Controlling Your Temper

There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence.

On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails into that fence.

The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering slowed to a trickle.

He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to drive all those nails home. I mean, can you imagine having to do that every time you got frustrated? I've been there too - who hasn't had a moment where they just wanted to lash out, but then had to take a deep breath and calm down? Like that time I was stuck in a long line at the grocery store, and the person in front of me was taking forever - I felt my anger rising, but then I noticed the person was struggling to count their change, and my frustration turned to empathy.

Finally, the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father the news and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out a nail every day he kept his cool.

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.

“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.”

...Control your anger, and don’t say things to people in the heat of the moment, that you may later regret. Some things in life, you are unable to take back. For instance, I once had a friend who sent a text to their sister in a fit of rage - and even though they apologized later, the relationship was never quite the same. Like the time I accidentally sent a text meant for my sister to my mom - thankfully it was just a silly joke, but it could've been much worse if it was something hurtful.