Nails in the fence

Just a reminder to us all:

3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. 3:2 For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3:3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 3:4 Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 3:5 So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 3:6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. 3:7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, 3:8 but no human being can tame the tongue--a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so. 3:11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish? 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

James 3:1-12 RSV

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. 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 and the father suggested that the boy 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. 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. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. But It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Remember that friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us."

AMDG