Temper Control
Once upon a
time there was a little boy who was talented, creative, handsome, and extremely
bright. A natural leader. The kind of person everyone would normally have
wanted on their team or project. But he was also self-centered and had a very
bad temper. When he got angry, he usually said, and often did, some very
hurtful things. In fact, he seemed to have little regard for those around him.
Even friends. So, naturally, he had few. “But,” he told himself, “that just
shows how stupid most people are!”
As he grew,
his parents became concerned about this personality flaw, and pondered long and
hard about what they should do. Finally, the father had an idea. And he struck
a bargain with his son. He gave him a bag of nails, and a BIG hammer. “Whenever
you lose your temper,” he told the boy, “I want you to really let it out. Just
take a nail and drive it into the oak boards of that old fence out back. Hit
that nail as hard as you can!”
Of course,
those weathered oak boards in that old fence were almost as tough as iron, and
the hammer was mighty heavy, so it wasn’t nearly as easy as it first sounded.
Nevertheless, by the end of the first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the
fence (That was one angry young man!).
Gradually,
over a period of weeks, the number dwindled down. Holding his temper proved to
be easier than driving nails into the fence! Finally the day came when the boy
didn’t lose his temper at all. He felt mighty proud as he told his parents
about that accomplishment.
“As a sign
of your success,” his father responded, “you get to PULL OUT one nail. In fact,
you can do that each day that you don’t lose your temper even once.”
Well, many
weeks passed. Finally one day the young boy was able to report proudly that all
the nails were gone.
At that
point, the father asked his son to walk out back with him and take one more
good look at the fence.
“You
have done well, my son,” he said. “But I want you to notice the holes that
are left. No matter what happens from now on, this fence will never be the
same. Saying or doing hurtful things in anger produces the same kind of result.
There will always be a scar. It won’t matter how many times you say you’re
sorry, or how many years pass, the scar will still be there. And a verbal wound
is as bad as a physical one. People are much more valuable than an old fence.
They make us smile. They help us succeed. Some will even become friends who
share our joys, and support us through bad times. And, if they trust us, they
will also open their hearts to us. That means we need to treat everyone with
love and respect. We need to prevent as many of those scars as we can.”
A most valuable lesson, don’t you think? And a reminder most of
us need from time to time. Everyone gets angry occasionally. The real test is
what we DO with it.
If we are wise, we will spend our time building bridges rather
than barriers in our relationships.
No comments:
Post a Comment