[Faith-talk] Nails In The Fence

[Paul Smith]

As I wite this, it's early afternoon on Thursday, August 4 and, as 
promised yesterday, here's an article featuring a little girl which I 
hope you all will enjoy and receive a blessing from reading this article.

There once was a little girl who had a bad temper.  Her mother gave her 
a bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper, she 
must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the girl had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Over the 
next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of 
nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.  She discovered it was 
easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the girl didn't lose her temper at all.  She 
told her mother about it and the mother suggested that the girl now 
pull out one nail for each day that she was able to hold her temper.  
The days passed and the young girl was finally able to tell her mother 
that all the nails were gone.  The mother took her daughter by the hand 
and led her to the fence.  She said, "You have done well, my daughter, 
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 person and draw it out.  It won't matter how 
many times you say "I'm sorry," the wound is still there.  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.  Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole 
in your fence.

And there you have the article for today, but before I go I'd like to 
tell you about the little girls who have driven positive nails into my 
heart and life.

The first two are named Mylan and Dylan, one perhaps three years old 
and the other nearly four.  When we had our Christian singles 
fellowship locally, one time everyone was busy doing one thing and 
another, when one of them took my hand and said one word:  "Ball." 
After a while I reasoned that they wanted me to go with them to the 
farthest reaches of the yard of our hosts to throw the ball and have 
one of them catch it.  Now that may be just something trivial, but 
these little lassies knew something that sighted adults of my 
acquaintance didn't or wouldn't admit to, and that is leaving me out of 
the total church picture when it comes to fellowship.  These two little 
girls are now reunited with their mother; I don't know about the father.

The other little girl is named Kinley, six months old, who can't eat 
normally because of something blocking food from getting into her 
little tummy, and thus she has to use a feeding tube.  Last Friday she 
was in a swing enjoying the time of day and I sat down next to her, 
just waiting for the other Christian singles to join us for a meal and 
Bible study.  Well, I started talking baby talk, and the host, Scott, 
said that Kinley was really looking at me as if I were maybe a new 
playmate or something.  After a while she took my right hand in her two 
little ones and began examining something that she found fascinating, a 
Braille watch.  Can't remember how long our physical interaction 
lasted, but it must have been around five minutes.  It felt really good 
to "belong" to someone, even if she was only six months old.

And there you have today's post for now.  Until tomorrow when, Lord 
willing we present an article illustrating the perceptiveness of little 
children, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, 
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul