BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR TEMPER

Our life is so messed up that we find it difficult to control our emotions. We lose control and become haughty and irritated quickly. We never think of the hurt we make in the lives of others. Whether it is tiny or big, it leaves a permanent scar on the victims.

A story is told about a little boy who had a bad temper. He used to find fault with anything and everything. It was so disturbing that his wise father decided to do something about it. He 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 started controlling his anger, the number of nails hammered declined. 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. The father suggested that the boy now start pulling the nail out: one 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.”

There are irrevocable hurts which cannot be removed by just a ‘sorry’ or a thousand ‘sorry’. If you cut another with a knife, no ‘sorry’ will remove the scar. So we have to learn not to plant a scar on anyone.  

Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later, because spoken words once out can never be taken back.