Play the Cards You Dealt (1 of 2)

BY: Wudang Chen Add to Favorites Back to Blog
Play the Cards You Dealt (1 of 2)

There is something very important for all of us to understand of life and to taste the tranquility of the spirit: Play the cards that god has given you well; play well the cards that god given you…

There is a story that I learned in the past, a story regarding Eisenhower, the World War II general. When he was very young, a child, he was playing a poker game with his family members. Several times during the game he got not such good cards in his hand and so he became very unhappy and started blaming and being very impatient.

His mother stopped playing cards and spoke to him. She said "if you want to play, then you must continue playing with whatever you have in your hand, no matter if the cards are good or bad."

Eisenhower stopped to think and continued to listen to what the mother was saying. She said "life is the same, god gave you cards, no matter what kind of cards you have in your hand you must take them, all you can do is do your best and hope to have the best result."

Many years passed, but Eisenhower always remembered what his mother told him. He never ever had complained again about his life, instead he always had a positive attitude facing all the challenges in his life and he always did his best to do everything well. He came from a very ordinary family, and slowly became a general for the allies in World War II and then became the 34th president of the United States. The next president, Johnson, praised Eisenhower's ability to be patient and tolerant in all of the difficult times in his life and that he was never afraid, but always brave, facing life and always teaching that this came from the childhood teaching of his mother. What this story can teach us is that every day is as if we were playing a poker game. Although we don't have the right to choose the cards, we can do our best to play the cards we have in our hand. We have no choice but to do our best.