Bridge to Terabihia

the author writes, “Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.” What do you think this means? Why? I think this means, having no guts means you are to scared to try new things. So he would rather have no arm as he wants to be able to have guts to try new things in life. Why does Mr. Aaron come home from work early in chapter 8? Mr Aaron came home early because he got fired from his job.