I just want to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude
for what You have provide me, and my family with. Gratitude I should’ve done
long time ago and even more often, as You provide me with things I don’t
realize was undeniably advantageous.
Like what I have in front of me right now. A plate full of
delicious and nutritious food, I can have for every single day I’m alive. A
loving family caring to each other. Many other things I won't have enough words to explain how great Your blessing is.
One thing in particular I want to thank You is my Dad’s
grocery shop. We run this shop since I was a kid, it was quite a successful
story for those who live in my town, Grobogan, that time. My dad established
this shop in the 70s, when they first moved in. It’s gradually inclined toward
the biggest store in town, since we’re one of the earliest business family
here. During its ‘throne’, my mom and dad can even afford a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land in Makkah and Madinah, visit our beloved Prophet Muhammad in his
homeland. That’s when I was in primary school.
But a major decline in our shop characterized most of years
during my senior high and college in the early 2000s. It wasn’t pretty at all.
Our income constantly plummeting. Rumors spread about hypocrite dishonest
people who work as our shop assistant. These shop assistant has worked in our
shop almost 2 decades, so it’s natural that I, and also my mom, trust them with
all our heart. I didn’t buy the issue saying they steal goods or even money
from our store at all, but not my father. This further ruined the situation, as
my dad fired them. Since then, employees has came and gone, uncertainty struck
our shop.
Nowadays, our shop is a total mess compared to many others.
It’s ancient, old-fashioned, less modern and certainly not as crowded as it
used to when I was a kid. We only have one employee, a girl. My mom works back
and forth from shop to kitchen, helping shop and also maintain the housework,
also our meals. I can’t say our shop is clean, as many spiderweb nestled all
over the place. Dusts are everywhere, but there’s something worth to notice.
Surprisingly, it’s this modesty that gain us a constant
number of customers, and also loyal ones. The first plausible reason for this
is our lower rate of benefit that attracts customers. I believe there are also
nearly extinct goods but still popular among several communities that makes us
survive this cruel competition with many better tenants.
I pray that this shop would become a blessing, instead of
becoming just another commerce, for my family and the whole town. That whatever
we sell, it would help people. That the process would make people more
cheerful. I hope we would find this shop as a mean for us to gain a better
future, even further extended to paradise. It’s You and only You, the only One
who can make these all possible.
And I hereby avail my most humble gratitude. Ask You for
Your kindest apology to forgive mistakes after mistakes we’ve done. And bless
us with Your Mercy to guide us through our worldly life, to help others,
praise You and simply be kind. That we will be in Your Jannah with You in the
Afterlife. Amiin.
