Learning the Hard Way

There have been a few lessons I’ve had to learn the hard way over the years.  Such as:

• Don’t drop off your best baby doll to the neighbor boy who is pretending to play barber shop.  (I carried Susie around by a tuft of remaining hair for the rest of her days.)
• Always, check the rear view mirror, even when backing down your own driveway.  (Because someone might be backing up your driveway at the same time.)
• Buckle your seatbelt every single time you get in a car. (Because the one time you don’t,  you might leave an imprint of your face on the windshield.)
• Do not attempt to iron your skirt while you are wearing it. (Now I know that one sounds so completely obvious, but I was late for class.  I had a book on my lap under the skirt, it just wasn’t large enough.)

And just within the past three months:

• Always, always, ALWAYS use a stick to check a steel trap.  (That’s actually a lesson I remembered a fraction of a second too late.)
• Sometimes skunks and groundhogs share the same burrow. (Woo, boy!  Not a pleasant discovery.)
• If a surgeon tells you he’s going to take out some pieces of hardware from your face, make sure he counts them and shows them to you before you leave.  (Or you might be surprised to see some appear in a dental x-ray the next time you need a filling.)
• And sometimes, you just can’t prepare yourself for what’s to come.  (At least not in this life.  Thank goodness we can know how to make sure Heaven will be our eternal home—“These things have I written that ye may know that you have eternal life…” I John 5:13)