Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SELF-CONTROL (12/09/21)
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TITLE: Replacing Revenge With Resolve | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mariane Holbrook
12/14/21 -
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I had just returned home from college for a long weekend, eager to spend time with Mother and Daddy as well as my married sister who lived across town. It had been almost a year since I had last seen my family due to the job constraints of working part-time in a bakery to help pay my college tuition.
I opened the front door to a stranger.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
The woman laughed and replied, "Well, you could invite me in, for starters."
I wasn't sure what to do but finally answered, "Let me get my mother. I'll be right back."
Hurrying back to the kitchen, I told Mother that someone was at the front door and suggested that Mother handle it.
I took over washing some pans in the sink while Mother greeted her guest. I heard them laughing together, an indication that the woman was one of Mother's many friends.
Immediately, Mother brought her friend back to the kitchen and said, "I can't believe this! Don't you even know your sister Eleanor?"
I stared at my sister, uncomprehending, not sure if I was in a time warp or perhaps hallucinating. It was more than a little frightening. Then I noticed some definite facial features with which I was familiar and ran to embrace my sister in tears.
Eleanor was the first-born of my parents' 7 children. In the year since I had seen her, she had lost 115 pounds!
I stepped back, looked her over, spun her around, and finally asked, "Why didn't someone tell me you had been losing weight? I had no idea you were even trying." We found our way to the living room to continue our conversation. Daddy came down from upstairs to join in our laughter.
"We decided to keep it a surprise when I lost 30 pounds," Eleanor explained. " We didn't know it would be this long before we saw you again, but now I'm glad we waited. Just to see your expression at the front door was worth it all." She hugged me again.
Eleanor had been struggling with her weight ever since I was a child. She was 12 years older than I so she had graduated from high school before I started first grade. She was the uncontested, indisputably prettiest of the five girls in our family, even after she began gaining weight. Growing up, we all wanted to look like Eleanor and tried to model ourselves after her.
She told me that a year ago, a hurtful and embarrassing incident had occurred that prompted her to lose a significant amount of weight.
One night, her husband invited her to attend a dinner held annually for employees at his workplace. Eleanor purchased an elegant ensemble which helped subdue the great amount of weight she had gained.
She prepared well for the dinner, having her hair styled in the latest fashion, along with a facial, manicure, and pedicure at Izard's Salon in a neighboring town. She wanted her husband to be proud of her.
At the ballroom where the dinner was held, several very long tables were set to accommodate the employees and their wives. Eleanor and her husband were led to their places next to a couple they knew well.
Then something very troubling caught Eleanor's attention. Eleanor's husband quickly put his arm around the shoulders of his friend's wife who was sitting beside him. Eleanor reasoned that he wanted others at the dinner to assume that the woman was his wife. Hurt and embarrassed, she remained quiet during the dinner, anxious for it to be over.
At home, Eleanor didn't mention the incident to her husband. Instead, she made a vow that with God's help she would lose all the extra weight and become the woman God wanted her to be.
The next twelve months were hard but her resolve was firmly set in cement. She followed a strict diet and exercise routine. In her Bible, she highlighted Jeremiah 29:1, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Slowly, Eleanor emerged into a slim, lovely woman, proving once again the old adage, "A scorned woman wants revenge but a strong woman forgives and moves on."
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* "A scorned woman wants revenge but a strong woman forgives and moves on."(Source: PureHappyLife.com)
Non-fiction
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