Short Story: Victorious Until The End '

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Victorious Until the End
Having a newborn baby is a wonderfully incomparable time. There is a joy like no other in having this new life that has been welcomed into the world. Most women during this time are preparing their infants for their next feeding or diaper change. Or even exchanging a few laughs and tears with their husbands about the overwhelming sense of being a new parent. Flashback to the year 202 A.D. in North Africa. Vivia Perpetua, may have been rejoicing in all the glory of becoming a new mother, yet she was faced by the approaching execution she would encounter at Carthage. With her chin up she joyously walked toward her Savior, even if it meant leaving it all behind and getting past a gruesome death first.
Perpetua was an …show more content…

Perpetua managed to document her experience in a journal while in prison, it is said that it is “the earliest surviving text by Christian woman” (Enright 8). On many accounts Perpetua’s father attempted to distract her from her loyalty to the Lord, and even encouraged her to deny her faith. The execution that awaited Perpetua could have easily been dismissed through her faith denial, but she wisely responded to her father, “It will all happen in the prisoner’s dock as God wills, for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power” (Galli and Olsen 363). The most tormenting moment Perpetua experienced during her incarceration was when she was days apart from her child (qtd in Water 178). Any nursing mother can explain the anxiety of being apart from their child, being the only source for nutrition and comfort is unbearable. However, the Lord blessed Perpetua with the opportunity to have her baby with her in prison, she recounts “my prison suddenly became a palace to me, and I would rather have been there than anywhere else” (qtd in Water 178). This was incredible optimism in the middle of severe distress. Perpetua and her prison mates remained as positive as humanly possible, though their execution was moments away the knew their Lord was also awaiting right around the

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