A father gives his hot-tempered son a bag of nails and tells him to hammer one into the fence each time he loses his temper. As the boy learns to control his anger, he eventually removes all the nails on calm days. But the holes remain in the fence, showing that hurtful words spoken in anger leave lasting damage even after you've changed.
Chapters
There once was a little boy who had a really bad temper, and his father decided that he needed to teach him a lesson. So his father handed him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence in their backyard. On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails into that fence. And the boy gradually began to control his temper. Over the next few weeks, he discovered that it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence. And finally, the day came where the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father the news, and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out a nail every day that he kept his temper under control. The days passed, and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all of the nails were gone from the fence. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence in the backyard. You've done well, my son. But look at those holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. The moral of this story is. Is not to say things in the heat of the moment that could hurt somebody. Because it's easier in the moment to take a deep breath, remain patient, and remain calm than it is to ask for forgiveness for someone that your anger has hurt.