Emma loves to build tents. Just the other day she asked if she could build one. We placed the chairs across from the banister and hung a sheet across them. She piled in pillows and her dolls, and then she invited me in for lunch.
Tents are fun to play in, but I don't think I'd want to live in Emma's little tent home. It certainly wouldn't protect us from the weather. It wouldn't give us room to grow. We need a house built strong and firm. We need a house built on a solid foundation.
In the Book of Mormon are the words of a father, Helaman, to his sons Nephi and Lehi. He teaches them about Christ and in those teachings he says, "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 yea are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation wheron if men build they cannot fall," (Helaman 5:12).
Creating habits in our family like family home evening, family and personal prayer and scripture study, and worshipping together is a way of helping our children build upon a foundation of Christ.
Last week when we were running from one thing to the next these foundational habits kept us returning to Christ again and again. Without these in place it would be easy get caught up in life and forget about the importance of our faith.
We don't usually see the foundation of our home. It is beneath the structure where we live. We don't think about it. It is just there holding up the place where the most important work is being done. These spiritual habits are much the same. They are just there and as we keep doing them they create a foundation for our faith individually and as a family. Upon them we continue to build our faith in Christ, without them it is as if we setting up temporary, flimsy structures of faith. Like Emma's tents they might be pleasant and give an illusion of security, but they can't withstand even the slightest blow.
I want my children to have the protection of a sure foundation. I would never send them out into a storm with a sheet and a couple chairs to huddle under for protection. Harold and I provide for them a roof, walls and foundation that keep them comfortable and safe. Could we choose to do less with the foundation of their faith?
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