Walls Between Us

This semester, Bryant and I have been taking a Preparing for Eternal Marriage institute class. (It's my 2nd time taking it, this time with my future hubby). 

It's been a super insightful semester, and I've loved learning all the little (and big) things that will help make our marriage stronger. Shout-out to Brother Irwin for his awesome class and hilarious stories. 

Last week, he changed direction in the course a little bit, and left a few of us a little surprised. But the reason why was so, so important and worth sharing. So here's a few little tidbits. 

He started the lesson by having all of us sit on the floor in a circle at the front of the room. We had just gotten comfortable in our seats, so the thought of moving again had a few of us a little bitter, but we listened. He began rolling the dice in his hand, and asked the class to shout out how many petals were on the rose. We were all confused, but we watched intently as he continued rolling. His goal was to have all of us go from the "out" group of not knowing what was going on, to all knowing what was going on, becoming the "in" group. 

Eventually the guys in the class began to understand what was happening, and the rest of the girls sat in confusion, trying to understand what he was getting at. It left me a little jealous because Bryant had been the second person to get it, and I was stuck trying to figure it out, with no luck. 

Brother Irwin then led a discussion about the ways this is happening in our world. So many in our world and in our very church have been offended by something someone else has said or done, and they can no longer love that person because they are just so upset. He asked us to think about that for a moment, and we proceeded to talk about how we have seen this very thing manifested in our lives. 

It really made me stop and think for a moment about how I have seen this so frequently in my life. Not just in the church, but with other people I either come in contact with, or have heard stories about. It also made me think about the times in my personal life where I have struggled and have put up walls because I chose to be offended, rather than love the people who had wronged me. His next point was just as inspired. 

He told the class that being offended is a choice. And some might get offended by that comment, but it is absolutely true. Being offended(or choosing to not be offended) is a choice we sometimes have to make every day. He closed the class by inviting us to pay attention to the walls we sometimes choose to build around ourselves, and to seek to keep those walls torn down. 

Later on that night, Bryant and I were past done with the day. It had been a long day of classes and homework, and I was just barely getting over being sick. We had one more stop to make before we were done in town, and I could tell Bryant had had it. 

To top it all off, I was reading my map directions wrong, and was leading Bryant in the wrong direction from the apartment we were supposed to meet at, so we both started yelling at each other. We kept saying we were both putting up walls, which led to more blame and disgust. Once we finally finished our last errand for the day, we had to apologize to each other several times because it had gotten that bad. 

From that day forward into this week, we've found that we continue to keep putting more walls up around each other, preventing us from the one thing we need a little more of each and every day. That wall prevented us from finding the LOVE we have for each other. And doesn't everyone deserve just a little more love? 

The conclusion from Brother Irwin's important lesson from that day was that we need to find in our hearts room for just a little more love. Every person we meet on the street or see in our classes is struggling with something. 

We owe it to ourselves and to God to be a little more kind, a little less selfish, a little more forgiving and a little more Christ-like. We owe it to ourselves as humans and mere mortals to admit that we've made mistakes, but to find it in our hearts to forgive those who have wronged us, and seek to find the good in others as well as ourselves. 

It's time to start tearing down the stone walls around our hearts, and make a little more room for peace to reside. After all, the world could use just a little more love. And it starts with ourselves. <3