There once was a little boy who had a bad
temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time
he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The
first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next
few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails
hammered daily gradually dwindled down.
He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally
the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his
father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one
nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed
and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were
gone.
The father took his son by
the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my
son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the
same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this
one.
You can put a knife in a
man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry
the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.”