A small boy once approached his slightly older sister with a
question about God. "Susie, can anybody ever really see God?"  he asked.

Busy with other things, Susie curtly replied: "No, of course
not silly. God is so far up in heaven that nobody can see him." Time
passed, but his question still lingered so he approached his mom: "Mom, can
anybody ever really see God?" "No, not really," she gently said. "God is a
spirit and he dwells in our hearts, but we can never really see Him." 

Somewhat satisfied but still wondering, the youngster went on
his way. Not long afterwards, his saintly old grandfather took the little
boy on a fishing trip.  They were having a great time together--it had
been an ideal day.  The sun was beginning to set with unusual splendor
as the day ended.  The old man stopped fishing and turned his full
attention to the exquisite beauty unfolding before him. 

On seeing the face of his grandfather reflecting such deep
peace and contentment as he gazed into the magnificent ever-changing
sunset, the little boy thought for a moment and finally spoke hesitatingly:
"Granddad, I--I-- wasn't going to ask anybody else, but I
wonder if you can tell me the answer to something I've been wondering about a 
long time--can anybody--can anybody ever really see God?". The old
man did not even turn his head.  A long moment slipped by before he finally
answered. "Son," he quietly said. "It's getting so I can't see anything else.

    When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I
    have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I
    learned that day. 

    I was convinced that "I" was right and "he" was wrong - and he was just as convinced
    that "I" was wrong and "he" was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very
    important lesson. She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one
    side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round
    object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object
    was. "White," he answered. 

    I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another
    argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

    The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come
    stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of
    the object was. I had to answer, "White." It was an object with two differently colored
    sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side was it black. 

    My teacher taught me a very important lesson that day: You must stand in the other
    person’s shoes and look at the situation through their eyes in order to truly understand
    their perspective.

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a
bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to
hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into
the fence.

Then it 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. 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 man and draw it out. 

It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound
is still there."