Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Era (02/03/11)
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TITLE: Open Door of Faith | Previous Challenge Entry
By Wilma Schlegel
02/10/11 -
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And you know, I started to actually like something best, because it was important, because someone was going to ask me.
When I was ten years old, I shed tears in her Sunday School class learning that there is a God who made me and loves me. When I would feel like no one could love me because I wasn’t smart enough or popular enough or because I would get so mad at my brothers when they called me names like “Chunky Chicken”(that was their favorite), then she’d tell me about Jesus. I saved my extra change that year and bought a picture of Jesus with the little children for Mrs Door. She hung it in the Sunday School class and would often refer to it, but never said who gave the “wonderful gift.” It was our special secret. Somehow the secret got out though because after that my brothers would say “Hey CC,” (I liked that nick name a whole lot more!) “that was a nice thing you did.”
I babysat her kids when I was fifteen. I have to admit that when I was much younger I thought it was a shame that she and Mr. Door had only two, not six like in our family. Well when I babysat, I was glad there were only two! “We don’t really have to go to bed at nine,” they’d connive. “Please, let’s play hide-and-seek again!” And again, and again. When Mrs Door would drive me home she’d tell me, “You need to be firm with them. You’re in charge. They will respect you much more when you say ‘no’ and let them know you mean it. It’s not about them liking you, it’s about them having boundaries and respecting authority.”
That was a hard lesson for me then, but how it has paid off. I have two of my own now, and while we have sometimes disagreed, I have always been treated with respect.
When I was twenty-two, I sang in Faith Door’s choir. She wanted me to solo, not a big deal to some, but I protested. "I would like to solo, but I’d be too nervous.”
She answered me, “All our good gifts come from the Lord and we should always use them to glorify Him.”
It has been a blessing and privelege to try to live with that thought in mind.
When my mother passed away, I was so alone, confused, let down. Not by my Mom, God bless her, what a wonderful and giving woman she was. It was my first experience with the death of someone close. I stayed with her until the Lord took her home. The cold, quiet emptiness that was left was solid as a stone wall, yet invisible. Her body was there, but she was gone. I could not fathom the change.
Mrs. Door, Faith Door, came to be with me. I cried in her arms. She let me cry and then she let me talk until I had no more tears or words. And she listened. She always listened.
I used to think she was going to let me in on the solution to all my problems. I used to think she never did. But I always went back to her and I always came away knowing that above all, Jesus loves me. He will never leave me. I have never known a more faith-filled person then Faith Door. She did not find fault or hold grudges. She just loved her Lord and His people.
Last year Faith’s body lost its fight with cancer.
Faith believed that older women should teach the younger ones and she tried to never miss an opportunity to do that. Though an era has come to a close since she is gone from this earth,“faith’s door” remains open, because of all whom she loved while she was here.
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