Heart To Be A Builder
In life there are only two kinds of people: builders and wreckers. They are also sometimes referred to as givers and takers. Like a raging fire that always wants more, takers can never seem to get enough which just happens to be the nature of that particular beast. They are always eager to get but never even a thought of any willingness to give in return. They are so consumed with self-interest and so busy taking that most places they have been for any period of time begins to look like a hoard of locust has just recently passed through. Remember, if we are not blessing others and a part of the solution, we are most certainly part of the problem. Quite the contrary, givers are always wanting to give. They want to build things, improve places and build other people up. They want to make everything they touch better for their having been there. The best part of all this is that we get to choose which type of person we want to be!
We all have a short lease on this planet and it truly will be over for us here sooner than we think. Then, when all is said and done in life and we stop at the end of the the trail to look back, what will we have to show for all our effort? Have we left a barren waste-land of scorched earth in our wake? Have we consumed a lot of groceries and banged up a rusted out cars? Or do we see buildings completed that are still standing; organizations we started, increased and strengthened still performing; system and procedures improved wherever we have toiled, lives changed, mended and built up? Are the towns we lived in a little better because we were there to help?
Even as a little kid in kindergarten, I remember taking a hammer, some nails and few pieces of 2×4’s and building a battle ship on the sidewalk in front of our house. It had a gun turrets and cannons shocking out everywhere (made out of nails). If you saw it, you certainly would not have been impressed but it was a big as my imagination and so real to me. I have always been taken by building. Easy in elementary school days, I was building treehouses and forts out in the woods. Several opportunities opened during the summers of high school and college to work construction. I have always been interested in building things but a little poem I heard about the time I was a lieutenant in theArmy changed my life forever. Building would no longer to limited to sticks, bricks, concrete, steel and rebar.
Purchase The Character Trait Journal to read more…