AWESOME

I went to church this morning. Not that that’s such an unusual thing to do, really. It’s Sunday and I usually go to church. It’s just that this morning I wasn’t that excited about going and it had nothing to do with the meetings themselves or the people who I would see there. I just wasn’t that excited to have them see me.

What it comes down to, is that I did something clumsy earlier in the week and I didn’t really want to discuss it with everyone. I dropped a curling iron against my cheek and am now sporting the evidence of that mishap in the form of a large brightly colored welt across my face. A copious amount of cover-up only succeeded in making it more look like a bruise than a burn. So a large number of loving and concerned people were anxious to know what I had done to myself. Needless to say, explaining to everyone that I am an idiot is not my favorite pass time.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time I’ve had to make this kind of explanation. The incident with the ax springs to mind.

Some years ago, I was out in the garage chopping wood for a cozy evening’s fire. As I was swinging my trusty ax, the Spirit whispered to me as clearly as anything, “Don’t hold it like that. You’ll hurt yourself.” Did I listen? No. I countered with, “No, I won’t. I’ll be careful.” The very next swing took off the end of my thumb about half way down the nail. Only after visits to the clinic, the hospital and the pharmacy for major pain killers did I remember that our family was scheduled to sing at our church’s ward conference the next morning. Standing in front of the whole congregation I (and my huge, glowing white bandage) had nowhere to hide.

Let me tell you, the old saying is absolutely true. “Nothing does stick out like a sore thumb! And something else I discovered is that whenever you do something truly stupid, anyone who’s ever had a similar experience will tell you their story. After all, they are safe with you. You’re just as dumb as they are.

I heard sharp knife and ax stories like you wouldn’t believe. So my accident prone friends and I decided to form our own support group. We called ourselves “AWESOME – AWSM”

……… Wait for it………

Ax-wielding self-mutilators Sad but true!