Create: Builder vs. Wrecker

I love my wife. She is cute, kind, loving, and creative. I often catch her serving our little family, and doing little things to make others happy. I also see her drawing, painting, and coloring with our little ones, praising them and giving them art lessons through her loving example—you should see the masterpieces they create! (I think the children's favorite store is Hobby Lobby because we get fun crafty things there that they use to create gifts for grandparents and lasting memories.)

I saw this video recently, and I couldn't help but think of my Maryann. I love how she carefully works to sculpt our family into something amazing—she is creating a loving home on a daily basis.

I'm reminded of the poem I put to memory as a youth and subsequently heard at my college graduation ceremony at BYU (quoted by my classmate Darrell Sonntag, and attributed to the famous poet: Anonymous):

I passed one day through a lonely town,
and saw some men tear a building down.

With a "Ho, heave, ho," and a husky yell,
they swung a beam, and a sidewall fell.

I asked the foremen, "Are these men skilled?
The kind you'd hire if you had to build?"

"Oh no," he chuckled, "no indeed;
The common laborer is all I need."

"You see, I can destroy in a day, or
two what has taken builders weeks to do."

I thought to myself as I went on my way,
"Which of these roles have I tried to play?

"Am I a builder who works with care,
strengthening lives with rule and square?

"Shaping my peers to a well-made plan?
Helping them be the best they can?

"Or am I a wrecker who walks around,
content with the labor of tearing down?"

While I'm sure Maryann will argue that she does her share of wrecking and tearing down, I'll quick to counter that her tearing down is simply masterful remodeling where weakness and vice have entered in.

My sweet Maryann reminds me to be a builder—to create a loving family through the accumulation of little things which have eternal impact.