Gratefulness

My daughter recently met a girl who acted kind of tacky. She was bragging about her boyfriend who she claims owns Kia, BMW among other things. Pepito Alvarez is the Philippine distributor of these brands and I have met his right hand guy. They both are humble. I do not know if the boyfriend is either Pepito’s son or nephew or apo, or Mr. Mabilog’s son. Her boyfriend could also be a son of a dealer of Kia that is not in anyway related to Mr. Alvarez and Mabilog.

This girl kept on repeating “my boyfriend owns….” When Julienne said she also sells cars, the girl responded “Second hand?”. She was clearly floating in air. We cannot blame her from feeling so proud of her boyfriend’s parents’ achievement. Young lady, there is nothing to brag about, to begin with that is not your accomplishment.

That situation got me and Julienne worried that’s why when my son and I were bonding in Tagaytay, I mentioned to him about this yabang girl. I reminded him that I hope none of us, nor his girlfriend, or future family and children, would ever think, feel and act that way.

We have nothing to brag about. There shouldn’t be any space in our hearts and in our minds that we have the right to be yabang. Our hearts are full of gratefulness for every little thing that we have accomplished or have been blessed with. We are grateful that we are able to help ourselves so that we are able to meet our obligations and perform our responsibilities, grateful that we are able to provide employment to a number of people, grateful that we are able to help others in our own little way, grateful that we are able to do business even in difficult times, grateful that we have become responsible members of the society, grateful na hindi kami pabigat sa lipunan.
There is simply no space for pride. We cannot claim stability, we are in constant need of God’s guidance and help. Forever.