One of my favorite childhood memories was "parakiting." I am not sure if we made up that name or if it was official.

This is similar to parasailing except it is behind a truck, instead of a boat. We would go with our friends the Binghams, who would locate a wide-open piece of property, without any telephone poles or wires. We would strap ourselves in a harness attached to a parachute as well as a 50-foot rope tied to the back of a truck. Once the parakiter was strapped in, the truck would begin to pick up speed. The parakiter would begin running as fast as he/she could, and within seconds would quickly lift into the air, if the winds were just right.    

I was in sixth grade at the time, and I remember the wonderful feeling as the truck began to roll, and I began to run. I quickly sailed in to the sky.  

At the same time, I remember a boy in his late teens who was strapped in, and as the truck began to roll, he began to run. Those in the truck noticed that he was not lifting off the ground, so they had to make a decision. Do they hit the brake, or do they gas it and go faster in hopes a little more speed might do the trick?  



They chose to gas it, hoping it would thrust him in the air. Unfortunately this particular time, that was not the right answer, the winds were not in his favor, and since he couldn’t run as fast as the truck, he was pulled on to his face along the pavement.

Needless to say, he scraped the front of his body from head to toe, literally. This was back in the good ole days when no one blamed anyone; it was our version of extreme sports, and he just rolled with the flow and took the consequences.

As an 11-year-old, I was more interested in the scabbing and horror of the story than trying to learn a lesson from our parakiting experience.  

Years later, as a self-proclaimed impulsive personality, I have actually spent a lot of time thinking of our parakiting days. I have found myself at certain crossroads, choosing to gas it when I should have put on the brake. I have found myself putting on the brake when I should have gassed it.

Usually it is the former. I picked out my house in five minutes, I bought the only car I test drove, and I can move in and out of a mall in the time that someone orders and receives their food at a drive-thru restaurant.  

Though there is no harm in any of those things, with this characteristic I have also put my foot in my mouth, formed opinions before I had all the information and judged people unrighteously.

There have been many times when I should have put on the brake, taken a deep breath and thought things through before sharing my opinion, stating a judgment or jumping to conclusions. Consequently, I have gotten scraped up from time to time.   

In a world full of blogging, texting, e-mail, instant editorials, etc., hitting the gas pedal has become tempting and all too easy. Instead of taking a moment to digest what has been said, we hop on our cell phones, computers, iPhones or Blackberrys and speak our mind. We hit the gas pedal at every turn.

For example, a couple of years ago Sister Julie Beck gave an amazing talk at general conference about Women. Truly, it was one of the most inspiring talks I have ever heard. In fact, I remember watching on TV as I listened to her talk, and the moment she was done, I stood up and vocally uttered to myself, “Wow, that was amazing." 

An hour later, a friend came over to my house and asked me if I had seen the blogging that was going on during and immediately following Sister Beck's talk. I didn’t even know people could do that. I was even more shocked when I heard that people actually criticized it. Beside the fact that she was inspired to say what she said, these people did not even take a moment to think about it, pray about it, study what other leaders have said about it, etc. They just pressed the gas pedal, ran to their computers and spoke their mind.  

Wow, and I thought I was impulsive.  

The danger of this is that when we hit the gas and are quick to materialize our thoughts, we don’t allow ourselves to grow, learn, change and mature, which is equal to a huge scrape from head to toe. In fact, many of us have scars from times in our lives that we stepped on the gas and rushed to conclusions, rushed to judgment, rushed to rebellion or rushed to political persuasion.  

Once we have made a statement, or taken a stand, our pride traps us and doesn’t usually allow us to change our mind, or admit we were wrong. We usually stand by our statement regardless. This causes great injury to our soul and damns our progress.

I have learned that when we put on the brakes, we are allowing the Holy Ghost to work with us, tutor us, enlighten our minds and help us see things that we would not see otherwise.  

Some times in our lives we need to run faster, get out of our rut or routine, and the wind will help carry us along. Then there are times we need to hit the brake. We need to meditate, pray and think before we speak, and allow the Holy Ghost to teach us. Not only will this help us to avoid the pride pit that gassing the pedal puts us in, but we will not go through the pain of being scraped up from head to toe.  

The key is knowing when to step on the gas or hit the brake.