My Mother-In-Law’s Negative Attitude Exposed My Lack of Tolerance

(Minghui.org) My mother-in-law is in her 70s and grew up during those volatile years when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) advocated “Fighting Against Heaven and Earth.” She was a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) officer in our village when she was young and was seriously brainwashed.

She often had a long face and you could feel her negative energy. Every time she opened her mouth, it was to criticize and complain about others. She always placed her own interests above everything else.

My husband is her youngest son, and we met soon after I started working. My mother-in-law sold her house after we got married and she and my father-in-law moved in and helped take care of our child.

My job was very tiring, and I had to work night shifts every week. My mother-in-law never said anything kind to me, or prepared breakfast. I am not a good cook and so I often had nothing to eat before I went to work. When I returned home after a busy morning, there was still nothing to eat.

My father-in-law and my husband both like meat, while my mother-in-law prefers vegetarian food. She cooked potato and celery for lunch and dinner, as it was her favorite. She only cooked what she liked to eat and had little consideration for her husband and son, let alone me.

To help them earn some money, I borrowed money and opened a little store for them. However, my mother-in-law spent most of the time playing mahjong in the store, while our little boy ran around the streets. When I came home I never knew where my son was. When I asked my mother-in-law, she said she had no idea and never bothered helping me find the child.

We lived together for three years before I bought a new house and we moved out to live on our own. Due to financial pressure from the home loan, I occasionally took some daily necessities from the little store. My father-in-law didn’t mind, but my mother-in-law was annoyed, and said I was not allowed to take anything.

I was upset and angry, thinking: I borrowed money to help you open the store in the first place, but you won’t even let me take laundry detergent. It’s so unfair.

I understand that as a Falun Dafa practitioner, I should be a good person in any situation and be kind as well as considerate of others as Master (Falun Dafa’s founder) told us. But I failed to look within when interacting with my mother-in-law. Thinking she was selfish and unreasonable, my resentment against her grew. As a result, the relationship between us became increasingly tense.

Changing Myself

I reflected on myself. When I took things from the store to make my life a bit easier I was taking advantage of them. I was being selfish. It’s not easy for my in-laws to run a store at their age, so I should forgive my mother-in-law and be kind to her. By letting go of my resentment and the competitive mentality, I no longer held any resentment towards her.

In fact, my mother-in-law had a difficult life. After marrying my father-in-law, she gave birth to two sets of twins in three years, but two of the children died of illnesses when they were six or seven.

They sold their old house, but didn’t get any money; my father-in-law started a small business, but it didn’t work out. They didn’t have any income and had to rely on selling the vegetables they grew.

In contrast, I had a well-off childhood, a stable job after graduation, and I’m also fortunate to be a Dafa practitioner in this lifetime. I enjoy good health and understand the true meaning of life through practicing Falun Dafa. I realized that no matter how unreasonably my mother-in-law or my husband treats me, it’s all due to causal relationships. I will need to pay back whatever I owe. How else can I eliminate my karma and elevate in cultivation?

With the improvement of my xinxing, my mother-in-law became much more pleasant. I began to treat her with kindness, such as bringing her delicious food, buying her new clothes or whatever she liked. I’ve also taken her on sightseeing trips. The relationship between us greatly improved.

However, she still refused to listen to the facts about Falun Dafa. She was like a hard rock and I didn’t know how to drill into it. I thought of giving up on her.

Master said,

“Right now the people of the world are the most important, because nobody is in the world today without a major reason.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)

I realized that I have a responsibility to save people like my mother-in-law. I should never give up.

My Mother-in-law Today

In order to save my mother-in-law, I bought an apartment for them near our home. She kept changing her mind when it came to the moving date. As a result, I lost nearly 10,000 yuan in rent, but I didn’t get upset.

They finally agreed to move into the new place last summer. I looked after them like their own daughter, and my mother-in-law also changed her attitude towards me. However, she believed in the CCP and held a negative attitude towards Dafa.

In order to help her eliminate the CCP influence, she and I watched the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party video. I treated my mother-in-law kindly. She gradually started to watch the videos with keen interest and read the truth clarification materials. We also watched Master’s video lectures.

With the help of Master, my in-laws finally learned the facts, saw through the vicious nature of the CCP, and got to know the enormous crimes the CCP committed against the Chinese people. They also learned to think independently instead of blindly believing what they see on TV.

“Falun Dafa teaches people to be good citizens. Why are they not allowed to practice it!?” When they said this I was truly happy for them because I knew they were saved and had good thoughts about Dafa.

My mother-in-law also changed. She no longer complains about others and always has a smile on her face. Having eliminated the CCP’s hatred element in her, there is a softness in her eyes and her complexion improved.

She now takes good care of my father-in-law and cooks him nice meals. The old couple seldom argue. Instead they chat like old friends and smile a lot. This is something I could never have imagined before.

My mother-in-law has also begun to show me kindness and often says, “What would you like to eat? I will go and get it for you.” I always feel deeply touched when she says this.

Thanks to Master’s compassionate grace and teaching, I have learned to cultivate kindness in treating my parents-in-law, who are now enjoying happiness in their elder years. Dafa has changed the relationship between my mother-in-law and I, and given us a harmonious and happy family.

Master has given all he could to us practitioners and all sentient beings in the universe without asking anything in return. His boundless compassion and kindness is something we will never be able to repay. Thank you, Master!