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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Valley (08/10/06)
No Matter What, The Sun Still Rises!

Just because life is not playing out the way that we think it should does not mean that life is going to stop until we are alright again. When life is grey and dim, or it is raining the world still spins on it’s axis and the cycle of life keeps going. The sun is going to repeat its god-created cycle each and every day. Life is not what happens to us it is what we let happen to us. We may be on the mountaintop one day, week, month, or year and in the valley the next. Guess what the sun and the cycle of life will continue each and everyday whether we go through our time of growth or not.

As the truth of me not having a job started to near and the last paycheck was coming, I started to get depressed in my spirit. I was use to knowing “who? what? when? where? why?” Then boom I am at a point and time in my life when there is no “who? what? when? where? why?” answer this time which really blew my mind. As time went on and is still going on the Lord has spoken through His Word, others and that still small voice I had to start standing on the faith that I had been professing each and every day. I was being called to accountability. During this time I have been fighting, kicking, and sulking hating this “valley time” experience, causing my self to have to spend more time here then I needed or wanted to. I was being just like the Israelites, who grumbled and complained (wanting to return to the things that they knew were sure, (but were keeping them bound) the same life that made them and me miserable). I walked around the same mountain in desperation because of my own selfish pride, stubbornness, and lack of faith. Seeing others enjoy the fruit of their “valley time” experience sulking even more because I was stuck in the valley. It was not until I realized that what I needed for the next phase of my life was here in the valley and that I had to die to self some more. I have my days and do not want you to think that we won’t have them. We are flesh and we will want to fight and it will hurt, but we do not have to let the hurt keep us from living.

Changes come and when God is ready to promote us we will have a “valley time” because the only time that we can be equipped is when we are not distracted and that is in the valley. We have to stop putting a coma where God puts a period or vice versa. We have to face a “valley time” and say “The sun still rises whether we are on the high places, or in the valley.” We determine how long we will be in the valley our attitude, actions, thoughts, or deeds are the determining factors. We have the free will to choose and so now we have to make up our minds about what we are going to do. How we view our “valley time” experience whether it be with hope, trust, faith, and adoration; or disgust, depression, and desperation, when we stop letting the world and our flesh tell us that as we are going through this time that we are weak, hopeless, and pathetic when in reality and all truthfulness we are strong. When we stop looking through the lie and start looking through the truth, then and only then will we get through this time in our life.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Jan Ackerson
08/17/06
What a strong faith you have, and what a positive attitude! Good job!

Work on sentence structure a bit--you have some run-ons and some fragments that, if edited, would make your piece more readable.

This essay was encouraging to read.
Brenda Kern 
08/22/06
Good thoughts here, but the presentation of them is a little 'scattershot.'

Try reading each sentence aloud to yourself. That will probably help you with punctuation and knowing when to split up a sentence into two separate sentences.

Keep writing, too, as often as you can--that also helps with sentence flow.
Allison Egley 
08/23/06
Great thoughts and sentiments here. There were a few parts I had to re-read, because the sentences didn't flow well. As others have said, work on punctuation and sentience structure a bit, and it will be a very enjoyable read. I could identify with not having a job and not know the "Who, what, where, when, and why" because I am going through the exact same thing right now.