The Story of the Elder Fisherman

There was once an elder Fisherman. The man had grandsons that he took out daily with him. The man would take the young men out and would teach them the different aspects of catching fish, in hopes that one day they would learn for themselves and they would become successful fishers when he passed on.   One of the young man was eager to follow in the foot steps of his grandfather. He always followed the lead of the old man.

The younger man was always resistant to the teachings of his grandfather, he always dreamed of what it would be like to travel around the world. He never really paid much attention to what his grandfather taught the two young men and constantly complained about being out on the boat with his grandfather and his brother.

Years would pass and the elder fisherman would had died. The eager grandson had taken his grandfather's place and was now a successful fisherman in his village and made a lot of money and raised up a family where he now taught his own sons to fish.

His resistant brother had returned to the village tired of traveling. He took what money he had and bought a small fishing boat and tried his hand at fishing but was not very successful in catching fish. He remembered the days when he would go out with his grandfather and his brother and fish. He now wished that he would have taken the time to learn exactly what his grandfather was trying to teach him.

After a few days his brother spotted him and knew that he was not having the best luck and told his brother to come aboard his boat. The second brother said with shame, "I am not very good at this, as I did not listen to what our grandfather had to say to us as children."

The second brother looked with a smile on his face. "Brother you are my friend and I will teach you how to fish and we one day will pass on this business to our children. The lessons we teach will make them successful. But only if they follow the lessons and put them to good use."

The moral to this story is that you can teach someone something but you can not hold their hand and make them listen to you. You can be a good person and teach people, but some people in life will go astray. All we can do is pray that the lessons we have taught stay with them and that they become great people.