The Wise Man

Our ward here is doing a new pilot program for Sunday school and Relief Society called "Come, Follow Me."  Everyone gets the same lessons at church and it really focuses on gospel basics and coming closer to Christ.  We are also strongly encouraged to do most of the teaching at home in our families.  I love it and will be sad to go back to the old Sunday school lessons when we go home.  

Anyway, this week the book talked about the wise man and the foolish man.  I thought it was just perfect for us because we are on the beach.  We first talked about it inside about what it means to build you house on a rock, which is to center your life on the savior Jesus Christ.  How do we do that?  Try to be more like him.  In the story the wise man's house stands firm.  The foolish man builds his house on the sand, or worldly things, and it get's washed away.  

After talking about it we went out to the beach and the kids built a sand castle.  I made sure they did it close to the water where the tide would come in, but not too close so they could watch it for a while.

 The they built a house on a rock out or rocks and shells.

Then they went and played.  I noticed that a random person walking on the beach took part of their house on the rock.  It was a fairly cool shell so I couldn't blame them.  The kids didn't notice because they didn't examine it closely.  I thought it was funny.

 We went inside before either houses got washed away.  The kids kept checking on the house but the tide was slower than I thought and it stood until almost bedtime.  It turned out to be a good lesson.  We talked about how if your life is based on more worldly things it might seem good and fun for a long time.  But eventually if it isn't based in our savior it will get washed away.  And it did.  The house on the rock stayed for several more days and the kids forgot about it.

I just noticed in the last picture that Leon is actually in the air.  The kids love playing int he waves!  Leon goes in cycles.  Starting with running right in the water then getting knocked down by a wave.  Then to being scared of the waves and staying away.  To slowing getting closer and closer untill he is in and gets knocked down again.  It takes about a week for him to go through the cycle and is fun to watch.