NAILS IN THE FENCE

There once was a little girl who had a bad temper. Her mother gave her a

bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper, she must

hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the girl had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next

few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails

hammered daily gradually dwindled down. She discovered it was easier to

hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day

came when the girl didn't lose her temper at all. She told her mother

about it and the mother suggested that the girl now pull out one nail for

each day that she was able to hold her temper.

The days passed and the young girl was finally able to tell her mother that

all the nails were gone. The mother took her daughter by the hand and led

her to the fence. She said, "You have done well, my daughter, 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 person and draw it out. It won' t matter how many times you say I'm

sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical

one.