Brick Wall

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Metaphor of the Brick Wall
Years ago I taught a lesson to our young women in the 2nd ward which had a deep impact on me. It was the metaphor of the brick wall. In essense the metaphor is that each brick we lay represents each action we DO. We can have a wall full of wonderful deeds. But if there is no mortar to hold the wall together, then it will collapse – and great will be the fall thereof. And what is the mortar? I would suggest that it is our integrity and our honesty to our beliefs. It is who we are. If we do things just for the sake of being seen, and inside we don’t have a testimony, then when the trails come, we will fall apart.
And so we must have both…the bricks of our actions, and the mortar of our convictions and integrity.
So what are we to do…
1. Do good of our own free will…because we want to…
§ Do good without being assigned to do good. Be kind to others. Look for those who are troubled, and see what can be done to bless them. Especially reach out to touch even the least of these our brethren. Being a good samaritan will not only bless others, but it blesses us as well.
§ When we don’t have a calling in the church – we still have a calling to be help strengthen our communities, bless our neighbors, and lift the poor wayfaring man of grief.
§ Verily I say, Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much rightousness. For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward (DC58:27-28)
§ I’m so impressed with all the wonderful examples we have in our Stake of people who love to work. Who look for people at church, at work, or wherever they are and find ways to help them. They aren’t being instructed to serve, they just do it because it’s right.
o My wife was out running and found a neighbor who was loading up into his car a shopping cart that had gone astray and was going to return it to the labelled store. He wasn’t commanded to do it. He wasn’t assigned to be the sherpherd of all lost carts returning them to the fold. He just saw a need and did it.