An Ounce of Prevention

One of those older sayings people use is "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Yesterday made me think of this saying in terms of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a special kind of cure that helps with ailments medicine can't cure. Well, unless it's psychiatric medicine, maybe.

Forgiveness cures guilt. It cures sorrow and grief and pain. It cures shame and hate. It heals the rifts between warring friends, fighting families, and feuding countries. It cures sickness in the soul and patches up the tattered remains of consciences. I'm almost certain it lowers your blood pressure too.

If forgiveness is the cure, then what is the prevention? You could obviously say "not sinning," but that'd be like telling someone the best way to stay healthy is to not get sick. It really doesn't help much unless you teach them how to keep themselves safe from sickness.

Well, aren't you in luck, because I happen to have a good strategy for avoiding things that would require you to seek forgiveness. It's short but means a lot and might need some explaining and examples.

Live.

I'm not talking about breathing and pumping blood through your body. That is existing, that's surviving. Living is about being happy and having friends and feeling good about yourself and working towards your dreams.

Yesterday was a day that I lived.

I hung out with my friend Dave all day. We got Chik-fil-a at the mall and played DDR and Wii, and we saw a bunch of our friends, coworkers, and some ex-coworkers I hadn't seen in months.

We went out to dinner at Panera's with my family, and explored a Jewish Community Center and swung on their swingset while waiting to pick up my brother from practice. I am a CHAMPION swinger.

I was reverse roundhouse kicked in the face by my little sister. We were in the kitchen, and she was trying to punch me in the stomach while I tried to poke her. She tried to kick me in the stomach, but I made a lightning-fast save and caught her foot. However, she grabbed onto a counter and swung her other foot around behind her, connecting right along my left jaw. She didn't think she'd actually be able to hit me, and I was just so impressed by her pulling it off that I just couldn't be angry at her. Although it did give me a headache for a little while.

After I dropped my friend Dave off at his house, I went out to my friend Luke's house and bought a bass guitar, amp, cords, case, and stand off of him for $120 bucks. I don't really know if I'll be able to fit it into my dorm with my acoustic guitar though.

Then I helped my dad clear out the fish and water in the tank I had been watching for my friend, which he picked up after work.

It was a day filled with good, clean fun between friends and family. I never had the chance or urge to do anything bad because I was distracted by being happy. That's the way to live.

P.S. Does anyone know how to cut off your posts and add in a "Read more..." button in Blogger? I'm a bit new to Blogger, and I haven't figured it out yet.