I have borrowed this story, it is not verbatum, nor do I claim authorship. It tells us what it looks like to feel the power of the tongue. A boy and his father were working in the fields one day. The boy was loose with his tongue. "I can't...", "This sucks!", "I wish I could go play instead of working." His heart was bitter to be sure. His father decided to teach the boy a lesson, unaware that the father would soon learn a lesson of his own. "I am going to put a nail in this post every time you use your tongue in an inappropriate way," he said to the boy. And so he did. "Yes, Sir" the boy muttered, whenever he was directed to put a nail in the post. Over the many weeks nails were added, and the boy became more quiet, until he hardly spoke a word. The father looked upon the post, seeing it covered in nails, and wondered to himself, "he seems to have learned to control his tongue, he is doing very well, perhaps I should let him off the hook and remove the reminders of his wrongdoing." So the father went out and had the boy remove the nails and told the boy how proud he was of him. The boy did as his father requested, then said, "Father, I understand now the lesson you were teaching. I now know the power of my tongue and the trouble it can bring me. But please note, Father, and chastise me not for saying, The nails indeed are gone, but the scars remain." The lesson...Actions speak louder than words, and both can scar without intention. We leave a mark in everything we do or say. We effect the world just by being here, much more by moving in it. "Quit hanging on me, Lesley" when I wanted a hug at an inopportune time still sting and burn. My love expressed, rejected, and from someone so dear. "Oh, that didn't hurt!" though it did. Thanx to all who are aware of their being! Blessings to those who truly care! Warning to those who wear their hearts on their sleeve, and resent those who bump into it! Love is sometimes painful, but it forgives all things, bears all things, endures all things. GB
Posted By: Lesley Knight
Saturday, September 13th 2008 at 12:40PM
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