The Wise Man built his House upon the Rock

We all know the parable of the wise man and the foolish man. One builds his house on a rock, the other on sand - which in reality is composed of a bunch of tiny rocks but that is beside the point. The point is they were both building houses to guard against the storm.

I work in the construction industry and so I happen to know a thing or two about building sound structures. A firm foundation is not the only element that is necessary for a structure to be safe. It is the most important but there are other supports required  to keep a building from toppling when the wind blows. The formula goes something like this (very simplfied):

Firm Foundation + columns + beams = secure structure

I've been thinking a lot about the wise men's house and what are the columns and beams of the gospel that make each of us strong as we face our whirlwinds. This is what I've come up with (the gospel according to Sandy):

So to recap: to build ourselves a strong safe haven from the whirlwinds we need:

1) a firm foundation = Jesus Christ

2) columns = the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel

3) beams = additional ordinances (the sacrement, worthily excersising the priesthood -ladies we get a pass here- and ordinances found in Holy Temples), covenants, and endurance (which kind of brings us back to faith)

If we are missing one element from our lives or are not vigilent in protecting the structural integrity of even just one of the structural members regardless of whether our house is built on the rock, we run the risk of having it topple just as easily as if we had built on sand.