Saturday, September 22, 2007
Nail In The Fence
Ever felt angry? I'm sure all of us have experienced anger at some point. Anger is an inevitable human emotion which all of us go through. Most of us go through it everyday. Anger can be expressed in different ways. A person can express anger by lashing out or by sulking silently. It depends on how a person chooses to do so.
Anger can cause people to do terrible things and sometimes with devastating irreversible effects. The story below has always reminded me on how anger can cause pain to others as we tend to lose ourselves in the spur of the moment. Therefore, i normally choose to remain silent if i'm angry with someone or something, at least until i can calm down and think in the right frame of mind. Here's a story which i will like to share with you guys out there. Though most may have heard it, some may still not.
The story goes :-
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.
Nail in 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."
The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said "I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you."
"Of course I can," said the father.
The story struck me hard the first time i read it. It still lingers in my mind everytime i get mad. I hope it does the same to you.
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