“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”
(Proverbs 14:1)
I saw them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a dusty town.
With a “yo heave ho” and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam and the sidewall fell.
I asked the foreman if these men were as skilled
As the men he’d hire, if he were to build.
He laughed and said, “Oh, no indeed.”
Common labor is all I need.
For those men can wreck in a day or two,
What builders had taken years to do.
I asked myself as I went my way,
Which kind of role am I to play?
Am I the builder who builds with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?
Or am I the wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the role of tearing down?
– Author Unknown
This article was modified from an article originally written by Roberta Standen and posted to this site on 2002/08/24.
