LEARNING WISDOM…THE HARD WAY

BREATHE ON ME
When my sister Eva got the mumps, my cousin William saw this as an opportunity to make himself sick so he could skip school. He came over to our house a few mornings before getting on the school bus, went to her sickbed, leaned over with his face right in front of hers, and said, “Breathe on me.” I watched as Eva took a couple deep breaths and exhaled in his face as he inhaled deeply. It wasn’t long before he woke up one morning to find he had the mumps. He was so happy because he knew he would not have to go to school. But to his chagrin, he looked out the window to see that it had snowed, a very rare experience for us at Longs crossroads near the South Carolina coast. He had to stay in bed while all the neighborhood kids were out playing in the snow...and not having to go to school.

IT WON’T HURT IF YOU DO IT QUICKLY
On another occasion when we kids were playing in the yard, my cousin William came over to the house limping.
“What’s the matter with your foot?” I asked.
“Stepped on a bumblebee barefoot,” he replied.
“Why did you do that?”
“I just felt like it.”
“Didn’t you know you’d get stung?” I asked.
“I thought if I did it quick, he wouldn’t have a chance to sting me.”
Then a few days later, he was limping again.
“What happened to your foot this time?” I asked.
“Stepped on bumblebee barefoot,” he replied.
“Why did you do it again? You know it stung you the other time!”
“Just felt like it. I thought I would do it real fast before he had a chance to sting me.”
A girl I knew years ago came to work with her broken foot in a cast.
“What happened to your foot?” I asked.
“My boyfriend ran over it with his car.”
“How did that happened?”
“I was standing beside the car talking to him as he was about to back out of my driveway. I stuck my foot behind the tire, and told him he could not leave. So he pressed the accelerator and ran over my foot, thinking it wouldn’t hurt if he ran over it really fast.

 FOLLOWING THE PROPER STEPS.
When I was bout 14 or 15 years old, I had my dad’s old single-shot 12 gauge shotgun. To shoot it, you had to cock the gun by pulling the hammer back. At that point it’s ready to shoot. Just aim and pull the trigger. However, if you decided not to fire the gun, you had to carefully un-cock it by following these steps:
Step one: Use your thumb to hold the hammer back.
Step two: Pull the trigger (while still holding the hammer back).
Step three: Ease the hammer forward slowly to its un-cocked and safe position.
I was about to shoot at some doves that were flying by. I cocked the gun by pulling the hammer back, but decided not to shoot. So to safely un-cock the gun, I went through the safety procedure as follows:
Step one: Pull the trigger.
Step two: BOOM!!
Step three: Look at that big hole in the ground just against the edge of my toes!
It pays not to be absent-minded when you’re messing with a shotgun.

I am thankful to the Lord that HE gives His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. How often do they bear us up in their hands to deliver us from harm and danger we were unaware of. The Lord warns us of evil snares to save us from the traps along the way. But sometimes when we are foolish, He allows us to learn the hard way. But sadly even then, we decide to “step on the bumblebee”…again.