Pride comes before a fall!

Pride comes before a fall I don't think I have told you about my recent fall while ice-skating. It could have been avoided for sure. Here is the story. I found myself volunteering to take the young people ice skating. Hey, “Why not be the Hero?” for a change, at least the Lord showed me to do this for them, not the kind of thing I would normally do, due to the time limits involved in my work, but making their day could make a big difference, as there was no one else available, so I decided to take them to the ice skating rink. Not a bad experience considering the hot summer we are facing 35-40 to be in a cool, I mean cooler environment. All is well so far, and after a couple hours of ice-skating, I decided to be a bit bolder and go further. Mind you I am not an experienced skater and only skated a few times in my life, the last time was a few years back. But the music on my earphone was tempting me to go faster and I wanted to experience the thrill of going faster, forgetting the “safety rules” that come with “when you are getting older” and not so experienced. Truly I wasn't trying to show off to anyone how good or fast I could skate, except maybe that I see now to myself, proving there is no limit to what I can do, hee.hee. So I started to go a bit faster and it was fun to skate to a fast tempo, except that I am not an expert and one must expect to fall when taking chances and falling on the ice is not so fun if you are older. Fall did come, and miracle of miracle I didn't injure myself badly, my body went into a shock and for a few seconds I was a bit breathless and taken back. My pride was wounded, I managed to pick myself up and skate a little longer though with a few bruises and a sore shoulder. To say the least, it was a bit of a reality check, what was I doing? And why? Afterward while meditating about it the verses came to me “pride comes before a fall and let no man think too highly of himself.” Was I perhaps exceeding the boundaries of my faith, it wasn't reckless faith but foolishness and lack of prayerfulness, ice skating fast is different than running or swimming fast. Being older has its new rules and guidelines too, you may fall but it's harder to pick yourself up and heal than when you were a kid or a teenager, falling is part of life when you are a kid, and you even learn to walk as you fall plenty. But with maturity, I should know better not to take risks that are not worth taking, or if I take risks, let them be calculated and prayed through risks and worth taking. I will go ice-skating again I think, it was fun, but I won't go fast for sure, and come to think of it, there were a few older people skating too though most were young folks, most of the older ones were going rather slow, except for one expert Canadian ice skater who grew up skating before he could walk almost, even he was wise enough to skate at a moderate speed. I should have taken the hint for sure from my peers. Pride got the best of me and I fell. Praise the Lord though, for all the good lessons, I wouldn't have learned if it hadn't happened, I am making the most of it hopefully before anything serious can happen in the future. I am rehabilitating myself, these last few days walking instead of running and swimming slowly. My shoulder is still in a little bit of pain and stiffness, but it's getting better by the day. I am hoping and praying to run and swim again as usual in a few days. Let nothing stop the man of faith but I pray: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psalms 19:13)