VERBAL SCARS

Please take note: Endeavor to read all the way down to the last sentence. It's very important.

There was once 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. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there.

I strongly agree with Lucius Annaeus Seneca that, anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it. Anytime you are irritated and you're at the verge of speaking (out of anger), please remember this story I have shared with you today. 

And please take note, a verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

God richly bless you and may we be better and stronger in dealing with our anger.