A lifetime of pitfalls | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: A lifetime of pitfalls | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tendi Rice
03/07/12
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My mother was second wife to my father and yet he loved her more than he ever did his first. So when she passed on, he grew to favor me over my ten brothers from his first marriage. He bought me a coat of many colors, which only turned my brothers against me. I often had dreams of a future where I would be greater than them and these too only intensified their dislike towards me.
I knew my brothers were not very fond of me but I did not realize how deeply they hated me. One day, father sent me to bring them lunch whilst they were out in the field tending his livestock. They took me, threw me into a deep pit and left me there to die. Even as I sat in the hole, I tried to convince myself that perhaps this was a practical joke, as these were my own brothers, blood of my blood; how could they abhor me this much? I wondered what would kill me; perhaps hunger? Or wild animals, that could fall in and devour me? Perchance it would be the rains, as they often fell so heavily, they would certainly drown me. Had I known my brother Reuben planned to rescue me in the night, I would not have been this distressed.
His plan was unsuccessful too since my brothers found a better way to get rid of me. When they brought me up from this seemingly bottomless pit, I thought they had come to their senses. I was so relieved until I learnt their new plan for me. They sold me to some passing merchants, a bunch of Egyptians who would take me into slavery. I watched them accept a small price in exchange for my freedom and tears flooded my eyes, I almost literally felt my heart breaking. I pleaded with them and wished human sympathy if nothing else would cause them to take pity on me, but all to no avail. As the caravan of the Egyptians drove off, I watched my siblings disappear into the distance, wishing with each passing second that perhaps they would realize the error of their ways and come after us to purchase me back. The look of cruelty and malice in their eyes as they finally managed to rid me should have taught me better, but how could it; I was only but a small naïve boy.
The journey to Egypt was all it took for me to grow from the spoilt petted child I had become to a man. I accepted my fate; a life of slavery, toil and pain. Betrayed into enemy hands by my own flesh and blood, I had certainly seen the worst, yet little did I know.
I remembered the lessons my father had so fondly taught me as a young boy, that God was watching and to always do my very best; and that I did till I landed at the top. As the second highest man in the land, I was deputy only to my master, the King. Finally my days of strife were over, and yet, God had other plans.
The first lady falsely accused me of raping her, which inevitably landed me in prison. It is a wonder I was not executed, but I know now that God still had plans to prosper me again. I made friends in jail, and when they were freed, I asked them to remember me, perhaps I could be freed too, but they forgot me and once again, my future was bleak. However God had not forgotten me, and in His time I was released for interpreting the Kings dream and re-instated as governor.
My entire life was a series of pitfalls, each one seeming greater than the last. However I learnt through it all that the road to the palace may take us through the pit, the hands of merchants, slavery, toil and even prison, but at the end of it, the palace awaits!

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