One day a man was walking down the street on his way to work.  As he walked down the street, there were dogs on just about every front porch and they all would bark as the man walked passed them.  However, there was one dog that he remembered, because this dog was just sitting there and he was whimpering and whining and moaning, you know the little whimpering sounds dogs make when they are wounded or in some sort of pain. Well this particular dog was just sitting there on the front porch making those sounds.  The man was curious as to why this dog wasn’t barking like the other dogs and why he was whimpering.

He couldn’t figure it out, so he just kept walking to work.  The next day he was in the same situation where he was walking down the street and saw the dogs once again and this same dog that was moaning and groaning the other day was doing the same thing today and he just couldn’t figure it out.  Well, he walked past for an entire week and every day the dog would be there moaning and groaning.  So, finally, the guy got fed up, he said “let me find out what’s going on.”  So he went and knocked on the door and a guy came out and said, “Yes, how may I help you?”  He said, “Sir, is this your dog?”  “Yes, that’s my dog.”  “Well, what’s wrong with him?” The owner of the dog said, “What do you mean?”  “Well, he’s been sitting here moaning and groaning, whimpering and whining for an entire week.  The rest of the dogs are barking, your dog should be barking too, why is he moaning and groaning?”  The owner said, “Well, he’s actually sitting on a nail.”  He said, “What!  Your dog is sitting on a nail.  Why doesn’t he get off?”  “Well, it just doesn’t hurt him enough.”

Each of us have different nails poking us. Some of us have a couple of big nails that pokes us every once in a while. Some of us have several small nails that poke on and off. Some of us have multiple big and small nails that poke repeatedly. Rather than take action, most of the times we just sit and howl.  We are comfortable with the known suffering rather than venturing into the unknown

Are there any nails in your life that you are not addressing?

Why? Is it because they are not painful enough yet? Or are fearful of the alternative?

What are you going to do about them?

Don’t wait until the nails really hurt before you take action. Because when that happens, that usually means it’s too late to do anything.