Dancing on the Wall

Nehemiah 4:17 Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.


Thanks to Facebook, I’ve reconnected with some high school friends. We have had a great time reminiscing about ‘the good old days’ by retelling crazy stories of our youth. Some of the stories shared have been hysterical, some shocking, and many embarrassing.

Our stories are getting re-told, embellished a bit, and shared with our family members. My kids love them, because…well, let’s just say that I can never ground anyone for throwing multi-colored folder spitwads, starting fires in class, going to school dressed in a garbage bag, taping dead bugs to people’s lockers, or….(you get the picture). Jonathan, my rule-loving, perfect-child husband, tries his best to chuckle at the stories, but I see concern deep in his eyes. He’s worried.

My dad used to say that he had one daughter who lived her life well within the boundaries set by the church, school, society, and parents…and that he had another who spent her life dancing on the boundary walls.

Yep, you guessed it. I’m the wall dancer.

Walls are built for a variety of reasons and can symbolize so much. When I was a kid, my parents built strong walls around me, walls of rules and guidelines meant to protect me. And I’m grateful for it, maybe I wasn’t as a rebellious 17-year-old, but now I am. They took the time to build those walls and defend me when I was too young, stupid, and immature to do it for myself. I can almost picture my parents building the wall around me with one hand and fighting off the enemy with the other! I challenged the walls plenty of times growing up and even made my way over a few times, but I knew the way home. And the gates were always open.

Now I’m a wall-builder. As parents, the job has been passed to us. We now build up walls of protection around our own children by creating rules, expectations, and guiding their actions. The same enemy is still mocking, threatening, and coming against the wall, but we stand firm and continue the work. Sword in one hand, trowel in the other.

One day we hope our kids will thank us for the walls we build...whether they live safely within them all of their days, break out and find their way back, or spend a lot of time dancing on the top with their mom.


Charlotte Scales, worship leader