"And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;"

                            -II Peter 1:6 

In many ways, temperance and longsuffering go hand in hand. If we are one who fails to be longsuffering, then chances are we also fail in the area of temperance, and vice-versa. Therefore it is exceedingly important that we learn self-control (another word for temperance), knowing that we will be lacking two fruits of the Spirit if we don't.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." 

                            -James 1:19-20

It is very rare indeed that anything good is wrought out of our anger. Most of the time, it leads us to do and say things that we later regret, not to mention the hurt feelings that almost always result.

There is an old story that my mom often tells me and my sister about a young boy who was told to go out and drive nails into each of the fence posts in their yard. After he had finished hammering, his father then instructed him to remove every one of the nails he'd just hammered. "While the nails may come out," his father told him, "the holes will aways be there. You can't fix them." Through this, he taught his son that what we say has an everlasting impact on people's lives. We can "take it back", but the hole will always be there.

We need to be careful that our lack of temperance doesn't lead us to say things that could cause another person to stumble. The old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is a piece of baloney. They do hurt, and we need to make sure we don't say anything we'll want to take back later on.