For over 150 years we have been counseled to be prepared.
It's not a new concept. We have been told many times, by many prophets, and many different ways.
My question to you today is how do you prepare? And what do you prepare for?
DH and I watched "Doomsday Preppers" so we know there are many things people are preparing for...but our preparedness can take so many different forms.
Do you have a pantry type place you store extra food? Just a bit, but you have it on hand for "just in case".
How about a bunch of buckets under your stairs. Filled with wheat and beans and other things you don't know how to use. (or do you? Is that part of your preparedness? Learning how to use your food storage and make it yummy?)
How about a shelf or two or twenty full of food?
Do you think it means you acquire the skills you need to can? Do you have the glass jars and snaps and lids, with equipment and know how to use it?
Or is it acquiring the skills to make things like soap by hand? Or cheese or other simple things you could make?
Does it mean you have books on a wide variety of subjects, or even just a few?
Do you think you need land to be as self-sufficient as you can be? Raising your own animals and gardens and being "off-grid"?
Is it having a bunch of guns, bows, knives and the know-how to use them? Do you store the ammo, arrows and tools to care for each of them as well?
What does preparedness look like to you? Do you think it is just storing the food we are counseled to store? Or does it encompass more? Does it become a life style and make you a different person?
I would love to hear from you about how or why you do the things you do to prepare. How does your family make it work for you? What types of things do you do?
Cheers
5 comments:
I was just thinking about you as I was setting out my buckets in my laundry room so I could have a "table" to sort my clothes on but also have a place for my food storage.
I am still in the very basic phase. I need to change that. I have learned to can but want to do more. Not just have the basic foods and stuff. I want most to have a large garden set up but have one portion of it where I simply grow food for seeds. I want to understand that better so I can do all I can to provide for my family and those who may come our way.
Yesterday, I attended an area wide conference presided over by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He was the concluding speaker, and among many, many other wonderful pieces of advice, he said that we have been counseled to store food and water, not arms and ammunitions.
That comment gave me what my daughter calls 'spiritual whiplash'! I will not criticize anyone who makes efforts to prepare for times of need. I believe that we must do what we feel will best provide for OUR family, for OUR needs, and give us the ability to help others. But as I have pondered on Elder Oaks comment, I've remembered times in my life (more than a half century) when panic would prevail and people would go into debt to hoard food and other items. Of course, because this type of preparation was done quickly, choices of what was stored were not always wisely made. That is not what the Lord wants us to do. (We once stored freeze-dried sweet potato powder that was so awful not even the chickens would eat it! A panic purchase!) Rather, we should prepare sensibly, giving thought to current family needs, financial situation, housing and storage capacity and to how needs will change in future years. I certainly do not need to store the same things now that I did when my children were younger and we had many more mouths to feed.
Another subject that Elder Oaks discussed was individuals and groups who push their own agendas for a variety of issues, from marriage counseling and therapy to paramilitary preparation. Elder Oaks said this is priestcraft - wanting others to admire, praise and follow a personal agenda.
I've been thinking a lot about the counsel Elder Oaks gave yesterday. Whatever storage or preparedness efforts we make, we should continually seek guidance from the Spirit, rather than fad-following and hand-wringing. That is the kind of preparation that overcomes fear. With that in mind, we do what we can do best, and, again from Elder Oaks, do it for the right reasons and at the right time. Just some random thoughts...
Ooh, I really like that Maggie shared what Elder Oaks said. That's really interesting.
I think that's how I see it too- I try to just follow the spirit and prepare as I feel I need to for our situation. I definitely felt prompted to save money and build up our food storage and then we were out of work for 6 months and it was a great blessing. I do feel like I need to get a garden going, but it's a slow process here in the Mojave desert.
Maggie, Thank you for sharing what you learned from Elder Oaks! What wonderful council. I love that the leadership councils us and gives us direction. I also LOVE that we are entitled to our own revelation for our family. Beautiful.
(and as for us, we love to store the guns, ammo and bows for hunting, I can see how someone would do it for protection, but we are very wary of that so your comment rings very true to me.)
Thanks again for chiming in. I love it.
Holly, your determination to grow a garden is an inspiration to me. I really admire the hard work you put in to do it.
I think preparedness is a lot more than just food storage, because at the end of the day if you aren't spiritually prepared the food still isn't going to provide peace.
We try to be as self-sufficient as possible, but again even that comes down to promptings from the Spirit, because what our family needs to be prepared for is different from what other families need to be prepared for.
I hadn't taken the time to sit down and think about that before, thanks for the push!
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