The Value of Your Past

By David Bragg

    It is just a penny. You get change for your coffee or a quick trip to the convenience store and drop it into your pocket or stash it in your pocketbook and don't give it much thought. But what if that penny is not what you think? What if that penny has a value far greater than it seems?
    In 1995 the Philadelphia mint struck a number pennies with what www.collectorsalliance.com describes as a "Double Die Error." The master of the coin's desired image requires more than one stamping. On this particular coin the stamping process resulted in a slight imperfection in which the words "Liberty" and "In God" are blurred. A similar mistake was made on the 1955 penny. That coin has been highly sought by coin collectors who have valued it at $20,000. The 1995 coin has not achieved such a high value, as of now. It is valued closer to the $200 mark. But specialists expect the coin to rapidly increase in value as the decades pass.
    Our past may be somewhat like that 1995 penny. We may have tucked it away, treating it as if it is of little value. Yet each of our pasts have important lessons to teach us, especially if we wish to avoid repeating unpleasant experiences. Instead, we can learn from our past mistakes just as we learn from our past successes. For us to really appreciate the value of our past we need to carefully examine, evaluate, and learn from it.
    Everyone has a past. Some are haunted by it, sadly repeating the same failures continually. Others are so focused on the future that they ignore the past, failing to learn its valuable lessons. God wants His people to be wise, to learn and grow. Why not let the lessons of yesterday guide us to a better, brighter tomorrow?

 - David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.nwchurchofchrist.com/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/