A Little Boys Temper
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 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.
Make sure you control your anger next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.
"People with a hot temper do foolish things; wiser people remain calm." "If you stay calm, you are wise, but if you have a hot temper, you only show how stupid you are." The terms "stupid" and "fool" in Proverbs refer to sin and error, not mental ability. (Proverbs, 14:17 & 29 Verses).
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So blessed to have regular inflow of such emails!
At the same time it also serves to remind myself of who I am trying to be.
Who I am right now (value-wise, personality-wise, principle-wise) is lacking but to get to who I am to become, I've got to persevere!
I still make the same old stIpUd mstakes, but with conscious effort I will make it!
I guess I was bitter at my dad today, because of some very real concerns. I also lost a lot of my compassion and self-propelled intiative because what the adults were portraying was obviously contradictory.
Like telling you to ask and chiding you for not knowing the answers to simple tasks.
Or telling you to take the initiative then making it as if they blamed you for making a mistake when you finally sum up the courage.
Or telling you to settle one argument at a time and keeping other unrelated incidents separate from the main issue; then dragging back 5 year old mistakes that you've made.
At that moment I felt like shouting, "You double-faced, double-standard loser! Get lost!" in obviously less cordial terms.
But there's no point stirring up the sleeping dragon.
I'll just do it His way. =)
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