What Manner of House Am I Building?

The Story of the Three Little Swine, although a seemingly simplistic child’s tale, poses a very important and profound question that we should all periodically ask ourselves: What manner of house am I building?

What manner of house am I building? Have I foolishly supposed, as the swine that built their houses of straw and sticks, that I can construct my own house using the materials of procrastination and idleness, and that the big bad wolves and the storms of life will not be able to blow it down? Or have I realized, as the wise swine that built his house of bricks, that I must construct my house with hard work, perseverance and sacrifice, in order to make it strong enough to withstand the trials and adversity that come to us all?

Even more importantly, what manner of spiritual house am I building up unto myself? Am I constructing it using materials that will be able to protect me from the evil one who “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour?”¹ Have I, as the wise man, built my house upon the rock of the word of God, which is able to resist the winds, rains and floods of the adversary? Or have I, as the foolish man, erected it on a sandy foundation which cannot weather the spiritual storms of life?² Am I doing that which is necessary to reserve unto myself a mansion in the Kingdom of Heaven?³ Or am I feeling my way toward the great and spacious building, whose foundation is nothing but thin air, and whose destiny is to fall?⁴

Is my tent pitched toward Sodom (worldliness), as Lot of old, whose end was disaster and ruin?⁵ Or is my tent pitched with the door toward the temple of the Living God, as the people of King Benjamin, that I may continually be strengthened by the words of Christ, as delivered by his appointed servants?⁶

These are questions that we should all ponder. As we do so, let us 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 ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”⁷

1.       1 Peter 5:8

2.       Matthew 7:24-27

3.       D&C 72:4

4.       1 Nephi 11:36

5.       Genesis 13:12

6.       Mosiah 2:6

7.       Helaman 5:12