Family Faith and Fun Fridays: Building Our House on the Rock

<sup>Some stories in the Bible just beg for a tangible re-telling.


 This is my favorite method of bringing the Word to life with my young ones, because it re-inforces scripture in such a simple but powerful way.


Last weekend we re-enacted the parable of the wise and foolish builders on our driveway.</sup> 


We scooped a bucket of sand from our sandbox and poured it on the cement. 


Then each child received a handful of wooden blocks for building.


I gave them five minutes to create “the strongest house they could” out of the blocks they’d been given.


Josh chose to build on the sand, while the girls chose to construct their creations on the cement. 


Once the houses were erected, we read the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:24-29:


 “’Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 


 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.’


 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”


After reading this familiar parable, I asked the kids which of their homemade houses would be able to withstand a storm.


They, of course, pointed to the blocks on the cement. 


Then we grabbed the garden hose and placed it on the ground beside the houses and turned the water on full blast.  


We watched as the rush of water snaked its way through the blocks. 


Just as the parable predicted, the girls’ houses on the cement stood strong. 


However, the sand beneath Joshua’s blocks slowly began to shift with the moving water and eventually my son’s creation slipped and fell one block at a time.


As we watched the sandy foundation fall, we talked about what the parable really meant. 


I clarified that Jesus wasn’t talking about actually building houses, but about building our lives. 


Are our lives built on His rock-solid truth or on the shifting sands of our own feelings and moods?  Do we make decisions based on what the Bible says is right or based on what the world says is okay? 


Our little driveway experiment made it clear: 


If we want to stand firm when the storms of life come, we need to build our lives on the firm foundation of God’s Word.