The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son, and other things

So, I had the idea recently that I should just post every Sunday on the lesson that I taught or participated in for my primary class (I teach primary; the 11-year-old boys with another brother in the ward, Mike Tatum). So the lesson today was on the Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. There were some interesting insights had in the class. I will talk about those in the following paragraph. There are some other things I've been considering blogging about, and things I have been thinking about: namely, Thor, my cat's life and death, and... other stuff. I can't remember, I just remember there were things I wanted to blog about. But if you feel like anticipating posts, those topics are, I suppose, to be anticipated. In any case:
The parables we talked about in class today can be found in Luke 15 in the Bible.
For those of you who don't know, or who don't really feel like reading them, I can give a summary of these parables:
In the parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus asks who, in the crowd he is teaching, or of all men, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one, will leave the ninety and nine to go find the one, and when he finds it will celebrate and bring his friends together and ask them to celebrate with him that he has found the sheep. The parable of the Lost Coin is sort of the same story, but with a woman who has 10 coins and loses one. Will she not look all over the house to find it, and when she finds it, bring her friends together and ask them to rejoice with her? I assume you have all heard the parable of the Prodigal Son, and if you haven't you should really just read it, and you should probably just read the others anyway.
One way I was able to apply this story to my own knowledge involved the boy being willing to eat the feed he was giving the pigs. I have a family that runs a sheep farm on the outskirts of the county. I was helping my cousin dig out some metal during the winter on the side of one of the buildings, and we found a bucket, the contents of which were rotten sheep milk. It was solid by this point; probably had the consistency of ice cream. They had been considering buying a pig, and my cousin said he would probably just feed that to the pigs when they got it. How hungry or desperate would you have to be to be willing to eat that? I might not eat it at all. In any case, from what I know of pigs, they'll eat anything. For the son to be willing to just eat what the pigs were eating is kind of incredible.
Another thought which came to me about these parables was that every parable includes a celebration at the discovery of that which was lost, but that is where the first two parables stop. In the third, there is another side story: the story of the elder brother and how he reacts to the celebration and welcome  because of the son's return. In each parable, there are three main characters or groups, but only in the third parable does the third character/group react. The characters are:
The Savior, who celebrates at the discovery of the lost: The shepherd, the woman, and the father.
The Lost, who comes back into the fold: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son.
and The Ones not Lost: The 99 sheep, the 9 coins, and the elder brother.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the brother reacts. It says that he is working in the field, and then when he comes back to the house, he hears and sees signs of a celebration, and asks someone what's going on. And the person says that the man's brother is back, and the father has killed the fatted calf, and everyone is celebrating. The brother is immediately resentful. We hope the problem is resolved when he speaks with his father later.
As I began to relate the story to myself and my students, it was established in my mind that we were the Lost and that we could take the position of the ones not lost. We are always the lost. None of us is perfect, and we all make mistakes. But I think sometimes we see ourselves, as members of the church, as being the Ones not Lost, and, though I've never been in a situation where one who was lost comes back and is celebrated, I do think that I have a tendency to condemn those who are lost, and I don't think I would jump to celebrate someone who returned. So though that has not been manifested or proved to myself in my life, I don't think I would do it.
I also, as I was speaking, looked over at my fellow teacher, brother Tatum, and realized that we can also be the father of the story, as we grow and have responsibility over people. As a parent, we are exactly in the situation of the Prodigal Son's father every time our children make decisions. I don't know what that's like yet, but I can see how that can be symbolic of us.
So there's my blog for the day. Maybe I'll write another one on another topic if I have time today.