
There was a
little boy with a bad temper. His father
gave him a bag of nails and told him that every
time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the
back fence. The first day the boy had
driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it
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 young 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."
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