The Broken Fence

“I walked past a lazy man’s field, and it was full of weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.” — from Proverbs 24

One day, wise King Solomon went for a walk. He stopped beside a little farm, and he looked at it for a long time.

It was a mess! Weeds and prickly thistles grew everywhere. And the stone wall around the field had fallen down, with big gaps in it.

Now, the man who owned that farm was not a wicked man. He never knocked the wall down. That is the funny thing. He was just lazy. When a stone fell out, he said, “I’ll fix it tomorrow.” But tomorrow he said, “I’ll fix it tomorrow” all over again. So the wall stayed broken.

And do you know what happens to a field when the wall is broken? Everything gets in! Sheep and goats wander through the gaps and eat all the good plants. Weeds blow in and take over. And when the rain comes hard, there is no wall to hold the good soil, so it washes away.

That poor, lazy man lost his whole field — not because he did something bad, but because he didn’t do anything at all.

Your heart has a wall too. It is made of good things that keep you safe: saying your prayers, listening to the people who teach you about God, and being brave enough to say “no” when something is wrong.

If we get lazy and let those good things go, the wall gets gaps in it. And then all sorts of bad things can wander in.

So keep your wall strong! And if a stone has fallen out, you don’t have to fix everything today. Just pick up one stone and put it back.

Dear God, help me keep the good wall around my heart. When a stone falls out, help me put it back straight away. Amen.