A Bad Decision

 

Have you ever done something and the instant that you did it, you knew that it was a mistake?  I did just such a thing Saturday afternoon.  I was taking a long ladder to church in my truck to work on a light in the auditorium, so I gathered up some yard sale items for the high school yard sale that’s coming up.  I had an old cast iron anvil that I needed to get rid of, so I picked it up and began carrying it to the truck before I thought it out.  It was only a few steps, but the anvil was 55 pounds and I had not dropped the tailgate on the truck to get the anvil into the bed of the truck.  I could have set the anvil on the truck bumper, but then I couldn’t drop the tailgate with the anvil on the bumper.  I could have set the anvil on the ground and dropped the tailgate, but then I would have to pick up the anvil from the ground.  So, I made the mistake that I talked about earlier and lifted the 55-pound anvil over the tailgate to set it into the bed of the truck.  But as I did, I felt like a rubber band snapped in my upper back.  And as I eased the anvil down into the truck bed, I felt the pain again.  And as I unloaded the anvil at the church basement (tailgate down this time), I felt the pain again.  And as I carried the ladder into the church … you guessed it.  Everything that I did after that was painful.  I had to use Advil, Bio-freeze, an electric massager, and a heating pad, before I felt any relief after three days.  And all because of one bad decision!  Hey, the book of Proverbs was written to help us make good decisions.  Proverbs was written with the sole purpose of giving us wisdom from God!  Solomon said in Proverbs 1:4&5, “To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning …”  Solomon goes on to say in verse 7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge …”  If I fear the Lord, I am wise, but if I pick up a 55-pound anvil and lift it chest-high, I am …  oh, well.