Rock, Pebbles and Sand Story

Stories always fascinate kids and spark interest in their interested minds. Storytelling can be used to educate children about several areas of life. While some messages are simple to understand, others are more complicated and cannot be provided directly. In this article, we will discuss a simple story of rock pebbles, and sand. This is an interesting and exciting story for kids. Let's now read the Rock, Pebbles and Sand Story.

Rock, Pebbles and Sand Story

This story occurs in many forms, some integrate the fourth element – water, and some don’t. However, its origin is unknown. So consider the tale to be a metaphor instead of a real person who said the following:

There once was a philosophy professor who was providing a lecture. In front of him, he had a big glass jug, a pile of rocks, a bag of small pebbles, a box of sand, and a bottle of water.

Jar, Sand, Pebbles and Rocks

He started by loading the jar with the big rocks and when they attained the rim of the jar, he held it up to the students and raised a question to them whether  the jar was full. They all approved; there was no more space to put the rocks in, and it was full.

“Is it full?” he asked.

He then picked up the pouch of small pebbles and dropped these into a jar. He shook the jar so that the stones filled the space around the big stones. “Is the jar full now?” he asked. The group of students all looked at each other and acknowledged that the jar was presently full.

A Jar Containing Everything

“Is it full?” he asked.

The professor then picked up the box of sand. He sprinkled the sand in between the pebbles and the rocks and again he held up the jar to his class and questioned if it was full. Once more the students agreed that the jar was entirely full.

Sand, Rocks, Pebbles

Are you sure it’s full? he asked. He finally picked up a jar of water and tipped the water into the jar until it soaked up all the remaining space in the sand. The students chuckled.

The professor went on to clarify that the jar of rocks, pebbles, sand, and water exemplify everything that is in one's life.

A Jar Fill of Pebbles

The Explanation of the Story

“The jar exemplifies your life,

Pebbles play a role in our life like big pebbles”.

The rocks exemplify the most important things that have true value – your health, your family, and your partner. That stuff that if everything else (the pebbles and the sand) was missed and only they remained, your existence would still have meaning.

The uses of pebbles exemplify the things in your life that are significant, but that you could live without. The pebbles are distinct things that provide your life meaning (such as your job, house, specialties, and friendships), but they are not crucial for you to have a significant life. These things often arrive and go, and are not lasting or essential to your general well-being. Pebbles play a role in our life like big pebbles show the big things. 

The sand (and water) exemplifies everything else – the small stuff. Substance possessions, duties, and filler things such as watching TV or browsing social media sites. These things don't represent much to your life as a total and are likely only done to get minor tasks accomplished or even to fill time.

The analogy here is that if you start with settling sand into the jar, you will not have space for rocks or pebbles. This holds with the things you let into your life also. If you spend all of your duration on small and insignificant things, you will run out of time for important things.

Moral of the Story

“Hold the things that matter to you and give time to important things first”.

Summary

Make time for what’s important, this is the whole lesson of this story. In this story, we learnt to take care of the rocks first – the stuff that matters and is crucial to your long-term well-being and prosperity. If you deal with the big problems first by putting the rocks in the jar first, the small problems can still fall into place. Identify the significant things in life (i.e. set your priorities).

Set aside the time you want to work on them. This is where your emphasis should be to live a significant life (without over-obligating yourself).

Then you can fill the pebbles and sand, knowing it’s ok to hesitate a little on these things because they are not so significant. Pebbles here play an important role in our life, like big pebbles are more crucial.