Wise Man/Foolish man ST

Sharing Time- The Wise Man and the Foolish Man Credit: sugardoodle.net(Melanie Day)

Theme for the month: Jesus Christ gave me agency and through Jesus Christ provided a way for me to repent and return to Him.

Objects Used/Preparation:
a large cake or casserole pan
a medium sized rock, with a flat surface
a small bowl filled with sand
 2 lego houses (to represent a houses)
a pitcher full of water

Here are some legos and right on front is a model of what you can build with these. Do I have to build exactly what is here? Can't I choose to make any design that I can imagine? In fact, I want two people to come up and each quickly construct a house.

Agency is the ability to choose and not be forced to do something. Did I force you to build your house a certain way? Did I say, you must build it like this? No, I gave you a wise suggestion, but you all had the choice what to do with your blocks.

Lesson:

We are going to use these houses that you built to help discover why it is important to use your agency wisely or choose as Jesus would in all doings. We are going to read a story that was taught by Jesus called the wise man and the foolish man. Read Matthew 7:24-27 where the Lord likens a person who follows His words to a wise man who built his house upon a rock, and likens those who hears his sayings and won't do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. When trial and adversity come, the man who wouldn't put the words he heard into practice is washed away, but the man who acted on what he heard, fell not. The wise man who listened to the words was not spared the storm (it hit him as hard as the foolish man), but when trial and adversity came, he was able to withstand them and not fall. He made good choices and because of that his house was fine. He used his agency wisely or made good choices. The foolish man made bad choices and didn’t use his agency wisely.

Put the empty casserole dish on the table so that all the children can see it. Then tip the small bowl with sand in it upside down inside the casserole dish to make something like a small sand island in the dish. (Don't worry if a little crumbles.) Place the medium size rock at the other end of the casserole dish. Then place the "house" on both the sand island and the rock. Pour the water on both of the houses and watch what happens. Remind the children that the house on the rock stayed much better than the house on the sand, just like in Jesus’ story.

Read also Helaman 5:12: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm• shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

We need to remember that Jesus Christ is the rock in this story and Satan is the sand. We want to build our life on the foundation of Jesus Christ (house on the rock and not build our life(house) on the sandy foundation of Satan. Jesus will always build us up and won’t let us fall like Satan will. Satan wants us to fall. Jesus will not only hold us up during the storm, but will ultimately save us when he comes again. He is the one that will pay for all the times we used our agency poorly or didn’t do what we know is right.

How can we build our life on the foundation of Jesus Christ? What should we be doing to make sure that our house is built on the rock and can weather the storm? listen at General Conference and put into practice something you learned; obey a bishop or parent's counsel; read the scriptures and apply those principles, etc)
 
 the LDS Primary Manual 2, 36