Holes

During a great message today I heard this, a little something I'll never forget.

A father needed to help his son with his outbursts of anger. He told his son, "every time you feel angry I want you to go out to the fence and drive a nail through it." So every time his son was angry he would go out to the fence and drive a nail through the post. His son found that each day he drove less and less nails into the wood.

The son came to his father and told him that he was rid of his anger. The father told him, "very good. Now everyday you don't feel angry go back out to the post and remove a nail." After all the nails had been removed he told his father.

His father said, "very good. (Looking at the post full of holes.) This is what your anger does, it leaves an impact in other peoples' lives."

In light of the many tragedies we've been hearing about, I thought this was fantastic. Just as a You-Tube message can leave an impression on us, this did me. E and I have been talking a lot lately about bullies. And I continue to remind him that, "hurting people, hurt people."

The full message today was from James 1: 19-27.