The Wise Man and the Foolish Man

So I am not the most creative person so when I have a good moment I feel I should share.

We had a primary teacher (and scout leader and activity day leader) appreciation meeting on Sunday.  We took the teachers during sharing time and singing time and the leaders during sunday school into the kitchen at the church where we served some refreshments and had a little lesson.

We shared a few things from Teaching No Greater Call and then a member of the Bishopric spoke about the importance of good primary teachers.

Then it was my turn.  I had a hard time deciding exactly how I wanted to approach this. But, two talks stood out to me during conference that seemed to help me know what I should focus on as a primary president and a mother for that matter. "A Sure Foundation" by Bishop Davies and "The Home: The School of Life" by Elder Falabella.  They both talk of The Wiseman and the Foolish Man.

Last night for Family Home Evening I repeated my talk/lesson for my family.  If you want to see my handout or what I used to teach from let me know and I will send it to you. 

 First, I believe all men are entitled to the Atonement no matter where our house is built, sand or rock.  Take a moment to talk of the Atonement and how it can help the foolish man to change his sand to stone. 

 These two pictures are of the long logs used to make the house built on rock.  I started with the first principles and ordinances of the gospel (4th article of faith).  Then I quoted from Bishop Davies about the things needed to form a firm foundation.  We then added all of our logs.  

 To build our house on the sand I used the little logs and built up adding an occasional long log to represent when someone occasionally goes to church or reads their scriptures or prays- you get the idea. 

The things written on these are cheap thrills, fortune, fame, bad media, bad music, lying, immodesty, just once. 

 I ended the rock house with endure to the end and discussed what that meant. 

I ended the sand house with pride- this was a bit hard for Arabella to understand but we tried to explain.

 

 The finished sand house.  It was purely coincidental that it ended up taller than the other and open so that it seemed like the great and spacious building.  If you put your hand on it and rock it back and forth it is easy to see that it is not as sturdy.

 The finished rock house.  It is strong.  Lily even picked it up on the sides and it did not fall apart.

I was going for a picture of the two together and tried to slide the sand one over and it fell not a bad way to end the lesson.  I talked to my kids about why it was so important to have a firm foundation.  We talked about how hard things will come in our lives and a firm foundation will make us prepared.  The scriptures I used were Matt. 7:24-27 and Helaman 5:12.  

We of course finished the lesson with singing the Wise Man and the Foolish Man.

I thought I would share.