Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Don’t Look Back (04/19/12)
-
TITLE: In the Rearview Mirror | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sandra Hartman
04/26/12 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Looking back does nothing for the road ahead today. Just imagine with me for a moment that you are cruising down the road of life in your car. You become distracted and find yourself gazing long into the rearview mirror totally doblivious to the road ahead.
Suddenly you look ahead--What might you have missed? How about an important road sign that would direct you to your destination. Oops!! That could mean lost! Turn around!!
Maybe you miss that garage sale sign--if you're so inclined. Again turn around!! You sure are wasting a lot of time.
And of course you might really miss something improtant like a car stopping suddenly in front of you! Oww!
The view from the rearview mirror has already been seen and you will most likely not see anything new.
In other words the most interesting thing that needs your full attention are up ahead. So in life we sometimes look long into the "the rearview mirror" so to speak at our past failures, mistakes , and disappointments and as we do that "car of life" is moving now and it is moving ahead.
Jesus never intended for us to dwell on our past failures, hurts, and mistakes. He says "Cast your burden upon Me and I will sustain you."
Is it past sin that is capturing your attention today? Isaiah 38:15b says for thou hast cast my sins behind my back. Psalm 103:12 says He has removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. He will cast all our sins in hte depths of the sea Micah tells us in 7:19.
If you have confessed that sin and God remembers it no more than look back no more and fix your eyes upon the road ahead where you may have an opportunity today to witness to someone else about how your sins were forgiven and how they can have that same experience in their life.
Is it a past hurt hat bother you today? THese go deep and at anytime something might trigger this pain. What to do with it? Malachi 4:2 says "he has risen with healing in His wings" appropriate that healing of that memory and ask HIm to heal it!
maybe it is a broken heart hat you just can't seem to leave behind --read Luke 4:18 Jesus says that He has come to heal the brokenhearted. beleive that He will heal your hurt--perhaps not right away but He will and turn your eyes on the road ahead and see if you can alletviate someone else's hurt today.
Perhaps past failure has you glued to that rearview mirror. My mother always siad "you can't cry over spilled milk" Thank about why that is---Yes it is gone for good just like your the things in your rearview mirror. You can't change it so look ahaed to this day when you can for today make a difference in someon's life or not make that same mistake you made in the past again because now your eyes are fixed on the road ahead.
So lay aside that weight and drive.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
I would like to offer some critique about the numerous spelling errors (maybe typos?) and grammatical problems...(i.e oblivious and important are misspelled and the verb conjugation for "the most interesting thing that needs your full attention are up ahead" should be correctly written as "is up ahead"...the subject of your sentence being 'thing'. That's just to name a few)
I would only like to suggest the use of a spellcheck and a review of your document in the future, it should catch all that kind of stuff for you.
You have a great knack of bringing your reader into the story you want to tell. Your points are well made, and if the technical stuff is cleaned up, your work would be completely amazing.
Nicely done. I liked it so much. God Bless~
The only thing I would suggest is to save your exclamation points for dialog. If you use them too much outside of dialog they lose the wow factor. Not to mention the words you used did the exclaiming for you because you did a great job of using just the right word to get your point across.
You also did a great job on the topic. I've read quite a few about relationships and looking in the past but your driving examples were fresh and fun and something that most people can understand totally.