A Story From Years Ago That Changed My Life

Many years ago, I was the Vice President of the National Honor Society.  One of my responsibilities was delivering a devotion/moral lesson to the group and faculty.  A couple weeks ago, one of the stories came back to me.  Always drawn to trees, I stopped jogging one day to enjoy the scene only to notice the fence's characteristics.  The holes in the fence brought one story from the deep recesses of my memory.  This fence reminds me to guard my words in life.  Here is why.

There was a young boy that had been using unkind words to those around him at school.  His teachers discussed the problem with his father.  Rather than taking his son to task directly, the father chose to find other means of deeply rooting the lesson of "choosing your words in life carefully."  When he and his son were outside working he mentioned hurtful words.  He told his son, "For the next week I want you to hammer a nail in the fence for each unkind and unfeeling thing you say to someone."  The boy soon noticed in the days that followed there were a lot of nails in the fence.  His father walked outside as the boy was hammering yet another nail in the fence.  "Son, now let's move forward.  For every apology you give to someone, remove a nail."  Days later, the boy very proudly showed his father a nail free fence!  "See Dad? I've apologized, no more nails.  Everything is fine now!"  At this point the father put his arm around his young son and acknowledged his attentiveness and hard work.  He also pointed out, though the nails had been removed, but the fence still bore the scars.  He explained that even though, we sometimes say things in the heat of the moment and apologize after, people can still bear scars as well from our thoughtless words.