Doors and Windows

NOTE: Here is a link to Part 2 of this story: I have so enjoyed sharing my life stories with you in this Doors & Windows column since 1998. This year, I’ll be sharing a fictional short story that will stretch across the months in a “to be continued” format and conclude in December. Are...
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Thanks to the underwear bomber who ruined Christmas, the friendly skies have turned dark. Travelers over this past Thanksgiving took to the highways in record numbers in order to avoid scanners and strips searches at airports. But travel they did and, regardless of the obstacles and inconveniences, nothing stops...
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On a shelf in our home is a glass jar, half-full of rocks. Each rock is inscribed with a date and a short phrase stating a significant event of God’s providence in our life. We just added a new rock to that jar, the date: 10/11/10, the event: EMPLOYMENT! It’s ...
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There’s no way we can keep living like the last book of the Bible is fiction. It isn’t. It is now our daily news. If you’ve ever stepped into a church, been to Sunday School or cracked open a Bible, you know it’s real. But trust me when I say that...
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We the people of the United States will celebrate our independence this month. As we pull out the red, white and blue and make much noise, let’s not just spend the day overindulging in the festivities, waiting for the big light show at dusk. Rather, let us pause in silent respect for those who...
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Daddy didn’t talk much. Every morning he woke up at five, exercised, read his Bible in his big yellow chair then left for work. When he got home, he read the paper, watched the news, read a book or sat with the family for a while before calling it a...
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Stillness: wouldn’t that be lovely? Most of us can barely remember what that feels like. I’m learning a new type of stillness through silence. If you read my column last month, you know that I committed to a 28-day challenge focused on speaking only sweet, soothing, sound and soft words and eliminating sarcasm, sharp or...
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I embarked on a journey this month; a journey to sweet lips. Now, unless you have done a word study in your Bible on the word “lips” you may not get where I’m going with this. God’s Book has much to say about the use of our lips, tongue and mouth. One overall statement...
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Enemy forces occupied their country. Without notice, raids infiltrated their towns and their children’s blood ran in the streets. Spies mingled among them as they shopped. Life was not safe when they made their way home. The road was rocky, dusty and long. Transportation was smelly and stubborn, an over-burdened burrow that smelled and clopped...
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Flipping through December issues of monthly magazines suggests contradictory approaches to the holidays. “Survive” headlines one magazine, “celebrate” another. Such different ways of considering the same event. In an effort to respect diversity and individualism, we struggle even with what to call that period of time from the day after Thanksgiving...
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