The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.
Proverbs 14:1 (NIV)
My older sister can build a house. I used to work alongside her, with my father, who was a home builder. One of my memories of Ginny is nailing plywood with her on a roof one summer day in the Oak Hills alongside Hwy #14. My older sister is a wise lady and a good builder, yet this proverb is not about women building houses out of word or stone. This proverb is a metaphor that uses building construction to describe life construction.
A life doesn’t just happen; you build it - starting as a child, than decision after decision, action after action, a life is constructed. Funeral services are now called “Celebration of Life” services because our culture has recognized the unique structure of each life. We may all be one colour, and speak one language and live in one county, but each of our lives is a unique structure of decisions and actions.
This proverb makes the observation that we (both genders) are responsible for the structure of our life. We may want to blame circumstances, or other people and it seems in many cases that other people and circumstances play a huge role in how our lives are formed - yet ultimately we are the ones who decide to build, or decide to tear down. This happens in our lives as teenagers in our relationship to our parents or guardians. We ultimately make the decision: am I going to build this relationship or am I going to tear it down? This happens in our lives in terms of adult education and employment. The build or tear down decision is made daily. This especially happens in marriage. This build or tear down decision happens daily and sometimes hourly. This applies also to our relationship with God. Will I build or tear down my relationship with my heavenly Father?
We can go through every aspect of our lives and recognize that this proverb absolutely applies. It is up to us. Will we build or tear down? May we be wise and be the builder that God wants us to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment