I can vividly remember the day I was given my key. I had been invited to hang out with my friends, but I was grounded and wouldn't be able to go. I wanted to go so badly, so my mom told me to ask my dad and surprisingly he agreed to let me hang out.
The next weekend my dad went to a men's conference where The Giving Keys had a booth. He was thinking about my mom and himself showing me grace and allowing me to hangout with friends which led him to buy me a key with the word GRACE. When he gave me the key, I was thrilled to have gotten such a unique gift from him, but the meaning behind it hadn't quite set in. I think I am just now starting to understand the depth of what it meant, giving the key to me.
I wore the key everywhere and when people asked about it I would describe it as being "a key my dad gave me because he and my mom showed me grace." Like I said, I didn't fully understand the meaning. After I had been wearing the key for about a year I went to a youth leadership camp where I was put into a "family group. The "Dad" of the camp and I had gotten very close and on the last day he prayed over me and gave me a cute little pink bead. I wanted to always remember that moment so I decided to add the bead to my key necklace. I later also added a heart with an "M" on it that was given to me from my Aunt Karen.
The key necklace was starting to represent me and what was special in my life. This past October, I had been wearing the key for about 2 years when I was headed to The Cutting Edge Haunted House. I was celebrating my 19th birthday. At some point during the haunted house I looked down and realized my necklace had been jerked off my neck. I immediately started to panic. When I got all the way through, we told the people at the front about my lost necklace. I only cared about getting the key back.
I got a call the next morning saying that they found my key, and that I could to pick it up at the box office. I was devastated because I live 3 hours from the haunted house! After tons of crying and telling my parents how much I needed that necklace, they told me that I should just let the key go and share my story as it was. I felt betrayed that they would want me to give up something so special in my life, but I realized that the key was just making me hold onto something that I needed to let go of and allow God to take care of my life. I just purchased a new key that says LET GO because I am letting go of my Grace and giving everything up to God and being thankful for the memories I was allowed to have with my GRACE key. For the person who will get it, I hope that they will get to have just as many wonderful memories with that key as I did.
-Madison
