In a temple, when the priest had gone for lunch, the Idol of the Lord and the Stepping Stone were conversing.

Stepping Stone: “What a good fate you have. We both were the same lump of rock for millions of years. The sculptor carved an idol out of you and everyone is worshiping you. And look at me, I am a stepping stone and every one stands on me and stamps on. What kind of life is this?”

The Idol kept smiling and never bothered to answer this, now, routine murmur from the stepping stone. But the stepping stone (stone used as a step) would never stop his constant bickering.

The Idol replied: “But do you remember that when the sculptor set out to carve an idol, it was you he chose, first. You were impatient and complained about the painful chipping. In one strike, you broke in to two. But when he tried on me, I grinned and bore all the hammers and chisel strikes with patience and without complaint. Here I am the worshipful and happy Idol and you are the Stepping Stone.”

The Teaching: 

The difference between success and failure is patience and persistence. A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ in worldly sense, would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Determination is the strength that will enable us to pass the barrier of useless thoughts in order to create positive thoughts and to be successful in whatever we wish.

It comes from within and its partner is patience. Patience teaches us not to push but rather to wait and appreciate the game of life instead; knowing that nothing remains the same and everything will change at some point in time.

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone-cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” — Jacob A. Riis

Have patience and be persistent.