Buddy Tape

A few years ago my son came home from playing at a friend’s house with a hurt toe. He had dropped a weight on it, and thought he had broken it. He mentioned going to the doctor but since he didn’t make a big deal of it, neither did I, until I noticed that it was a deep purple and he was still talking about it days later. When I finally responded, it was pretty embarrassing to tell the doctor it had happened three weeks prior!

The toe was x-rayed and confirmed that it was indeed broken, so they did the only thing you can do for a broken toe: buddy tape. The offending toe needs an example of how to grow straight again, so you tape it to the one next to it and live life for a couple of weeks with taped toes. No need for medicine or a cast, just a constant reminder of the way it should be.

It wasn’t a big leap for me to see the application in my own life. When I am broken, beaten down or low in confidence I need someone who is stronger and healthier than I am, living life right up next to me, reminding me what it looks like to be healthy.

I learned a couple of lessons from this incident; when my son says he needs to see the doctor, he really should, and that we all could use a buddy right up next to us, reminding us of the way we should grow.

Iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17