A Story About Aligning Your Words with Your Actions

Supposedly, a young boy in a small Indian village once became obsessed with eating sugar. He simply couldn't get enough of it.

Naturally, this worried his mother who tried everything and anything under the sun to get him to break the habit. After weeks of pleading, punishing, and praying she finally gave in, convinced there was no resolution to his sugar addiction.

She then remembered how much her son admired the Indian activist and leader of the independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi. She decided on a whim to take her son to see him, hoping his influence could finally put an end to all this talk of sugar.

The two walked for miles under a merciless sun before finally reaching Gandhi's ashram. After waiting in line for hours she explained how she'd traveled for days in an effort to save her son.

"Gandhi, my son consumes almost nothing but sugar. I beg of you, please tell him it's no good for his health."

Gandhi listened to the mother patiently before refusing to offer the boy any advice.

"Come back in two weeks," was all he said.

The mother left with her child completely confounded, trying desperately to grasp why the venerable leader didn't just tell her son then and there to stop eating sugar.

Two weeks later the wearied mother returned with her boy. Once again, the two stood for hours under a scorching son before finally being admitted to see Gandhi.

This time the civil rights leader got straight to the point. He looked the young boy in the eyes and said, "Listen to your mother and stop eating sugar. It's not good for your health."

The boy nodded and promised he'd put an end to eating sweets. His mother looked on in a rage, considering the epic journey and sacrifice it took just to hear Gandhi utter the same words he could have shared weeks before.

"Why on earth didn't you just tell him that two weeks ago?!" she demanded.

Gandhi smiled before saying, "Because two weeks ago, I too was eating too much sugar."

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