The Fence Post

A few years back I heard a story about a boy, his dad, and a fence post. For those of you who have not heard this story I will summarize it briefly.

The gist if the story is that each time the boy lost his temper he was to take a nail and drive it into a fence post. As you can imagine, the first few days had quite a few nails driven into the post however as the weeks passed, the number of new nails being added to the post dwindled until there was a day when no new nails were driven. The boy reported this to his father who was pleased and instructed him to remove one nail for each day he held his temper. This continued until all of the nails were removed. He again went to his father who said, “As you see my son, this fence will never be the same, the fence is scarred with holes from your temper.  Think of these holes as the words you have spoken in anger, the wounds you have left in people’s lives.  Words really are like weapons they leave a wound, that does not heal easily.  Son, your family and friends will  make you smile and encourage you to succeed,  they will lend an ear,  share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.  Always remember the fence before you speak words of anger.” Michael Aulia, Write for God

While the story is fantastic the way it is, I often view it from a different perspective. I wonder how often the things we do to our bodies: the junk food we eat, the sugary drinks we consume, the lack of exercise, surviving on too little sleep, constantly looking at our phone, are causing underlying issues that will be present long after the effecting agent is removed.