I like to think of myself as being rather rambunctious when I was a child. Even though I wasn’t hyperactive, I still didn’t like sitting still for more than a few minutes at a time. But for a short while, I didn’t feel like doing anything.
Whenever I wasn’t in school, I loved being outside. My two favorite activities were swinging or chasing bugs. As for my swinging, I could have done do that for hours. I loved the feel of wind blowing in my hair and against my face. Also, I loved to chase butterflies, lightning bugs, or other little insects. Now, there was one creature that I ran away from: a spider. Other than that, I would catch insects and then let them go. Often, I was so proud of what I had caught that I would show it off to my family or friends. There was this one time I was playing in Mamaw Girdle/Myrtle’s flower garden when I dug up a slug. It was the biggest and juiciest one I had ever found. My parents weren’t home, so I politely carried into my grandparents’ house. I can still hear the screams from Mamaw Jo when I showed it to her. “Get that thing out of my house right now!” I didn’t see what the big deal was, but I took it back out to where I had dug it up.
One day after school, I went straight to the living room. There, I plopped down in front of the TV and watched “ Gillian’s Island.” I still remember my mom asking me why I wasn’t playing outside like I usually did. She asked if I felt alright. I replied: “I’m tired.” This didn’t happen just that day. It went on for the next few days. Of course, this frightened my mom, so she took me to the doctor’s office. I remember this as well because this was the first time, I had blood drawn for a test. The doctor used a lancet to stick my finger. Then he took a tube and sucked my blood into it. By the way, this wouldn’t be done in this day and time. When he came back in, he said I had low blood and was anemic. He went on to say that he didn’t upstand why since everything seemed to be normal. Unbeknown to me, he had told my mom to keep an eye on me to see what I was doing to cause the low blood. Then she told my teacher to watch me. It didn’t take long for the teacher to find out why I was so anemic. During lunch I was repeatedly pouring salt into my hand and lapping it off of my palm.
“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23 (KJV)
In essence, I was causing harm to myself by eating all of that salt. Actually, it’s the same when we continue on in a sin. We think it won’t amount to much, but in the end, it come back to hurt us. The salt wasn’t worth it and neither is any sin.
Are you wondering why I was licking salt like that? I think that I may have been double-dogged dared to do it and I kept at it because it got the attention of others. I wouldn’t do that now unless it was something like chocolate or some kind of candy.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.