Sister Patti Tippetts
Primary Music Leader
Just a few years ago I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academies. As he explained his theory on the basics of education, my mind couldn’t resist humming through a sweet Primary song I have known as long as I can remember. While my mind sang thoughtfully, he talked generally about educational topic like math, science, English, history, etc. and described the process of building a foundation in the subject before moving on to the next step. He illustrated his point something like this:
If we are teaching children how to multiply numbers, and we have two weeks of lessons on multiplication, and then we plan to move on to division next, regardless of whether or not each child has grasped and understands multiplication, we are setting them up to fail and crumble.
That would be like a foreman on a construction crew building a house and instructing his crew that they have two weeks to get the foundation ready. But it rained a few of those days, the ground was soggy and they had to wait for it to dry a bit, and some of the crew were sick and didn’t come to work, and perhaps there were other circumstances that prevented the crew from finishing the foundation within the two week time limit. The foreman comes back to the site at the end of the two weeks and sees that the foundation is not ready, but indicates that they are out of time and must move on. “Start building the house anyway. I know we don’t have a sturdy, strong foundation, but we must keep going. Start putting up the walls. Run the pipes and wires. Let’s keep on building.”
As Mr Khan continued to predict the consequences of such a careless attitude toward the education of children, my mind twittered, “The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down…..” We all know what didn’t happen to the wise man’s house. And we also know what did happen to the foolish man’s house. Without a complete foundation, the house Mr Khan described has no chance of being able to withstand the natural everyday weather, let alone the turbulent unexpected raging storms that always come at some point, as is the case of the house built on the sand by the foolish man in the song.
Our lives are very much the same. When we build our lives, we must take care that our foundation is sure and solid. How do we do this? Heavenly Father has given us Jesus Christ as our sure foundation. When we do the things He has taught us, live by the example He has shown us, and follow the commandments He has given us, we are strengthening our foundation. Now when the world comes at us with the noisy and brazen voice of confusion, the sneaky temptations of sin, and the battle of trials and complications (like when the wind howls, the rain pounds, and even the Earth shakes), our foundation will hold us strong and steady in the truth our Heavenly Father and Jesus have given us. And with the confidence of that rock-solid foundation, we will be able to quiet the chaos to hear the whisperings of the Spirit, courageously resist temptations thrust before us, and triumph--sometimes boldly and sometimes barely--over tribulation and heart-ache.
I hope you can take some time to think of ways you can sure-up your foundation in Jesus Christ and His gospel. Talk about these ideas with your family. And you could all sing together…..
Here are some more songs you could practice:
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