Nails Of Anger
November 18, 2020
Stories are a great way to remind yourself of some important messages.
Whenever I come across anyone struggling with anger issues, I share this story.
There once was a little boy who was ill-tempered and had a bad habit of making hurtful comments about people. The boy would then offer an apology.
One day, this boy’s father gave him a bag of nails and told him, ” Be aware of your anger. Every time you lose your temper and say something bad, go knock a nail into the fence in our backyard.”
The boy accepted his father’s suggestion. He started keeping a tab on his own behavior.
On the first day, the boy had to knock sixteen nails into the fence for the sixteen times in the day when he lost his temper and said something bad. The process of hitting nails into the fence had a strong impact on the boy. He became very aware of his behavior, and he started consciously controlling his actions. Over the next few days, the boy found himself being angry lesser and lesser. And, as he learned to control his temper and mind his foul language, the number of nails he had to hammer into the fence also dwindled. The boy realized that it was easier to control his temper with awareness than drive nails into the wall.
The spotlight of consciousness eliminates anything negative. On the seventh day, the boy did not lose his temper. And, he did not have to hammer a nail into the fence. Excited, the boy ran to his father and told him, ” father, I have not lost my temper even once today, and I did not have to hammer any nails into the fence.”
The father was very happy with the transformation in his son’s behavior. The father told the boy, ” Starting today, for every day, you don’t lose your temper, pull out one nail from the fence.”
The boy was determined to remove all the nails from the fence. The boy became very proficient at being calm and composed in the face of many provocations. Over two weeks, all the nails were pulled out from the backyard fence.
Again, excitedly, the boy went to his father and informed him that he has managed to pull out all the nails from the fence as he was able to control his anger very well. The father was very happy for his son.
” I am so happy that you have been able to control your temper and remove all the nails. Do you observe something interesting? You may have removed the nails, but the scars remain on the backyard fence. Once you fire an arrow of anger and bad language, the words you speak cannot be taken back. Even if you say sorry, the scar of the hurtful language used will remain in the minds of the people you lose your cool with.
The small boy understood the message and ensured that he never lost his temper again, and even if he did, he made sure not to say anything hurtful and malicious.
[…] One of the most profound lessons I learned during this time didn’t come directly from the Bible; it came from an article on the impact of not having control over anger. […]