A Great Easter Story

Something so amazing happened today that I had to share it with since legion people being I could in our refuge. It is Easter Sunday and the kids in my vicinity came to my pied-a-terre to get me to play basketball. Between games the kids and I took a break and they were utterance about gifts they got for Easter, an Easter egg hunt they had yesterday and the candy they popular in their Easter baskets. I told them that Easter is about Jesus rising following He was crucified to save us from our sins. I told them Easter doesn ' t have point to do with Easter bunnies, egg hunts, Easter baskets, gifts, or candy.

A younger boy asked why we have the Easter bunny and all those other things. I explained two reasons; first, stores like to profit off of every holiday so they push all kinds of things on people, second, Satan does existent he can to distract our attention from Jesus and the truth. " Why do we do it? " he asked. " I don ' t understand. " I said many times people don ' t know why they do things; they just follow what everyone else does. Just because everyone does it, however, doesn ' t mean it is right. " It ' s like we are cheering on the devil " he said. I was blown away when he said that. At his young age he understands the spiritual battle.

Then a boy that was a little older, who doesn ' t attend a church, said it is like there are two roads. Satan is on one road trying to get you to follow the Easter Bunny, smoke, drink, do drugs and gamble. God is on the other road trying to get you to do what is right. " Exactly! " I said. " God says in the Bible he wants us to take the right path. "

The younger boy then said, " It ' s like in the cartoons when the angel is on one shoulder telling you to do good and the devil is on the other shoulder telling you that doing bad is OK. " I told the kids how smart they are. At the same time I was in awe of how God opened their minds to the truth and turned them into preachers.

" If adults thought like you kids, the world would be a better place, " I told them. " We need to question everything according the truth in the Bible. " I explained to them how Satan loves to go after the minds of children and steer them in the wrong path because he wants to mess up their whole life and keep them from going to heaven. The kids were not happy about Satan trying to steer them down the wrong path. I told them Satan never quits tempting us, so just be aware of it and try to stay on the right path.

The kids told me this was a great conversation. I am amazed by how God is working through me to reach them with His gospel. Only God can make these things happen!

Since I began building relationships with the kids in my neighborhood I realized that they want to do what is right and want to know the truth. They seem to want to be led in the right direction. The problem occurs when we steer kids toward the world.

Remember Proverbs 22: 6 tells us, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. " The kids don ' t just listen to the words we tell them. They watch how we live and the example we set. We need to follow Jesus, our Perfect Example, not the example the world sets.

What Can a Good School Story Learn From the Great Short Story Authors

A good school story should have all the chief elements of a good short story. That means you need a motivating dwell on, an attracting and provocative first issue, a developing conflict between at least two contrasting agents, a summit of the life and somewhere a solution of the worriment ( which is not always a happy ending! ).

It seems further a matter of course to depict the characters and the place and time with a few words, so that the story has its own unrepeated direction without reservation. But you should not be satisfied by equal a formal brochure of criteria. The real value, the literary quality of a school story, depends on the mixture. The characters, the plot, the setting, the conflict and the ending ought to be logical parts of a story in which all these elements match. If they don ' t, the story will not find many readers, and it is not very credible or convincing.

Where can you get help? The first step for someone who wants to write a special kind of text is to read the great authors. Famous short story writers have ever considered these aspects, and set up masterful combinations of these elements. So let me try to use one of the best short stories I know, Hemingway ' s ' Cat in the Rain '.

This story has only four pages, but it has all the named parts. There is a very precise setting, two characters have a conflict, and the end offers a solution which might be positive; at least there is the feeling of a way out to hope and change - the wishes of the young woman can come true, finally.

All that sounds simple and even banal. But this very short story is a masterpiece, because it brings all its parts and qualities together in a flow of action and dialogue that makes it unique. The question is, how do you get the ability to write such a flow of words that make it a suitable work of art, or at least a logical construction to some degree?

My answer is, not only by talent. You can learn to write a short story, and of course also a school story, when you consider some of these basic rules and ideas. Try to make up a raw structure of your story, starting perhaps with only one event of your own school life. Take it down and think about reasons, conditions, consequences, and problems related to this very event. Look for the two or three people who had to do with it, and make the second step to write the full story. Use your fantasy as well as your memory.

You should never forget dialogue. A short story is a living piece of literature with much direct communication. By using dialogue you make it not only readable but also exciting. Make people speak, and your story will speak to your readers!