Choices

When I was a child growing up in Jamaica, we lived on a hill.

Our driveway was very steep. At times, parked cars needed a stone behind the wheels to keep them from rolling down the hill! We had a neighbor who lived two doors down and across the street, and he often rode his bicycle.

One day he came to our house to ask us to ride with him. (I had just learned how to ride a bicycle with training wheels.) My younger siblings, Kryshna, Noel, Apryll, and Joel, were with me at the entrance to our garage when he rode up to visit. We were all having fun. Soon our neighbor asked me to race him down the driveway.

Of course, I said, “No!” because it was dangerous.

The driveway was so steep. But he kept asking and daring me to race him. Oh, the pressure! At first, my siblings had mixed feelings but soon were encouraging me to race him so I could win. My resistance eventually broke down.

I finally agreed to the race, and we took off.

I was actually standing on my training wheels as I headed down the driveway. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him take the corner and ride onto the street. But I shot straight across the street, hit the sidewalk, and flipped into a pile of sand. Ouch! I got up and realized I had cuts on my elbows, knees, and hips —a very painful experience, to be sure. Picking up my bicycle, I headed back up the driveway to our house, crying the whole way. I really regretted my decision to race. When I got inside our house, I found Daddy in the dining room. He had been looking through the window the whole time and seen the entire thing transpire. He had hoped I would make the right choice —which I did not do. I got a good spanking on top of my cuts and bruises for the wrong decision I had made, especially since I had shot across the street without even looking to see whether any cars were coming. I shed many tears that night but was glad it hadn’t been worse: I could have been hit by a car. I am thankful the Lord protected me despite the bad decision I made. I’ve noticed He often has a way of doing that.

Noella (Jumpp) Baird