I remember cheap WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”) bracelets being a thing in Christian circles when I was a teen, and the idea hasn’t gone away. Perhaps you’ve seen someone wearing one, or heard someone talking about it. Let me tell you about another fun bracelet - but with a serious message.

No bracelets were harmed in the making of this post.

First, let’s talk about FROG

As I remember it, one time I visited our local Christian bookstore, and up at the cash registers there were FROG magnets, FROG bracelets, and probably many other FROG things. Six months before they would all have said WWJD, so I think FROG was meant to be the next big thing. At first, I was mystified by it, then I looked closer and found that FROG stood for “Fully Rely on God”.

As far as I can remember, the craze dropped off as quickly as it sprung up. Though it didn’t completely go away - years later, I heard a sermon with cute frog illustrations calling on us to Fully Rely on God.

Looking online, that store still offers at least one type of WWJD bracelet, as well as an abundance of cross bracelets. But there’s not a frog in sight.

I did manage to find one Etsy store, modestly called TheILoveJesusShop, which offers FROG bracelets as a back to school gift. But I doubt many at school would know what it’s meant to stand far.

Great - so what’s this about TOAD?

Frogs can be cute, but personally I don’t believe in any gods, so a FROG bracelet is a non-starter. It made me wonder whether there was a good alternative, and TOAD seemed the obvious word to try. I quickly found a meaning that I like: Take Ownership and Deconvert.

I’m not going to pretend my life is perfect, or that I’m in complete control of everything that happens to me. But life has been much better since I took ownership rather than relying on God. I’m able to do the things I believe right and the things I want to do without worrying about whether it might upset a not-very-visible deity. And I don’t have to wait for said deity to fix those problems (then try and figure out what the fix actually was and why they did it that way).

A (completely unbiased) testimonial

In case you were hesitant, we reached out to one of our valued customers to talk about his bracelet:

I toed the line for many years - well, at least as far as those around me could see - and it didn’t help with my doubts or get my life back on track. Then I Took Ownership and Deconverted, and my life became so much better. Maybe it’s a tad polarising, but I’m glad to have this stylish bracelet to show those around me I’ve gone the whole frog.

Jon Morgan, occasional blogger and apparent fashion designer

Whether or not you agree with his dress sense, you’ve got to admire that commitment to bad puns 😛

Seriously, though…

I doubt that wearing a bracelet saying “TOAD” is any clearer than wearing a bracelet saying “FROG”. I’m not going to be wearing a TOAD bracelet, and I don’t think you should be either. It’s probably not very helpful.

I just wanted to highlight the biggest issue I see with Fully Rely on God - we don’t have a good track record of God showing himself reliable. That seems like it should be the prerequisite for casting all your worries on him.

When I left religion I necessarily took more ownership of my decisions - because there was no-one else. I’m not going to pretend it solved every problem, but at least it saves the extra job of having to try and explain why relying on God didn’t get the outcome I hoped.