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 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."
As William Arthur Ward once said,
"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -
not people;
to focus your energies on answers - not excuses."
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