A cute little inspiring story

An old man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Quran. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Quraan just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Quran do?" The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river & bring me back a basket of water." The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed & said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of
water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out of the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back o the house. The boy again dipped the basket into river & ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it's useless!" "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and outside. Son! that's what happens when you read the Holy Quran. You might not understand or remember everything but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and outside. That's the work of Allah Almighty in our lives.

Some advice

As-salam alaykum!
Alhamdulillah it's been awhile! First I wanted to share a link to a reading on the Migration to Allah by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyah rahimahullah! http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/purification/0054.htm

It's not that long and it's WELL worth it inshaAllah!! (thanks to Rahmatullah who sent me the link!)

Also, here's something that I shared with some of the girls:
recently my brother told me something that i really liked that i thought i'd share...
When robbers come to steal something, they only rob a house that has a treasure in it, because the treasure is what they desire.
In humans, our treasure is our iman, and this is what shaytan comes looking for. He will go and persistently work at someone who has a great treasure. So we have to protect this treasure chest of ours, and continue to increase it-- cultivate our iman inshaAllah so it can strengthen and grow. Unfortunately, shaytan never tries to stop stealing this treasure of ours. Instead of taking it all at once, he tries to chip away at it slowly. Sometimes it goes unseen by us; more the reason why we need to be extra vigilant. Through strengthening our iman, inshaAllah we keep increasing it such that it can prevent our iman from being stolen, before we know it.

subhanAllah we all might posess something that we take extra care for so it is not stolen-- or we protect people, be it siblings, nieces/nephews etc... but the thing we possess that has the most value is our foundation in Islam-- our iman, our taqwa. and in the sight of Allah these are the most valuable things, and if we are here to please and yearn for Allah, these are the things that should be our most highly valuable items we possess. inshaAllah may we resolve to guard our treasures!

InshaAllah may we seek refuge in Allah from the shaytan, from our own souls, and from our own weaknesses. May Allah guide us and strengthen us in our resolve to please Him! May He bless us by us traveling the path to gain knowledge for His sake and take action for His sake and may He protect us from a state of heedlessness. May He also grant us the gift of gratefulness to realize that it isn't our traveling to gain knowledge that allows us to gain knowledge of Him; rather it is through Him that we are able to gain knowledge of Him! Ameen!