Family Life

Broken Fences
by Steven L. Conley

It was a dark dreary day as I stood in front of the living room window watching the rain dance on the driveway. I had just hung the phone up after talking to my mother, and as was normally the case we were fighting again, over nothing. I turned around walked over to the chair and sat down. I wondered where and when it all had gone wrong between mom and me.

It seemed as the years went by, we drifted further and further apart. Dad had passed away three years ago and things had been, well, not so easy for mom. The problem with mom was she would not let me do anything to help her. Ok, I will admit there were a few times that she needed me and I wasn't able to help, but she doesn't realize that with a marriage, kids and work, sometimes its all I can do to survive the day.

The rain had stopped and the room went silent. I stood up, walked over to the window and looked up into the sky. With the dark gray clouds hovering above me, a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning forced me to step back from the window. The rain began again only it was much more intense. I walked over to the bookcase and decided that it was a perfect day to sit back and read a book.

I must have looked at every book in the bookcase, trying to find something that would hold my interest. And there sitting on the top shelf, I had a picture of mom and dad. The picture had been taken only days before dad had passed away. Dad had always been a hard working man, a good provider and a wonderful father. I picked the picture up and staired deep into it, remembering all of the wonderful times we had when I lived at home. A tear ran down my cheek as I touched dads face in the picture frame.

The rain came to an abrupt stop. The sun came out and disappeared again. As I looked out the living room window, the sun reappeared, and seemed to stay out this time. What a perfect time for a rainbow to appear in the sky I thought. As I continued to read, I was interrupted by a hammering sound coming from the house next door.

I stood up, walked over to the window and noticed my next-door neighbor replacing a small section of his white picketed fence. The fence had been damaged somehow last week. As I stood there watching him take down the damaged section and replace it with a new fence; I wished the problems in life could be fixed as easily as that.

My mind drifted back to the relationship I had with my mother, or you could say the relationship I did not have with my mother. I continued to watch my neighbor as he methodically replaced the damaged section of fence.

The first thing he did was to recognize that the fence had a problem, it was damaged. Then he had to remove the damaged portion of the fence. Next, he nailed the new fence into place, and the last thing he did was paint the fence. After he had finished the process, you could not tell that the fence had been damaged. It looked as if it were brand new.

I turned, and walking away from the window, and sat back down on the couch. It suddenly occurred to me that I had a damaged fence in my own life to repair. I knelt down in front of my couch and ask God to forgive me for not treating my mother as I should, and to help me find a way to begin to repair our damaged relationship.

As I stood back up, I realized that God had already helped me to take the first step, by revealing to me that there was a problem. Without hesitation I picked the phone up and called mom. The phone rang a few times before this wonderful voice answered, "Hello."

"Hi mom it's me."

"Is everything ok?" she asked.

"Yes mom, I feel fine. I just wanted to say, I love you mom."

Her voice on the other end went silent,"Mom are you still there?" I asked.

"Yes I'm here". I could tell by the cracking tone in her voice that she was crying.

"Mom, I'm sorry for the way I have been acting, will you give me another chance?"

"Nothing in this world would make me happier."? She said.

"Mom, I will try my best to be the daughter to you that I should be".

Five years later, God would take my mom home to be with Him. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her and miss her dearly; and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for helping me mend a very broken fence in my life.

Do you have any broken fences in your life? If you do, I know the greatest carpenter in the world, and he works for free.

Steven L. Conley /2001

About the Author

Steven Conley was born, raised and continues to live in the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia. He is married with no children and works as a salesman in a fine gentleman's retail store. Steven is a member of Broadway Church of the Nazarene in Parkersburg, WV where he has taught Sunday school for the 5th and 6th grades for over four years.