What if you suddenly realized you had built a wall between you and your spouse, or your child, or a neighbour, or a friend? Let me tell you about an experience I had. I built such a wall. Now you may think reading about a wall will not be very interesting, but it really is. What made this wall so special was because the bricks were transparent. Our friends and neighbours did not know we were building a wall.

If my husband and I were working on it and anyone dropped by, we just did not work on it while they were there.

It was a two faced wall. I built one side and he built the other side. He did not start out to build a wall. I started the wall to get rid of all those bricks I had piled up. The foundation was all laid with my bad attitude and self-centeredness. The more I worked on my wall, the more he felt he needed to do something with his pile of bricks that were just in the way. So he laid his foundation with anger and bitterness.

Each day I would work on my wall, one day a row of depression, then another one of discontent. I put up two whole rows of anger mixed in with self-pity. The day I put in a row of self-righteousness, I felt rather peaceful and happy while working on that row. But I kept right on working until I had another row of discontent and then one of misery. By the end of the day I was so tired and out of sorts, I did not feel like fixing supper. My husband refused to take me out to eat so I had to cook and clean up the mess. Would you believe that after supper I put in another row of self-pity?

It took me a long time, but I finally finished my side of the wall. I built it as high as I could reach, and that was by using the kitchen stool to stand on. Even after putting in so many hours on my wall, I wasn’t happy with it. I did not know what my husband was going to do with his wall, but I decided to tear my side down.

That is exactly what I did, piece by piece, until it was down to the foundation. I just covered up the foundation and decided to take care of it later. You know what? The funniest thing happened. Well, I think it’s funny. His side of the wall was leaning on my side of the wall. When I took my side down, his side fell down. He was really surprised. I thought he might be mad, but he wasn’t. He laughed! In fact, we both laughed! Don’t you think it’s funny that my wall was holding up his wall? You know something else? I’ll bet if he had torn his side down first, my side would have fallen down. Now, you may not think that’s funny, but I do. For He Himself is barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14

Not having that wall between us was great, while it lasted, however, leaving the foundation was a big mistake. We should have gotten rid of it instead of covering it up. With the foundation still intact, it was easy for us to build our wall again, and that was exactly what we did. For years we built walls, then tore them down.

It always begins with the foundation. My self-centeredness, along with a bad attitude gave my wall a solid foundation which made it very easy for me to build my side again. He needed to deal with his anger and bitterness. But how? Just recognizing the problem area is only the beginning. The change begins when some action is taken. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

Walls can also be built between friends, neighbours, business associates and other family members. The principles of getting rid of them are the same. The first step is to recognize there is a problem and be willing to take our share of the responsibility. Confession is more than just admitting our wrong doing, but to be willing to change directions. “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3.

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Send by Sherry M. Keith-Rudd SMKeith@aol.com