Stop Before the Thumb

How do you peel or slice things? In a cooking class I took in college, we were told to peel away from ourselves, and to always use a cutting board to slice things. Unfortunately for my teacher, my family had already taught me otherwise.
The picture above reminds me of my Grandma, although she wouldn't have used a knife to peel an orange, necessarily. But she did use a knife to peel many other things, from potatoes and carrots to peaches and apples. If I remember correctly her, her peeler was rather old and rusty and hardly ever used. She just did things the way her mama had taught her. My mama taught me to use a peeler, but we still pull it towards ourselves instead of pushing it away. It just seems to work easier that way.
After things were peeled, Grandma would take the knife and quickly slice up the vegetable or fruit, hardly ever using a cutting board for more than catching pieces. No need. She'd just pull that knife through and drop the slice in whatever pan or bowl she wanted it in.
My uncle asked her one time how she kept from slicing her thumb. "I stop before I get to it." I don't think he appreciated her saucy reply, but it makes me smile because I can imagine it in her voice, as if it were common sense. If you don't want to cut your thumb, don't let the knife touch it.
The tip of my thumb can attest to the fact that I'm not quite as adept at stopping as my Grandma was. The peach I was cutting for my children the other day was too slick and that knife just jumped right up and nicked the tip of me. And it got me thinking.
Sometimes, we're like that in other parts of our life, too. We go along, saying we're going to stop before we get to the dangerous part, but then things get more slippery than we anticipated and, "ouch!" Time for a bandaide. You know what I'm talking about. We say, "Oh, I'm not going to cross THAT line." But if you get close enough to something, often it's hard to stop in time. Just some thoughts from my kitchen.
What about you? Do you feel safe enough to peel or slice a potato with the knife coming towards you? Do you feel secure enough in your life choices that you won't cross any lines? Do you ever have a mishap in your kitchen that reminds you of something God wants you to know?