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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Right and Left (07/31/14)
I remember the first time I made the trip to Indiana to meet my husband’s family. At the time we were not married and during the day, while he was working, I was left to entertain myself (well with his family, with whom I had yet to become well acquainted). He let me borrow his car to go shopping or just explore, which I was eager to do. Unfortunately due the fact that it was my first time visiting his hometown, I ended up finding myself lost. I remember being terrified that I would never find my way back to his grandma’s house (where I was staying at the time). I had no landmarks or street names to go off, and I became desperate to find something even halfway familiar.

Sometimes, in life, we end up in a similar situation. We find ourselves in a new environment. Whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, we eventually end up in uncharted territory. In such times in we begin seeking out the familiar; and sometimes familiarity isn’t a good thing.

When I was twenty years old, I decided to up and leave everything I knew in life and start fresh. I became a nanny and moved halfway across the country. I had been in an abusive relationship and the only way out that I could see was to leave. When I found myself in a brand-new situation, I actually sought out the familiar. I contacted my (then) boyfriend and welcomed him back into my life simply because I wanted something that made sense to me.

My story isn’t the only one though. Often times drug addicts, alcoholics, and abused people will go back to the only thing they recognize, continuing the life of defeat they’ve always lead. Why do you think that children who are abused end up in abusive relationships when they get older? When they go off to college or into their own home, they seek out familiarity and it becomes a never-ending cycle. I’m not saying that familiarity is bad, but when we let the bad things in our lives be our “landmarks” we’re going to end up more lost than we ever intended to be.

Back to the story I was telling at the beginning. I ended up downloading a GPS app on my phone and was finally able to find my way back to the home I was staying in. I had ended up straying more than a mile from my [future] grandmother-in-law's home. If I had just let myself admit that I couldn’t do it on my own, I wouldn’t have ended up getting lost in the first place. The same goes in life. If we just acknowledge the fact that we cannot go through this life without guidance from God, we could find our way back to where we are supposed to be a lot faster. Instead we’re too busy seeking out what’s familiar and stay just as lost as we were before.

Luke 15:32
It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.
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This article has been read 581 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Brenda Rice
08/09/14
Your entry is interesting and covers the topic well.

I like the way you use your story and the Bible to make your point about familiarity.

Good writing. Keep it up.
Larry Whittington
08/09/14
Interesting story, appropriate concluding application.

Well written and easy to read.

Life stories are alway a welcome read.
C D Swanson 
08/09/14
Great message wrapped into a wonderful entry!

Loved the wrap up...well done.

God bless~
Phillip Cimei
08/10/14
Thanks for your story, many will benefit from its message.

A few,hopefully, helpful suggestions.

I wasn't sure if the topic was hit dead center. It seemed to veer more to a cycle of things than to the right and to the left. Maybe I missed it.

The opening needed a real hook to get everyone on board.

The body of the work was full of good advice and nicely done.

Keep on writing

God bless
Ann Stocking
08/12/14
"...when we let the bad things in our lives be our “landmarks” we’re going to end up more lost than we ever intended to be."

So true.

Interesting take, though more "right and wrong" rather than "left and right." Perhaps a description of the journey, left at the brick church, right at the bakery, for example, and how those actions turned out to be incorrect or not, would have clarified the topic.

Your entry serves as a good reminder for us all.