I’m always impressed when a baseball player slides into a base—but I don’t recommend that action for grandma types. I can say that from experience. Yes, in a graceful move of epic proportions, I recently slid down an embankment at my son’s church and landed halfway under our SUV.
Thankfully, nobody but my husband saw my slip and slide, so my pride was spared. My foot was another matter. When I got up, I saw the little toe on my right foot sticking outside my sandal.
When I slipped my shoe off, four toes pointed straight ahead. The little toe stuck out to the side like a right turn signal. There was no doubt it was broken—especially when it started screaming “OUCH!” at me! Bruising started halfway to my ankle.
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I have a long history of (ahem) gracefulness. So, from previous experience, I knew to put a piece of gauze between the toes and to use first aid tape to secure the broken toe to the ones next to it.
But, oh my, it’s been impressive how much that little toe has hurt—especially since I had to leave the next week for a lot of walking at The International Christian Retail Show.
My feet always hurt after that event, even when I’m not injured. My broken toe did some serious talking to me by the end of each day at the convention center.
I can’t tell you how much I’ve protected that foot, tucking it behind me whenever anyone walks nearby, choosing the chair at the dinner table where nobody will be near my injured toe, and constantly reminding my husband and grandchildren, “Don’t get near my foot!”
And then it was as if God whispered to me, “What if you took care of your faith and soul that carefully?”
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Wow, that hit me. I’d never thought about that before, but I want to be proactive about protecting my heart from influences that would derail my faith. How can I do that?
I came up with 4 ways to start:
1) I can spend time in God’s Word. He’s included first aid tips there for anything that would injure me.
2) I can surround myself with people who also love God. We’ll be far more likely to protect our faith if we hang out with others who have similar values.
3) I can pray and ask God to guard my heart so that I won’t make wrong choices.
4) And just as I taped that broken toe to the strong ones next to it, I can attach myself closely to God so that I can feel His presence in every circumstance.
That broken little toe has been a great reminder of how much one move can impact my life and soul.
