Do you have a wobbly dining table like mine? It's got a single column, barely able to keep the top from breaking down and flipping onto the floor when someone leans on it while the leaf is in.
This table was a generous gift from a friend during a difficult time. It has hosted lots of good memories: home church meetings, meals, games, laughter. It deserved a little restoration.
I sanded off the top to remove the old worn out finish, speckled with glue, paint and nail polish from craft sessions gone by. A coat of new finish makes it look refreshed and ready for many more years of loving use.
The real refreshment came by adding a steel frame under the top to increase the rigidity and strength. The design allows the table to be disassembled almost as easily as before, with nothing extending below the level of the top as it came from the factory.
Added bolts increase the stability overall, and the angle irons create large bearing surfaces for the nuts that keep the top tight to the column, like huge washers.
Four little tack welds to keep the end pieces in place completed this project.
It's solid as a rock.
I'm glad I had this fun little job to inaugurate my new basement workshop.
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Like the utilitarian form of the frame, the things we do that add real strength to our lives and increase our resilience may not be outwardly glamorous or attractive of attention. This frame is not even visible below the table top. It just sits there, quietly supporting the table, out of sight.
What are you doing to add this kind of unassuming supportive strength to your life, and to others?
I like to read good books. I enjoy sharing light and truth. I try to follow the example of Jesus Christ, no matter how that may look, or if nobody sees it but Him.
How's the strength of your spiritual spine?
What might you do to make your faith in the Lord "unshaken?" (Jacob 7; Enos 1)
"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."
Ether 12: 4
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See also:
The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation, by Russell M. Nelson
Daily Restoration, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship, by Robert D. Hales