I’ve had stones on the brain lately. Actually, the stones were in my kidney. I was happy when they were in there. But then they started to move. And my life became a living hell.

It’s just like a little pebble in your shoe. Did you ever wonder, “How can something so small be so annoying and painful?”

A stone in the kidney doesn’t hurt. It hurts when it starts to move toward the light. A pebble in your shoe is painless….until you put the shoe on and walk around with it for a while.

Sometimes we acquire little things in our lives because we think they will make us happy. And they might bring us a little joy for a time. But once those things start to take on a life of their own, they can start to hold us back. Like a cigarette that becomes an addiction. Like a fixer-upper that requires more time or money than you could have imagined. Like a high-end car that spends more time in the shop than with us behind its wheels. Like the latest and greatest techno tool that has more bugs than Upper Michigan in summer.

• Do you have a pebble or stone  in your life that is causing you grief?
• Do you continue to hold onto it once it has become a destructive force and not a constructive one?
• Do you know you have the power to take the pebble out of your shoe?
• Do you know how much better you’ll feel once it’s gone?

What pebble are you walking around with in your life?

What’s it going to take for you to get rid of it?