“The patient man shows much good sense, but the quick-tempered man shows folly at its height.” Proverbs 14:29
There are a lot of angry people in the world. We can see that within a few moments of going on social media. Sadly, people often write or speak words that hurt others.
This was the case for a young boy with a bad temper. His father, trying to teach his son a lesson, gave him a bag of nails, telling him, “Every time you lose your temper, you must hammer a nail into the fence.”
On the first day that boy hammered a lot of nails into the fence. But, after a few days, the son grew tired of hammering the nails. It was then he started trying harder to control his temper. Each day he hammered fewer nails into the fence, until he finally stopped having to hammer a nail at all.
His father was happy with this new control. He told his son, “Now, you can remove one nail from the fence every time you control your temper.”
Many days passed. At last the nails were out of the fence. The father explained to his son, “It is good that you are now controlling your temper. I am proud of you. But I want you to look closely at the fence.” Of course, the fence had many holes in it as a result of the boy’s anger. The dad reminded his son, “When you say or do things in anger, you leave scars no matter how many times you tell someone you are sorry.”
This story reminds us of the power of our words and how we should be kind to each other. But it also should remind us of another story involving nails. You see, when Jesus died, nailed to the cross, He died for us –for all our sins. And this is where His forgiveness breaks away from the story of the fence. When we ask Jesus for forgiveness, truly ask for forgiveness, He makes us new again.
Jesus’ forgiveness for our sins is not just like adding wood filler to that fence and painting over it all. If that were the case, we would still be broken – just covered up nicely. No, Jesus’ forgiveness is like a brand-new shiny fence taking the place of the hole-filled fence. His death and resurrection make us whole again.
So, let’s be kinder to each other. But let us not forget to marvel at the power and majesty of Jesus and the beauty of how He forgives us! Let us never forget that this forgiveness came because He died for us –one nail at a time.
Watering the Seeds
What do you need to be forgiven for today?
What or whom do you need to give forgiveness to today?
