SINCERELY SCOTTY BY Walter Scott: Anger

Anger

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.  Proverbs 12:18

We all have experienced anger to some degree. It is how we manage it that makes the difference. Even Jesus expressed anger toward the money changers in the temple. The story below is a good lesson to keep in mind…….

There was once a little boy with a bad temper.  So one day his father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence.  The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Then it gradually dwindled down.  The boy discovered it was easier to hold his temper than it was 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 he 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 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 pull it out.  No matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound will still be there.  A verbal wound can be as bad as a physical one.”

While this story dwells on anger, it really goes deeper than that.  It could easily address gossip which travels by word of mouth and ultimately ends up being something it was never intended to be and someone gets hurt feelings.  I remember how this was impressed on me as a kid.  At camp, there would be about 75 boys sitting in a circle around the campfire.  We would play a game called Pass It On.  It was simple, the camp director would whisper a sentence into a camper’s ear and he would pass it on to the next one, then he, in turn, to the next one, and so on, until it had gone around the circle and back to the director.  Usually, by the time it went around the circle, it in no way resembled what it started out as.   Sometimes we say something that is totally misinterpreted – “I didn’t mean that at all” we would say, but nevertheless, the damage is done.  It made the circle.

How many times have you heard “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me”?  What a false statement!  Words spoken in haste have caused many hurt feelings.

Friends are a very rare jewel; they can make you smile and offer encouragement when you are down.  They are there when we need them and offer comfort and support.  But an unkind word, a word spoken without thought, can cause that friend to withdraw and perhaps not be there when you need him or her, because they don’t want to be hurt again.    

If you ever saw the movie Bambi, you might remember Thumper and his famous saying “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say nothin’ at all.”  Those are words to live by.

Sincerely,  Scotty

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