Don’t go there again.
Soon after we moved to this farming community, we met a lovely couple who gave us a comedic article called: The Mud Whomper, because of my husband’s affinity to getting his tractor stuck on or in anything. Now, most of my faithful readers will be familiar with my expertise in pulling things with a tractor. Well, my husband decided he just had to work on a fence line next to a large ditch that bordered one side of our property. I told him it was too muddy, but he insisted that where he was going to work would be fine. He had recently repaired the ditch bank to stop the flooding and wanted to refine it. Well, long story short, he got stuck, but not with a tractor, but with the bulldozer. He walked the mile back up to the house to get the tractors, chains and me. Now since my last fiasco with pulling his tractor in half, I have gotten nearly expert at pulling him out of one thing or another. But a recent accident one of his friends had, have made me skittish about the process.
You see, he had some friends, still in high school, with brand new pickup trucks. You know the 4 wheel drive kind, with all the bells and whistles. Their favorite sport was to go down to the bog and see whose truck was the best by pulling each other backwards with a snatch and strap. The mud would fly as one truck would get some traction and gain a few feet on the other, then the roles would reverse and the puller would be pulled the other way. It was all great fun until the ball of the hitch broke off and came through the back window, just missing the head of the high school driver.
Now you know where I got my aversion to pulling things. This time was no different; I had to pull the bulldozer with our biggest tractor and biggest chains. It always made me nervous and, ‘ the bigger they are the harder they fall,’ was running through my mind. I got him pulled out with much prayer, (not to be decapitated), and pulling the slack out of the chain just right and giving it just the right amount of force. (Not that I could pull a bulldozer in half). By the time I was done, I was a nervous wreck, and he was happy as a lark! I told him with all the love I could muster at the time, “don’t do that again, because I will not pull you out.” Well, guess what? He went right back and did it again! He walked back up to the house with a silly grin on his face to get the tractor and chains and me again. But this was one time I told him “NO!” He had to get someone else to pull him out, because I warned him, you can’t do the same thing and expect a different outcome. He wasn’t pleased, but he knew I wasn’t kidding. He got pulled out by someone else.
My point is, if you have changed your life, and become responsible, you can’t expect to hang around your old crowd and expect your resolve to remain strong. You’re new ideals and goals will fly right out the window. Isn’t that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?
As parents we need to teach our children, that bad corrupts good. The Bible tells us to; come out from among them and be ye separate. And that sounds like good advice to me. One rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel. So live well, and surround yourself with good people.
We as writers can make a profound influence on our reading audiences. Let us be vigilant in the cause of self-improvement, and letting our readers know we must change ourselves and our bad habits, if we want to change our circumstances.
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
1 Corinthians 15:33
The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Proverbs 12:26
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13