Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: GIANTS (10/22/20)
-
TITLE: Faith Over Fears | Previous Challenge Entry
By Debra Brand
10/29/20 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
The entire school had assembled for the gymnastics event. Lizzie looked out at the crowd and froze halfway up the climbing rope. To her embarrassment, she had to be taken down by the janitor. Someone called the janitor. He brought his ladder and set it up in the middle of the gym … stage fright in front of everyone.
Fear rendered her helpless. Fear dominated her waking hours and led to horrific nightmares about lions upon her bed. They didn’t do anything. They just laid there and stared their great golden eyes at her.
Then there was the dreaded cellar. The damp dirt air wafted up the stairs as she opened the door. Her nose wrinkled and itched. Mom said to go check on the washer. It’s right at the bottom of the stairs but … it’s dark down there. Each stair tread squeaked and groaned as she descended. She looked through the open treads to see if anything lurked under the stairway. The single filament light bulb cast weak rays toward the murky corners.
The old furnace loomed large in the middle of the room. The ‘worm feeder’ ground and carried the rice coal from the bin into the flaming hopper. The boiler emitted steam and sent it up the pipes, making creaking noises and knocks as the metal expanded the hot watered air sent to the radiators upstairs.
Lizzie only went into the cellar when her brother wasn’t home. He would turn off the cellar light and slam the door shut to hear her pitiful screams of agony.
Those fears of people, lions, and cellars took a long time to go away. Sure, she looked brave on the outside but inside she quaked at the remembrances.
There was another dream where she soared through a universe of darkness and void. She awakened shivering thinking she was the only one alive. Is there nothing after death, she wondered? What if everything living thing and object were not really here? Was she even here? Lizzie felt complete aloneness in the middle of her bed.
This nightmare left on the day as an adult, she took Jesus into her heart. He told her He would take care of her and she would soar through the heavens to join Him in eternal life where light and love are constant. Never again would she dream with dread. When a dream started to yank on her fears, she just said, “Oh, it’s only you, devil. Get out of my dream.” He leaves. She sleeps. God is good.
Lizzie keeps a nightlight on in the cellar.
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.
