________________
the story of an
angry boy
A
little boy had a bad temper He frequently had fights with his sibling and friends. His parents would receive many complaints about his behavior from school and friends. His parents thought long and hard of helping him to understand that anger is not good. Finally, his parents came up with an idea.
His father took him to the fence in the backyard and gave the boy a hammer and a bag of nails. His father told him that every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had to drive 27 nails into the fence!
Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails that he needed to hammer in daily gradually went down. He discovered that is was easier to hold his temper than to walk to the fence and drive those nails in.
LIVING VALUES
Finally, the day came when the boy did not lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and his father suggested that he should 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. He could now control his temper and not get angry about anything!
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 these nails did. It does not matter how many times you say "I am sorry", the wound will still be there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels indeed, we should never hurt them.
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