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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: CHILDHOOD (03/09/17)
What was your childhood like? I believe there are few options here, the one child that enjoyed their childhood and truly embraced each moment to its fullest. Then on the other spectrum there is the one that wanted to grow up so fast and didn’t appreciate the innocence of childhood. I grew up in Key Largo; there is beauty in the ocean and joy of fishing for your Friday or Saturday meal. The essence of fresh fish hitting your plate and knowing that you just caught that a few hours ago. How about coming home from school every day and going swimming with your friends playing 2000 leagues under the sea. Or playing King of the mountain on a large raft that was personally positioned by your dad for the kids to enjoy. This raft was huge! I think the sweetest moments was catching fireflies and playing hide and seek with my BFF. The interesting thing or possibly the saddest was not appreciating what I had or the beauty of God’s creation before me because I didn’t know about God I only knew of Him.

How about you? What are some of the things that you look back at your childhood and want a redo, or truly thank God for that time, because in the craziness of today and all that is on our plate we want to go back to that time. I would love to go back and catch fireflies again and play hide and seek again with my BFF. The laughter that was shared and joy of not worrying what others thought or did. It was a time of abandonment! Isn’t that what Christ calls us to do now? To have the innocence of a child and the sweet abandonment of worship and praise in Spirit and Truth. “Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven,’ Matthew 18:3 (NLT).” How can we get back to find that again? I believe it begins by surrendering as a child to Abba father and trusting in the perfect love and strength that a father gives and the comfort a mother gives. We need to see God this real and personal in our own lives. And to truly trust in that Fathers love! No matter what our childhood may look like there is a daddy that wants to walk us through all stages of our lives. Are we enjoying each moment of it now? Or are you still trying to rush things and get through one stage of life to another. Don’t go through it alone and trust God as He sees you through each stage of life. As a nurse, I had to learn the stages of Human Development; however, the greatest factor that was missing in growth and development was the importance of having our Abba Father, that takes us through each stage. He wants to be with us through all the joys and sadness in our lives; as we increase our dependence on the Spirit we can trust and have total abandonment in who we are in Christ.

I am back in the Keys and I can appreciate all that I have before me; the beauty of God’s creation that is authentically set before me. His sunset and the creation of His hands that I can enjoy daily; as I experience His created world and His people within it. I now truly appreciate and thank God for the childhood I had because I know that God was there all along the way. I just had to invite Him on the journey! We are on a journey from infancy to death we are here for the soul purpose to Glorify or Father. How are we doing with that and where can we improve? As stated earlier it begins with childlike faith and total surrender in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whose Father and our Father is the Great I Am.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
03/17/17
I enjoyed your message. You made some great points. At times, it was hard to understand because you switched voices, starting with singular universal you switching to plural you, Then you would use first person singular, later switch to plural (I and we). You even threw in third person at times. I'd urge you to stay with first person singular (I,me). That enables the reader to hear your story and feast on your words. Keep writing, but also read and comment on others. Since we have a break coming, I'd like to challenge you to read and comment on all entries in level one. Next go to level 4 and do the same. You don't need to be writing for years to be qualified. Just a reader. Not only will others feel good, you'll be surprised how much you learn. Challenge accepted? God bless. He has plans for you,
Phillip Cimei
03/18/17
I enjoyed your thoughts on your childhood. So many have not experienced one like that. I wish you would have showed us the joy of catching fireflies. I remember it as a child. How many readers never had that experience. Make us feel the exhilaration of chasing them down and anticipating their illumination. The chase, the miss, and the capture. Don't tell there was a huge raft, describe it in picture. The feelings of diving to the depths of the sea as a child playing deep sea diver. You had so many wonderful experiences. I want to live them too. I don't want a list. I want you to make us live it in words. You hit the topic all the way through and had many good devotional thoughts. Keep it up. Great job.
Larry Whittington
03/18/17
Your heart is in what you write.

Divide you big parts into smaller paragraphs in shorter ones.

As you come to several questions you need to ask, make each on a stand-alone- paragraph. This will give the reader just an extra moment to contemplate the question and maybe even time to come up with an answer.

Watch our mister spell checker with situations like this one I saw: "Glorify or Father". It is still readable but it slows the pace.

I liked it.
Richard Hicks
03/18/17
It must have been pretty amazing as a child to live in Key Largo! In today's electronic culture, we do forget about having a childhood experience. Most kids are inside instead of outside.

The only thing I would encourage you to do is to double space between each paragraph. I don't know about others but that tends to make it tough to concentrate, but your topic shines through!

Great job and I will see you around. :)