A Sure Foundation

As a primary kid, I was always a bit confused by the song “The Wise Man and the Foolish Man.” I didn’t understand why it was so wise to build a house on a rock. Lacking any background in construction and/or real estate (and maybe lacking a little common sense as well), I pictured in my teeny head a house teetering precariously on top of a large boulder. Obviously when the rains came down and the floods came up, the house on that rock wouldn’t stand a chance! The sand, on the other hand, would be flat and smooth. To me, that made way more sense.

On a side note, am I the only kid who was totally lost on the symbolism of primary songs? For many years I thought “Give Said the Little Stream” was a song about watering the lawn.

At any rate, I’m glad to inform you that I now have at least a rudimentary understanding of cement slab foundations and can now see clearly why that would be better for the house-building in question.

I also understand why the sand is a bad idea. Sure, you can smooth it out all flat, but sand is shifty. It is easily blown around by wind or washed away by water and quickly gives to even the slightest weight or pressure. Building a house on the sand is like committing ourselves to the doctrine of the world. Our foundation would be easily influenced by the winds and waves of our social environment. And our foundation would hold no resistance against the various pressures of life. No wonder building on sand is a foolish choice.

So then it really must be a wise man who builds his house on a solid foundation that won’t be unsettled by the doctrine of the world.

“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” (Helaman 5:12).