Tearing things apart can be great liberating fun. It goes against everything our "parent voice" tells us: exercise good stewardship, preserve everything and protect what you have from harm or destruction. Children get this. Children have as much fun building up a tower with blocks as they do utterly and gleefully demolishing it.    

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, "There's a time to tear down and a time to build up..." and when our relationships with others turn for the worse, like with a building blocks tower, a time for tearing down often has instinctive appeal. Yet, for those who follow Jesus, we're exhorted to the more difficult work of "building each other up". 

What have you found helpful in building others up?

For more on building others up, listen to this week's podcast Healing: Building Each Other Up.