C.H.O.I.C.E.S - Choosing Him Or Ignoring Christ's Eternal Salvation

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Fun Times Down on Hogan Creek

        It was a hot, sticky, summer day. It was the kind of day where you wish you had something to do but were too lazy to do it. Usually my siblings and I would get on our old clothes and water shoes and gather our pails and shovels. Then we would hit "The Trail". "The Trail" was a path leading down to Hogan Creek. As we made our way through the bamboo-filled woods, we would tell jokes. It felt good to be able to laugh after a stressful week.

At last we would come across a big sandy clearing. This was our "country swimming pool". The water was about five feet deep. We would drop all of our things and run into the cool, refreshing water. The current had made a five-foot by seven-foot cliff on the opposite shore of the path. We would swim out to it and play on it for hours. We called it "The Island" although it really was not one. We used it as a small diving board and would scream with laughter as we cannon-balled off of it. We had also developed a mud slide. We had scooped the gooey mud off the bottom of the creek and firmly pack it to the sloping part of the cliff. It had taken us hours to finish it and we were finally done! Carefully my youngest sister sat down on it and we poured the bucket of water on it. She squeezed her little eyes shut and I gave her a timid but hard push. She slid down it smoothly and splashed down in the water. It had worked! We all screamed for joy and gave each other high-fives.

After a few minutes all of us were covered in gray mud. Once we were all worn out we would all wade ashore and have a sand castle contest. We would give out four prizes so know one would feel left out. After the warm breeze had dried us off and renewed our strength, we would go minnow fishing. There were hundreds of them in the shadier parts of the creek. As the sun glinted on their gills, it would reflect a beautiful picture with the colors of the rainbow. Once in a while we would catch one,  sometimes keeping them and sometimes letting them go because my little sister would feel sorry for them. Then we would get back in the water and I would make up stories that we could act out. Once we got it perfect we would perform it for an imaginary audience. Following that we would have a race doing the back stroke, breast stroke and relays. Then we would get up on "The Island" and talk about serious things, like what to get mom for her birthday, or how to design our new clubhouse. We would also pretend the island was a ship, sailing on a treacherous voyage, with pirates threatening to attack.  Or that we were stranded on the small piece of land, and all we could eat were leaves and berries.

Then we would pretend we were an Olympic diving team racing for the gold, working on speed. We would jump in and run back out again. We would do it over and over again until our muscles ached. I would act as the coach. All of a sudden, we would hear a whistle. That was our signal that it was time for supper and we needed to come home. So we sadly gathered up our things and told our good-byes to the creek. Finally, with one last look, we started back home.

If my three siblings and I could describe the feelings that we felt down on Hogan Creek , we would probably use words such as "delightful" and "fun-filled". But there are no words or sentences that could describe all the passion we felt down on the creek. I’m sure my brother and sisters and I will always remember the wonderful memories we made there. In the future when one of us says, "Remember when we all would go to our Carolina creek? ’’ that there will be plenty of happy memories to tell.

THE END

Verse of the week:

"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will be faithful to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

~Philipians 1:6