Unfortunately, for me Jesus had decided not only was I ready to use what I had gleaned from the important knowledge of His 40 days of fasting but I had to separate myself from my children because Christ Brings Division in Matthew 10: 34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’[e] 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Unfortunate, for my family, God word did do just what He says it would be done, although at the time I did not understand what would happen to me when I decided to choose Jesus over my daughter and our dysfunctional family curses where we sexual abusing our children had been passed down through our family generations. On the other hand, I do remember the righteous prays of my grandmothers because she spent three days walking around her house in real prays for my life and after the three day’s where up she says to me that she was told by God that she had to send me back to mother in order for God to use me. However, I could not understand her when she
In my personal life, I have experienced death of a loved one and a diagnosis of a serious illness. When my cousin was ten and I was seven, we received a call from my uncle that my aunt had suddenly and unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and passed away. He son, Rex, was only ten years old and without his mom. At first Rex was upset with God and did not understand why He took away his mom when he was only ten. After years of not going to mass and cutting all ties with God, he recently began to go back to mass every Sunday and to build back his relationship with God.
On the eve of my twelfth birthday, my father sat me down to have a talk- He says, “Mary Amelia;” his using my full name and not what everyone usually calls me had me paying attention right away. “You’re my only daughter and you’re about to become a young woman. I don’t know much about what I, as a father, should tell you; however, with your momma gone, I feel it is my responsibility to say something in the way of trying to prepare you for womanhood…
was August, and I was seven months behind on the mortgage. The house had now gone into foreclosure, and on the twenty-eighth, it was going to be auctioned. Despite what that letter said, I still trusted God to perform a miracle. That letter did not faze me a bit. My faith was solid, and nothing or any person was going to shake it. After all, I was following the direction of the Lord.
Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke
Intro: “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, and “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, are two narratives that explore the journey of two African-American boys who take on unethical measures for control over their oppressed state towards a prosperous future. Many of the problems these characters face are similar but under different circumstances. While Dave Saunders works in a plantation under a white owner, he slaves his life away to support his family. The unequal treatment he receives from his coworkers, Mr. Hawkins his owner, and his own family, only hinder Dave’s self-esteem, and is belittled to feel powerless as a plantation worker. And Paul, although with an education and many more opportunity, he still feels powerless due to his identity and familial relations that do not understand him. Although different stories, both men experience troubles coming from the lack of money, lies, and their struggle of identity lead them to each conquer a different route of controlling their life at the end. While they think a sense of power will help them escape their oppression, it will only guide them into different directions.
In Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, there is only one main character, Dave Saunders, and a handful of secondary characters. Dave Saunders is a seventeen year old, “long, loose-jointed limbed” African-American boy living in what seems like the South, either in Alabama or Louisiana, judging from the fact that the Illinois Central railroad runs through the area where he lives. Dave is struggling with growing up and is trying to achieve a sense of maturity that he is not yet ready for. His idea of being a mature adult is to own a gun, since all the men he works with on the field own one and practice shooting them. He thinks that if he gets one and shoots with the men, they will
I am going to write a sequel to the short passage, “ The Man Who Was Almost A Man,” which was written by Richard Wright. I am going to start from the time where Dave received the pistol, to the time where he got in trouble.
Nowadays, there are so many short stories, talking about the science fiction, the philosophical, and the allegory in the world and society. One of the most favorite short stories I really like to read in my life was the literature. For me, themes in literature is a sort of the commentary built by thinkers or a simple language to help everyone knows more about the ideas, motifs throughout the stories. Without literature, we lack insight and understanding of human nature between the character and the reader in society. There are one of the most beautiful and famous short stories that I fell in love are called "The Man Who Was Almost a Man." For this story, the author illustrated the effects of education on the human soul and the marriage in life. They believed that knowledge is
I keep on praying and looking for answer from him. Now the hold day it went like this listening and praying to hear from god. Just when it got closed to the time going to church he spoke to me and told me what do. He said when you get there I will tell you the word that I’m going to gave the people. The woman of god ask me do you need the office to get some pace from others that was coming in the church. I said yes then open the door to the office, and just went I open the bible. He gave me the word that I was waiting for all day to gave to the people. The word was that your prayers has been answer! I gave it to the people just as he ask me to do. Now when I was giving this word to the people they was looking at me like, I did not know what I was talking about. I looked at them and said god said this is his word. Prayer his been answered! I did what he said and sat down. Now let me tell you my pastor was not there that night when I gave them the word from
In this short story by Richard Wright “The Man who Was Almost a Man” ,the author focuses on transformation from teenage to adulthood through the protagonist in this story portrayed by a young seventeen year old boy Dave .Growing up in such harsh environment from a very young age has led to Dave's perspective about what being a man is legitimate according to him. The challenges Dave faces through his pre-adulthood years play a vital part towards his forthcoming years as an adult .Dave assumes that to be a man he must have authority and power which hails from a pistol that will empower his masculinity over his friends, coworkers and family members.
One day I happened to attend in a gospel meeting, a pastor had come there to preach. He preached from John 3: 16, God so loved the world…Everlasting life. The word touched me and thought Jesus is the real God who died for me and if I believe in him then he will give me the eternal life and peace in mind. Then there was altar call and I went to the front and repeated the prayer with the pastor and received Jesus as my personal Lord and
God proved to my family and me multiple times that He was not leaving us behind or forgetting us. Through all the chaos and anxiety, God would send small gifts to reassure us that He was still there. From anonymous checks to the church paying for our Christmas, I was able to build up my faith in Him more than ever. I remember one
In the short story “Being a Man” by Paul Theroux, who explains his severe dislike of being a man and society’s overlook about manhood. He also describes society’s view of generosity and what it means to “be a man”. He argues how society obligates men and women to act in a certain way in regards to their gender roles. Theroux’s argument about how people are being controlled by society’s version of what masculinity represents. Thus, people joint to make certain decisions such as career choices based on society’s expectation instead of their liking. As he describes, certain carriers are not suitable for men or women based on society’s definition of masculinity or feminism. This definition puts pressure on people making important decisions in
Recently, I have understood more about what it means to “lose [one’s] life” (Matthew 16:25). Since my health crash, I have realized that my motivation for most of my actions have been to avoid pain. I wanted to improve things in my family to “avoid the nagging of my wife,” as I told one of my mentors, a temple sealer. He told me, “Brian, that’s fine your motivation is where it’s at; however, the Lord intends you to serve and love your wife as the Savior does. Charity is the deepest and purest motivation for keeping God’s commandments. Brian, it’s okay if that’s what gets you started. I would encourage you to seek deeper motivations through greater gratitude and charity from your Heavenly Father. Your blessings and enjoyment of those blessings from our Heavenly Father depends much upon the ‘WHY’ of your obedience. Is your heart at war? Or is your Heart at peace as you serve others? I know you’ll do great. I believe in you.”
My personal experience of God is based on my life experiences and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I have experienced God’s presence in my life and I have felt the Holy Spirit guiding me. I first felt God’s call as a teenager and prayed that one day I would become a pastor. But my new Christian faith was not strong enough and I soon succumbed to the desires of this world. I refused to recognize God’s call and it took decades for God’s prevenient grace to bring me back into fellowship with God’s Son. More than a decade ago I felt God’s call again but this time in a completely different way. This time my faith was strong and I had that personal relationship with God’s Son. During my Emmaus Pilgrim Walk in 2007 my teenage prayers came back to me. Calmness overcame me like none I had ever experienced and for the first time in my life I knew that God had set me aside for this purpose. I felt God’s call in a way I had never felt before and I knew that the Spirit had been preparing me all these years to become a pastor. I realize now that God saw me as I could be, not what I was at that time! God never gave up on me and I now believe that God answered my prayers so that everyone else would know that only God could have changed my heart and the direction of my life.