There is an old story that tells us about two brothers who were out walking together. One night, one of them looking up to the sky said, "I wish I had a field as large as the night heavens." The other boy also looking up, said, "I wish I had as many oxen as there are stars in the sky." "Well," said the first brother, "How would you feed so many oxen!" The other brother replied, "I would turn them out into your pasture." "What," said the first brother, "would you do that without my permission?" "Yes, whether you would give permission or not." And so they quarreled, and when the quarrel was ended one of them had been slain by the other. It began by playful talk, but ended in tragedy. I think that boy must have filled the heart of Jesus with black pins of temper.
Temper is a blemish, a black spot, and often happy little children that are called "sunshine," can in a moment turn about and show the black spot of temper and spoil all the sunshine. A good mother trying to teach this lesson to her little girl held up before her a beautiful apple and asked her what she thought of it. She said it was perfect and lovely. The mother turned it around, and there on the other side was a large black spot. "Oh, that spoils it all," cried the little girl. Then the mother said to her little girl, "I think that resembles my little daughter," and the little girl knew what it meant. Her temper was her black spot. So every black pin in this heart came out of the black spot in the heart of the one who spoke the angry words. A few days later the beautiful apple lost its glory, the black spot had spread, and the apple soon decayed. This was to teach the little girl that if the sin of temper was not thrown out, and persistently kept out, it would at last destroy the soul.
You can here introduce an apple fair and beautiful with a speck on the other side of it. This will help visualize the truth. Don't think that the black spot of temper will always remain on the hidden side, because it will find its way out sooner or later and will find you at last.
A schoolmaster one day missed several boys from school. He had a shrewd suspicion they were playing truant. In the afternoon the boys came to school and he asked one of them where he had been. The boy replied that his mother had kept him home that morning to mind the baby. "Let me look at your tongue," said the master, and he did so, and it was black. "It is just as I thought. You have spent the morning rambling in the woods, picking blackberries." He examined the tongues of the other boys and found them all black also. Their tongues had told on them. Black tongues of temper always tell out their black words. What shall I do with my angry words? My hot mouth so often shoots off evil words. You cannot slay them; when you think they are buried, they will walk out of their graves and fight again.
Bring your heart to Jesus, because your tongue only says what your heart whispers to it, Ask Jesus to give you daily good thoughts and let them speak out in good words.
Once I read a fairy tale about a good little boy. Every time he spoke there fell from his lips a piece of gold. He grew more beautiful every day, and at last married the daughter of a king. This is only a fairy tale, but it teaches us a real lesson. When we say kind words the angels treasure them in heaven as pure gold.
Now take the pins out from the heart, and cut out a number of blocks of gold paper, and as you recite the good words pin them on the heart of Jesus. Such people are precious in his sight. They are his priceless jewels.
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