M Gravlee":dwsf64lt said:
And be kind to your fellow posters. Even though you disagree with their opinion and think they are a total idiot, please disagree in a nice manner.
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. They will need filling in now.
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed, they make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.
I guess from time to time we all have had nails driven into our fences, and if we're honest we'd all have to admit we have driven nails into other people's fences as well.
The good news is that as we learn to love and forgive one another, and also learn to receive the forgiveness of others, the holes where the nails have been can be filled in so well that it will be barely noticeable that there was ever a hole there in the first place.
When you know you're in the wrong, eat humble pie and say that magic word, "Sorry!" and do whatever else may be necessary to show you mean it. It does a power of good.
I often think that the test of a good friendship isn't that you never fall out with each other, but how well you are able to make up afterwards and restore the friendship to its former glory. Sometimes a friendship can even grow stronger as a result!