FFF - Flash Fiction Friday

I've completely avoided this weeks fiction prompt until this morning when I realized my day is pretty jam-packed and I really don't have time to fritter away at the keyboard today.

The prompt is He poured the jar of change out onto his bed.

This is what you get:

He poured the jar of change out onto his bed. One, two, three... twenty six, twenty seven, twenty seven -twenty five, twenty seven-fifty ... everyone always counts the largest values first, it’s only natural he thought.

It’s the same in life, he supposed, when one is challenged to count their blessings. He quickly assembled a mental list, I’m healthy, I live in a nice house, I ride a decent enough bike, I love my iPhone. Those are like the loonies- easy to pull out of the jar, quick to count. But what about the penny blessings – the ones that rarely get counted. Things like dad and mom still loving each other after 22 years, a teacher who is a great encourager, a home that reflects the love of God, vision and the sense of hearing...

His mind quit wandering and he got back to the task at hand sixty one – thirty five, sixty one - forty, sixty one- forty five... There were quite a few nickels and still a huge pile of pennies. Maybe, just maybe he’d finally have enough.

Their youth pastor had challenged them to raise their own funds for the upcoming retreat by simply saving their pocket change. He had kept an estimated running total of the larger denominations and didn’t bother keeping track of the pennies.

“Worthless one-cent pieces,” he thought as he began to count them. “I wonder when they’ll quit making them, like I’ve heard rumoured for the last few years.” He was fairly certain he’d be able to roll his change and pay the registration fee this week.

It took a while to slog through the pile of pennies, but he was shocked to find he had collected so many he could actually pay the registration fee entirely in pennies! The larger coins would be his spending money – suh-weet!

He determined then and there that from now on he’d try to count the little blessings first – there’s usually enough to get by on. The rest are icing on the cake.