Article December 19, 2011 Issue

Fun-packed (& pain-free) winter weekends

By Shelby Barner

Earlier this year, I attended a DiscoveryBound Winter Weekend event in Buena Vista, Colorado. I was having a great time with my friends! After a while, though, my big toes started to become painful. My ski boots must not have been a good fit for my feet, because while skiing my feet kept sliding around and my toes would jam into the front. I didn’t notice at first, but after a while it actually became hard to walk. Once I realized what had happened, it probably would’ve been a good idea to start praying, but I was having so much fun with my friends that I didn’t want to pray at that moment. I was just trying to shrug it off and focus on the fun-packed weekend. Following the event, my feet felt better. 

Then spring break came along, and my family and I went skiing for a couple of days. I was excited because I enjoy skiing, but at the forefront of my thought was the memory of the last trip, when my toes were in pain and I wasn’t able to walk. The first day on the slopes we were having a fantastic time! But when we were headed back to our lodging, I could feel one of my toes acting up again. It was a little painful, but I was still shrugging off praying about it because the pain wasn’t that bad and I didn’t want to take the time when I could be playing outside in the beautiful mountains instead. 

The next day, we went skiing again, and during the day my foot was in pain. I found that, as on the other trip, I couldn’t walk on it that well. I had mentioned it to my parents earlier, so I knew they would support me if I needed it, but at that moment I knew that I shouldn’t shrug this off anymore and that I could pray about it. It wasn’t right that pain in my foot could be taking away the joy I was having skiing or the freedom of being able to walk correctly. I told my family I was going to go upstairs to get ready for bed.

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