No one can prevent you from thinking about God

A little girl was playing with her toys. Her mother came into her bedroom and said, "It is high time for you to come and eat. Stop playing with your toys at once!"

The little girl did not pay any attention to her mother. She continued playing and playing. So the mother became angry. She took away all the toys and put the child straight to bed, saying, "You never listen to me! You are so disobedient. Today I shall punish you. I will not give you anything to eat."

Strangely enough, the little girl was not crying at all. She said to her mother, "Do not give me any food then. I do not have to eat." In silence the mother left the room.

When the father came home from work, he started looking for his daughter. "Where has the child gone?" he asked his wife.

"She is in bed," said the mother.

"What happened?" the father asked.

"Our daughter is so naughty. She has become so disobedient. I repeatedly asked her to come and eat, come and eat. She would not listen to me. So I took away all her toys and put her to bed without giving her any food. In this way, she will become very hungry and she will learn to come and eat when I call her. I am teaching her obedience."

The little girl was lying in bed. Her father entered the room and asked sympathetically, "What has happened? What has happened?"

She replied, "Nothing has happened. I am still thinking what I was thinking."

"What do you mean you are thinking what you were thinking?" asked her father.

The little girl started to reply, "I am thinking…" but her father interrupted.

"You do not have to eat?"

"No," she said, "I do not have to eat."

"Then you do not feel sad that all your toys were removed?"

"No, I do not feel sad," she replied.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because I am still thinking the same thing," explained the little girl. "Whatever I was thinking before, I am now thinking. And this thought is giving me so much joy. Mother can prevent me from eating, she can prevent me from playing, but she cannot prevent me from thinking."

"What are you thinking?" asked her father, at last.

"I am thinking that some day I will be God's most favourite child. I will become a good child and then I will be God's favourite. That thought my mother cannot take away from me."

Her father was so deeply moved. He said, "Today you have taught me something. From you I have learnt the Message of God."

At that moment the mother entered the room. When the father told her what their daughter was thinking, she embraced the child. Both the parents said to their daughter, "Do not stop thinking this precious thought. We shall follow you. What you are thinking, we shall also try to think. You have taught us what to think of in life."