish was watching him. He was waiting eagerly for father to complete his work for he was hoping that he would be able to ask for the favour of playing a game of Pinball on the laptop. As father opened one e-mail, after the other, Sirish noticed that for a large number of mails, father pressed the ‘delete’ key as soon as the e-mail was displayed on his screen. For some of them he did not even open the attachments clipped on. He just deleted them. Only a few of them, father read through and typed replies to. Sirish watched curiously as father pressed the ‘delete’ key over and over again. Finally, he couldn’t contain himself and asked, “Papa, what are you deleting?”

Father smiled mysteriously and answered, “Temptation!” Sirish asked, “Temptation? What do you mean by that?” Father sat the innocent little boy in his lap and said, “Temptation, my child is something that tries to incite you into doing something or buying stuff that we don’t really need. These mails are called spam mails. They are sent by people who wish to tempt us to buy stuff that is not really good for us. You see it’s better to delete it as soon as it comes up. If you study the whole write up, the chances are you may get lured into buying it and it’s always easier to stay away from temptation than to get out of it!”

The boy was reasonably satisfied and got busy with eating the apple slices that Mummy had just handed to him.

A short while later, the door bell rang and father said, “Sirish would you get that, I’m caught up.” “Yes, Papa,” said Sirish as he rose to open the door. He was back in a minute. Father asked “Who’s it, son?” Sirish said, “It’s okay Papa, it was just Temptation.” It was Father’s turn to ask, “Temptation? What do you mean by that?” The little boy smiled and said, “There was a lady selling chocolates at a discount. Mummy told me that they are just not good for my teeth, so I sent her away!” He continued, “Papa didn’t you tell me that when Temptation comes calling, don’t reason out, just send it right back. That’s just what I did!”

Setting an example is not just one of the ways of teaching your children. It’s the only way!