Parable of the Foolish Builder
OBJECTIVE
In this module, you will be discussing four parables over four weeks: the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Talents, the Parable of the Foolish Builder, and the Parable of the Pearl. We want to help the children learn the parable, but more importantly, we want the children to place themselves inside the parable and learn how to apply the lesson to themselves. This week, with the Parable of the Foolish Builder, you will want the children to start to evaluate their personal relationship with Christ and see if they have built a foundation in the things that lead to the kingdom of heaven, specifically, prayer, reading the Bible, and partaking in the sacraments (communion and confession) on a regular basis.
INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5 Minutes
Remind the children what parables are (not stories that actually happened, but stories that Jesus used to explain lessons in an easy way for all people to be able to understand). Go over the Parable of the Talents from last week's lesson and quiz the children to see if they remember the lesson.
Option 1:
Ask the children the following questions:
Can you remember a hard time in your life? (getting hurt / parents losing their job / getting a bad grade in school or getting in trouble)
How did you react - did you get mad or sad? Did you turn to God? Why or why not?
Option 2 (House built on the Sand Experiment):
Demo:
Materials:
- Two styrofoam cups (the two houses)
- Scoop of sand or fine material
- Piece of ceramic tile or a rock
- Two jars (one filled with water, the other with clear acetone/ nail polish remover)
- Two trays to catch the liquid
- Draw windows and a door on the styrofoam cups to represent the two houses. Place fill one tray with the sand, and the other with the tile. "Build" each house on the trays and explain what is happening to the children (if they do not stay by themselves, have the children help hold them).
- Pour water into the tray with the tile, which represents the flood, over the house on the rock. Ask the children what happened (nothing should happen).
- Now, pour the acetone over the tray with the sand. Miraculously, the acetone melts the cup, which is what happened to the house that was built on the sand Ask the children why the house on the sand was swept away, but the house built on the rock stood firm even after the flood.
HOLY SCRIPTURE - 2 Minutes
Matthew 7: 24-27
Memory Verse
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock." Matthew 7: 24
CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 15 Minutes
Review the parable with the children. In this parable, a man built his house on the sand, with no foundation. Another man built a house on the rock, with a good strong foundation. A storm happened and the rain came down, the floods came up, the winds blew and beat on the two houses. The house with the good foundation stayed strong and was not damaged, but the house on the sand was destroyed in the storm.
Explain to the children that the house is your soul and we have the choice to establish ourselves on the commandments of God, which is the rock, or on the sand, the forces of the society around us.
You can ask the children to think about what a rock is and what it feels like. It is very strong and sturdy. Our Lord is like a rock (1 Cor 10:4). When we have Christ in our lives it is like we are standing on a rock. We are not going to fall down when Jesus is holding us up. We have to rely on Him with every part of our lives. We put our trust in Him (Heb 2:13, 1 Tim. 4:10). If we do rely on Jesus, He will not let us fall (Rom. 5:5).
You can ask the children what sand is like? It is squishy and it moves when you walk on it. The world is like sand. When we build our lives on whatever we want, but not Jesus, it is like standing on the sand. When life is hard the foundation we are standing on gets squishy and we will fall down. Without Jesus we fall down. The foolish man's house fell down when the storm came.
What is the storm in our life with rain, floods and wind beating on us? These are the currents of the world. The world will tell us that we need to act a certain way (maybe being mean to others, saying bad words, or excluding kids who are not considered cool), or dress a certain way (may you see people wearing tank tops and short shorts), or behave a certain way (maybe you see someone cheating on a test or stealing things or even being disrespectful to teachers).
As Christians, we know that Christ wants us to build our house on the rock - on His words and on His commandments. Explain to the children that to build our house on the rock, we must know Christ's commandments which we learn by reading the Bible and listening to our Father of Confession. In living our life according to God's commandments, we must also be ready to be different from the world - we will need to act differently, behave differently, speak differently, dress differently, shop differently - if we look like and behave like the people of the world, instead of like the people of heaven, then we will be like the foolish builder and when we are faced with troubles or when we are pressured by our friends or classmates to do something bad, we will not have the ability to resist. Explain that we do not want our houses (our souls) to be destroyed by following the trends of our friends and of the world. We want our houses to be based in Christ's life and in His commandments so that we can withstand all the hardships and pressures of this world.
We want to explain to the children that the best way to build our lives is on Jesus. We want Jesus to be our foundation so that, whatever the world suggests to us or whatever hardships we have in life, our house will stand strong in Christ because Christ is the solid rock.
DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes
Ask the children these questions:
- On what did the wise man build his house?
- On what did the foolish man build his house?
- In our lives, who is really the Rock?
- What happens when we build our life upon the rock?
- What happens when we build our life upon the sand?
- What are some of the things that we can do to make sure we have built our house on the rock?
- Will you build your life on the rock or on the sand?
LIFE APPLICATION - 5 Minutes
Remind the children that God is good and wants what is best for us. He wants us to build our lives on the rock because He loves us and wants to take care of us. We are stronger when we trust in Christ and give Him our lives.
Encourage the children to memorize Psalm 1. Read it together in class and share with the students that if they meditate on God's word day and night, they will be like the tree planted by the rivers of water whose leaves shall grow. This is like building your house on the rock. Encourage them to say the psalm every day as many times as they can during the week and to memorize this psalm.
ACTIVITY - 5 - 10 Minutes
One possible activity is to bring legos into the class. Give the children time to build something resembling a house. Ask them questions about whether building the structure would be as easy if they were out at the beach and on the sand.
Another possible activity is to bring smooth stones that have at least one flat side. Have the children paint the rocks with the words "God's Word" or "Jesus" on them. (Here is a link to Amazon Stone Art Craft
Sing "Wise Man Built his House upon the Rock":
Alternatively, you can choose a coloring page or word search activity.
New Testament Books Song
PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK
We will be encouraging the children to memorize psalm 1 this week. Encourage the parents to work with their children to make sure they memorize psalm 1 and encourage them to pray it with their children every day of the week as part of the 1st hour prayers.