Wooden Nickels

In church today, a recently returned missionary talked about wooden nickels. His father would always tell him to get rid of his wooden nickels.

This really stuck with me. I have a lot of wooden nickels in my life. Things I desperately hold onto, that are not good for me, not good for anything. All they do is take up room and weigh me down. I can't do anything with them, can't get anything for them, can't give them away. Yet I still cling onto them.

Not only do I cling onto these wooden nickels, as useless and restricting as they are, but I often refuse to take real nickels that are being offered to me, insisting instead on holding onto the wooden ones. I won't drop the wooden ones to make room for the real nickels.

As we go on collecting nickels, be they real or wood, it decides our future. Our opportunities.


Will I go on holding onto wooden nickels that weight me down, restrict me? Or will I drop them, even though for a while, I'll be left with nothing? And eventually, once I make the decision to drop the wooden nickels, I'll start to collect real nickels - I'll have room to take the nickels being offered to me.

The worst part is that I know which nickels are wooden, and which are real. But for some reason, it is so hard to make the decision, for whatever reason, to drop the wooden ones. To let go. I know some real nickels are right there for my taking, being offered to me, nickels that will improve my life and my happiness. Yet I can't drop the wooden nickels, making the needed room.

But I know that in the end, when I drop the wooden nickels, as scary as it is, where once I had useless restricting weight, I'll find limitless opportunities and fulfillment.

Love,
Brittney