How Firm a Foundation

[jhopewell]

Hey everyone! I'm so glad this board is here! So much easier than sifting through a huge digest from the Primusic site - hopefully other people will realize this soon too!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just update my singing time blog with some ideas for "How Firm a Foundation" and I also put the images I made for it on there for your downloading enjoyment. Good luck!

jenissingingtimehelps.blogspot.com

[avsfan]

Thanks for your images. I know that I will MUCH prefer this board over the emails. sorting through that many was time consuming.

I will definitely be spending more time here ,and posting my ideas here. To each his own.

Thanks for your visuals!

[BBake]

I appreciate this board layout a ton. The other way made my brain want to cry lol.
Thanks for the work on those Jeni

[avsfan]

Here are some more ideas for this song (as discussed on yahoo group)

TEMPLE FOUNDATIONS

SAINT GEORGE: It was built in a marshy area with several natural springs. There is literally as much stone beneath ground as there is above ground to make a foundation strong enough to hold the building up. (The comment can be made that often others don't see all the hard work it takes to ground our family in the Gospel, but it is still important to do.)

LOS ANGELES: The city planners required the Los Angeles temple to have foundations all the way down to bedrock due to the size of the building and because it is a high-earthquake area. As they dug to put in the basement, they discovered that just below the planned basement level was an unusually-high piece of bedrock - they didn't have to dig any deeper than was already planned. (We can tell the children that the Lord helps us find that foundation to build our family upon!)

MANTI: the Manti temple was built in a rock quarry - it took seven years of blasting just to make a hole big enough in the bedrock to put the temple where Brigham Young wanted it. (question: How hard are we willing to work to build our family the Lord's way and where the Lord wants it to be?)

TOKYO: Tokyo is such a high earthquake area that a full one-quarter of the structure is framework and foundation to keep the building from falling in an earthquake. (question: What sort of foundation and support structure do we need to build a safe, gospel-centered family that will survive what the world does to try to pull it apart?)

FYI: The new Twin Falls Temple is also built on a rock. Though it doesn't have a basement, the baptismal font is below ground and had to be blasted out also.

And of course the Salt Lake Temple story.

[avsfan]

Verse 1.
Here is a "rewording" of Verse One as if God were saying it to us in today's language:

"What a firm, steady foundation I have laid for you to build on! – to build upon according to your Faith in Jesus' Excellent Word ... what more can I say to you Saints who have already come unto Him for Refuge from the World?"

I am going to teach the children that our Faith in Jesus & His Gospel is the glue/cement that holds us to the foundation our Heavenly Father has laid for us.

VERSE 3.
Here is a quote from an article I wrote about men and depression that is posted at my personal website:
"Every single military man or veteran interviewed for this article, who has also served in battle, quoted verse three word-for-word and attributed great comfort and hope to those times that the Lord spoke these words to them as they went into a battle situation. I asked my son, who served on night patrols and guarding schools and other institutions in downtown Bagdad, if there was something - "some scripture or..." - He didn't even let me finish before quoting this verse to me. "It wasn't just in my head," he explained forcefully; "Heavenly Father was speaking it to me every time I was entering danger. He was promising me..." -

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand."

I am going to point out that the very first thing the angels said to the shepherds in Bethlehem was: "Fear Not!" Line one tells us why we need not fear - because God is still with us; He has not left us alone.

In line two He establishes that He is still our God - our Supreme Ruler throughout all the Universe and all of Creation... and yet He has time to reach out and help the weakest and lowliest of us! THAT is a god.

In line three He says He will give us strength, He will help us, and He will give us the virtue (strength; courage) to stand ('withstand') even when the world is against us. (As in "Stand Against the Wind'.)


DISMAYED - fearful to the point of losing hope or faith (according to the Oxford Dictionary)

UPHELD - to keep from sinking; protect and support; defend; maintain

OMNIPOTENT - 'potent' means strong; powerful; virile; 'omni-' means 'all-encompassing'. God's hands are the most all-encomapassing, powerful, and life-giving hands that can ever help us in this mortal life - there is simply no other

[avsfan]

From President Faust in the New Era

9. Live with Courage
You precious young ladies will need a lot of courage—courage to stand up to peer pressure, to resist temptation, to withstand ridicule or ostracism, to stand up for the truth. You will also need courage to face the challenges of life. One young woman who was a cross-country runner wrote: “I am often tempted to give up and quit during a race. During my first race this year, when I was just about to be overpowered and stop running, the words to the third verse of ‘How Firm a Foundation’ (Hymns, no. 85) filled my mind. The words gave me the courage to finish the race.” 5

[CarrieS]

I like your site! Great ideas!

Here is what I did for How Firm a Foundation (I'm in a Spanish branch)




versiculouno.blogspot.com/
This is my blog, it'll be all in Spanish eventually! But there are photos of lots of things, so maybe that will help someone.

[ellenhiro]

I love this presentation!!

I am SO excited because Singing Time went SO well!
So well it was almost scary!

I started off with a poster of the Tokyo temple with a picture of a family posted with it - and it was sitting in a big pool of water. I told them how the Tokyo temple is built where there are earthquakes every day (I was there on my mission...) I asked them if it would be smart to build this temple in a pool of water to hold it up. The children laughed at me. So, I put up a cutout of sand to fill the pool and to hold the temple and the family up. They of course knew the sand would not work, and we sang just the verses "the Foolish Man built his house upon the sand...". I put up a picture of a strong foundation covering up the sand and the water as I asked the children who or what is the strongest founation we can build our lives on, and they all yelled "Jesus", and there was of course a picture of Jesus on the foundation I put up. We then sang about "the Wise Man" who built upon the rock.

I pulled out the step for the pulpit and put it in front of the children and had one of the 5-years-olds stand on it. We established it was a strong and firm foundation, and that he felt safe on it. Then I asked his 7-year-old brother to come try to push him off but stopped him before he could. Then I stepped up on the "firm foundation" and put my arm around the little brother and asked the big brother if he still could push his brother off. The older brother wasn't sure, so I suggested he get some friends to help. Five senior Primary boys stood in front of the firm foundation and when I told them to go ahead and try I pulled a baseball bat out from behind me. Three of the boys immediately sat down. I explained this exercise by saying that as we call on Jesus for help He will be there with his "omnipotent hand" to hold us and protect us.

We also talked about the "glue" that holds us to the firm foundation so that others can't push us off. I used the phrase "Faith in His Excellent Word" from the hymn as the official name for the glue, and asked what ingredants go into that glue. I put up a picture of the scriptures and of the prophet speaking. The children also suggested sacred songs (!) and prayer and the Holy Ghost.

I made word strips that only contained the key words in each line, with the rhyming words in red, and they were already posted so that when we finished the demonstration on the foundation I recited the words, pointing at them with my baton (yes, I lead with one...) as I said them... And I was shocked that so many of the children already knew the hymn!!! A full HALF of them recited it with me!!!

I was so thrilled that the children knew this verse!

Our bishop was in Sharing and Singing Time today, and he payed me the HUGEST complement: "Brother Forbes, I am NEVER releasing you from this calling! But leave the bat home next week."

Bruce in Kearns UT