Temper Control
Once upon a time there was a little boy who had a very temper. When he got angry, he often said, some very hurtful things. In fact, he seemed to have little regard for those around him.
As he grew, his parents became concerned about him, and pondered long and hard about what they should do.
Finally, the father had an idea. And he struck a bargain with his son. He gave him a bag of nails, and a bug hammer. "Whenever you lose your temper," he told the boy, "I want you to really let it out. Just take a nail and drive it into the oak boards of that old fence out back. Hit that nail as hard as you can!"
By the end of the first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Gradually, over a period of weeks, the number dwindled down. Holding his temper proved to be easier that driving nails into the fence! Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.
"As a sign of your success," Father responded, "you get to pull out one nail. In fact, you can do that each day that you don't lose temper even once."
Well, many weeks passed. Finally one day the young boy was able to report proudly that all the nails were gone. At that point, the father asked his son to walk out back with him and take one more good look at the fence. "You have done well, my son," he said. "But I want you to notice the holes that are left. Saying or doing hurtful things in anger produce the same kind of result. There will always be a scar. And a verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. That means we need to treat everyone with love and respect. We need to prevent as many of those scars as we can."
Everyone gets angry occasionally. The real test is what we do with it.
If we are wise, we will spend our time building bridges rather than barriers in our relationships.
Next: Who is packing your parachute?
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