The Wise Man Built...

In our Relief Society lesson on Sunday, Sister Wheatley spoke of her brother's house, which is built on a mountain side, so that the bottom floor is a basement on one side but has a back door on the other, out of which if you stepped out, you were likely to find yourself running down a hill.

Her brother had a retaining wall built a good way down the part of the hill that was his yard, then filled in the area in between the door and the wall so that it became level. We talked about how we can avoid making a "slippery slope" of our lives by learning of and coming to our Savior through prayer, study, obedience to his commandments, walking in his footsteps through service, worshiping in the temple, and so on. Thus, He is a retaining wall, and helps us fill in the space, so that we find ourselves standing firm.

As our discussion progressed, into my mind came a picture of my parents' house. Dad built it about seven years ago, when he was 75. When Mom saw the lot upon which he planned to build, she was incredulous: "How do you intend to build a house there?" she remonstrated. "It's solid rock!"

Yes, it was solid rock, but the location was amazing - right on the crest of a small mountain, with a gorgeous commanding view.

Well, he did it, and it is a lovely, welcoming, comfortable house, with its foundation sunk into bedrock. The wind blows savagely up there sometimes, so much so that the heavy glass tabletop from their patio set was blown right off the table and broken on the rocks below; but the house itself stands firm, shielding its inhabitants from the wind and the weather.

Considering my father's house from the standpoint of the lesson, I saw that it is symbolic of the decision my parents made long ago to fully commit themselves to their membership in the Lord's kingdom. They married at 18. By the time my sister and I had come along, they saw the need to be united in their belief system. My mother had always attended the non-denominational community church, but my father was a less-active Mormon. When they discussed the church in which to bring up their family, there was no doubt in Dad's mind: his.

Accordingly, Mom participated in missionary discussions, seeking and receiving a testimony of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before her baptism, she gave my father this ultimatum: if we go this route, there will be no half-commitment; it will be 100%, full steam ahead. He said okay, and neither of them has looked back since.

Sixty years later, their house is a visible witness of that commitment. Their marriage, their lives, and what they bequeathed to us, their posterity, are built upon the Rock. For each of us who remains true to that foundation, the house on the top of the mountain will stand firm throughout eternity.