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What's On Your Walls?
by Norman and Ann Bales
All About Families


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What's on your walls? Don't make a survey trip through your house just yet. Try to mentally recall the walls of your house. We're not really talking about paint, wallpaper and curtains. We're thinking more about pictures, wall plaques, slogans, etc. The walls say a lot about you, your values and your families. As a matter of fact, your walls may even serve as teachers.

In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy, "I have been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in your also." How did Lois and Eunice pass spiritual values along to young Timothy? The Bible doesn't tell us, but you can rest assured that instruction wasn't confined to those times when they sat him on their laps and recited Bible stories. Everything about them - their demeanor, their priorities, their attitudes, the way of handling conflict, their interaction with people outside the home made an impact on the mind of Timothy. So it is in our homes. What does that have to do with our walls? Plenty.

Our walls say a lot about what's important to us. In our home, we display a sign, which reads, "Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." That's probably not one of the ways we communicate Biblical truths, but it does say something about us. First, it says we have a weird sense of humor. Second, it says we expect to survive just about any kind of misfortune. It also reminds us that life's problems are manageable.

If you take a tour of the walls in our house, you will see pictures. You won't see a picture of us going to the bank to deposit our paycheck. Our appliance warranties aren't posted on the wall. We don't plan to frame the car title and display it on the wall either.

We do display pictures of great significance to us. Some are from the distant past. Some are from the recent past. You'll see pictures of graduations, weddings, anniversaries, growing children and grandchildren. We've exhibited pictures of parents, grandparents and even some great grandparents. All these people played an important part in our heritage and we choose to keep their memory alive.

We also have paintings in our home. Every picture we own was either given to us or painted by a friend. There's a Grant Wood print in our home given to us when we left the church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa after fifteen years of serving the church there. Then there's a special print originally painted by the celebrated artist, G. Harvey. It was a Christmas gift from our oldest son and his family. There's a Texas bluebonnet scene painted by a friend of ours. We think our paintings are nice to look at, but we cherish the people who provided them even more.

Our refrigerator is the family bulletin board. The person who invented the refrigerator magnet was a genius. We've attached pictures of friends, personal greetings, and even our upcoming medical appointments. Our medical appointments remind us of our mortality, so they serve a purpose too.

As I was typing these words, I looked at the wall above my computer and I saw three things: (1) A special straw mat that was given to me by a church in American Samoa in appreciation for a preaching mission I conducted there many years ago, (2) a plaque given to me in honor of my service to a Christian youth camp and (3) a laminated poster given to us two years ago by our granddaughter, Audrey. It's packed full of love. The walls contain our trophies. Indeed they tell quite a story about our lives. Okay, you can go look at your walls now. What do you see? What do they say about you to your family and your guests?

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