This story has been circulating by email for quite some time now but it came back to me last night after I had a heated SMS exchange over what is actually a very trivial (almost silly) matter with someone who is very, very important to me.
Image from LoveFionah.wordpress.com
Nails In The Fence
(Author Unknown)
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.”
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.
I could very well have been that boy. True, one can argue that I live a very stressful life trying to juggle many responsibilities. But ultimately, it still boils down to the fact that I have a temper which I find difficulty keeping under control when my stress level is high. And I am ashamed of it.
I am also ashamed to admit that I’ve driven far too many nails into far too many fences. I’ve apologised for most of those nails and have made my best attempts to undo the damage. But as the story goes, those fences are forever damaged and will never be the same. And I am now at a loss as to how to deal with the most gaping holes.
A wise person once said that the first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it. By making this acknowledgment through this blog post, I publicly declare my commitment to take the first steps to overcoming this problem. May God help me in this task that I’ve set upon myself.
I am not sure where this story originally came from but I got this version from InspirationPeak.com.
