Anger: When You Raise Your Hands You Wound the Outside, When You Raise Your Words You Wound the Inside

Anger is a very dangerous and powerful emotion that if not harnessed and controlled can destroy lives and relationships...We need to be able to have the proper tools in our emotional toolbox to be able to work on our anger and not explode on others or allow our anger to erupt on others like a volcano....The following is an e-mail that many of us may have read but it is the perfect analogy to the aftermath of anger and I think that if we become more aware of our emotions and begin to mentally reverse our thought patterns before they begin to take control of our tongue and/or our hands we can begin to create healing for ourselves and others in our lives....

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 family and friends are very rare jewels, indeed. YOU ARE MY FAMILY & FRIEND AND I AM HONORED! Please forgive me if I have ever left a 'hole' in your fence.