Did you know it is only 52 Days until Christmas? Will the next few months be a silly season full of stress and financial anxiety or a time to find the peaceful quiet moments to focus on family and the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior?
I read a funny quote this past week that said ‘organised people are just too lazy to look for stuff’ made me giggle ... But ... when it comes to surviving the silly season and turning it back into a time for family and to focus on the miracle of the birth of Christ, organisation is the key to peace and harmony.
Over the next few weeks I thought we would take a look at Christmas and put a welfare spin on it starting with Family Finances.
The Church has some simply marvellous material devoted to Family Finances. They can be found at www.providentliving.lds.org Available as a PDF and as a paperback from the distribution centre is a booklet called ‘One for the Money’ by Elder Marvin J Ashton. In it he outlines 12 steps to financial stability. The 12 steps plus a
sentence from each are: 1: Pay an honest tith. Paying tithing promptly to Him who does not come to check up each month will teach us and our children to be more honest with those physically closer at hand 2: Learn to manage money before it manages you. Financial peace of mind is not determined by how much we make, but is dependant upon how much we spend.
3: Learn self discipline and self restraint in money matters. Money management skills should be learned together in a spirit of cooperation and love on a continuing basis. 4: Use a budget. Every family must have a predetermined understanding of how much money will be available each month and the amount to be spent in each category of the family budget. 5: Teach family members early the importance of working and earning. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ is not an outdated counsel. It is the basic of personal welfare. One of the greatest favours parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. 6: Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacity to comprehend. Family unity comes from saving together for a common, jointly approved purpose.
7: Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare. As children mature they should understand the family financial position, budget, and investment goals and their individual responsibility within the family.
8: Make education a continuing process. Based on potential lifetime earnings, the hours spent furthering your education will be very valuable indeed.
9: Work toward home ownership. Home ownership qualifies as an investment not consumption. 10: Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program. Costs associated with illness, accident and death may be so large that an uninsured family may be financially burdened for many years.
11: Understand the influence of external forces on family finances and investments. Inflation continues to off set a major portion of average wage increases.
12: Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage and emergency preparedness program. Accumulate your basic food storage and emergency supplies in a systematic and orderly way.
Financially, for us at Christmas time we should be set a budget and stick to it, avoid last minute shopping, make a clear agreed on list of presents or amount per person. Some people have a wish list up throughout the year so the children can write what they truly would like, it does make them think about their choices. Make lists and cross off each item as it has been done. Christmas jars is a fantastic book by LDS writer Jason F Wright. The story revolves around one family’s decision to save all their loose change throughout the year and use that money, and that money
only, for their Christmas gifts. An act of love by their young daughter sees their Christmas jar given to a woman in desperate need of financial help one year, creating a tradition of anonymous Christmas jar giving that spreads through out the country. The idea of putting our spare change into a jar and setting it somewhere where we can see it grow through the year is a good one. I know of many families who have adopted it both as an act of service and for their gift
purchasing. It helps to A: remind ourselves of the greatest gift of all given to us at Christmas and B: helps us to stay within our means and truly enjoy Christmas as a time together.
I hope and pray we each enjoy the lead up to Christmas and enjoy the spirit it brings when we apply gospel principles
and sound counsel to our lives.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
There are so many things I wish to say to you my brothers and sisters, my mind is forever racing, telling me oh they need to know this or they need to know that. But I shall contain myself to just two things today.
First: in reading the October 2008, General Conference talks one section of the Priesthood session really stood out to me to be of welfare worth to us. I quote President Monson’s talk ‘To Learn, to Do, to Be’
‘Many areas of the world have experienced difficult economic times. Businesses have failed, jobs have been lost, and investments have been jeopardized. We must make certain that those for whom we share responsibility do not go hungry or unclothed or unsheltered. When the priesthood of this Church works together as one in meeting these vexing conditions, near miracles take place.
We urge all Latter-day Saints to be prudent in their planning, to be conservative in their living, and to avoid excessive or unnecessary debt. The financial affairs of the Church are being managed in this manner, for we are aware that your tithing and other contributions have not come without sacrifice and are sacred funds.
Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
The Church is in good hands, it is up to us to put our families in good hands, our own and the Lord’s.
President Monson also said “May we learn what we should learn, do what we should do, and be what we should be.”
This is a fantastic statement for welfare in all its many aspects. Family Home Storage, Employment, Education and Literacy, Physical Health, Social and Emotional Strength, Spiritual strength, Family Finances, Emergency Preparedness and Response. It is my prayer that you will find it of equal worth and apply this simple but effective principal to your welfare preparations.
My second topic for the day relates to the first. “Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
Brothers and Sisters we are often taught about the pure love of Christ and what it is to have Christ-like love for our fellow man. Sometimes it can be hard to understand exactly what is meant by Christ-like love when we feel so much less than Christ-like and far from perfect, how can we then find within us this pure love of Christ?
Unconditional Love is a form of Christ-like love. It is loving someone without putting conditions on that love. It is loving someone in the face of adversity, loving regardless of harsh words, actions or deeds. It is loving someone no matter what.
My Brothers and Sisters I can honestly say that I love each and every one of you unconditionally. And when I fall down and put a condition on that love, whether it be, oh that person really annoyed me today or oh they just don’t understand. I turn to the Lord. I express to Him my acknowledgement that I am not perfect, I have failings and human frailties of mind, but that I desire to love without condition everyone I meet, no matter what they do to me. I feel then of His Love for me, His unconditional love, then I feel a renewal of unconditional love fill my heart and every fibre of my being.
Brothers and Sisters we need to love each other unconditionally, we need to be doing everything in our power to love and lift each other up. We need to get our houses in order and stand ready to help others get their houses in order. We need to do this not because we have be counselled to do it, not because the Bishop or Relief Society President called and asked us to come serve but because our hearts are in tune with the Lord and we want to do it.
We need each other now more than ever, it is a great time to be alive and to be members of this Church, His Church, it is a great time to learn unconditional love and to make it a part of our daily lives. It is a great time to learn to love service for the peace and joy it brings you and not out of grudging duty.
This is my testimony, that He lives, He loves us and wants us to find the peace and joy that comes from loving each other. I love Father in Heaven, I love my Savior, I claim my right to worship them, to know them and to be numbered among their flock, to live my life in service to them and to you and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
First: in reading the October 2008, General Conference talks one section of the Priesthood session really stood out to me to be of welfare worth to us. I quote President Monson’s talk ‘To Learn, to Do, to Be’
‘Many areas of the world have experienced difficult economic times. Businesses have failed, jobs have been lost, and investments have been jeopardized. We must make certain that those for whom we share responsibility do not go hungry or unclothed or unsheltered. When the priesthood of this Church works together as one in meeting these vexing conditions, near miracles take place.
We urge all Latter-day Saints to be prudent in their planning, to be conservative in their living, and to avoid excessive or unnecessary debt. The financial affairs of the Church are being managed in this manner, for we are aware that your tithing and other contributions have not come without sacrifice and are sacred funds.
Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
The Church is in good hands, it is up to us to put our families in good hands, our own and the Lord’s.
President Monson also said “May we learn what we should learn, do what we should do, and be what we should be.”
This is a fantastic statement for welfare in all its many aspects. Family Home Storage, Employment, Education and Literacy, Physical Health, Social and Emotional Strength, Spiritual strength, Family Finances, Emergency Preparedness and Response. It is my prayer that you will find it of equal worth and apply this simple but effective principal to your welfare preparations.
My second topic for the day relates to the first. “Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
Brothers and Sisters we are often taught about the pure love of Christ and what it is to have Christ-like love for our fellow man. Sometimes it can be hard to understand exactly what is meant by Christ-like love when we feel so much less than Christ-like and far from perfect, how can we then find within us this pure love of Christ?
Unconditional Love is a form of Christ-like love. It is loving someone without putting conditions on that love. It is loving someone in the face of adversity, loving regardless of harsh words, actions or deeds. It is loving someone no matter what.
My Brothers and Sisters I can honestly say that I love each and every one of you unconditionally. And when I fall down and put a condition on that love, whether it be, oh that person really annoyed me today or oh they just don’t understand. I turn to the Lord. I express to Him my acknowledgement that I am not perfect, I have failings and human frailties of mind, but that I desire to love without condition everyone I meet, no matter what they do to me. I feel then of His Love for me, His unconditional love, then I feel a renewal of unconditional love fill my heart and every fibre of my being.
Brothers and Sisters we need to love each other unconditionally, we need to be doing everything in our power to love and lift each other up. We need to get our houses in order and stand ready to help others get their houses in order. We need to do this not because we have be counselled to do it, not because the Bishop or Relief Society President called and asked us to come serve but because our hearts are in tune with the Lord and we want to do it.
We need each other now more than ever, it is a great time to be alive and to be members of this Church, His Church, it is a great time to learn unconditional love and to make it a part of our daily lives. It is a great time to learn to love service for the peace and joy it brings you and not out of grudging duty.
This is my testimony, that He lives, He loves us and wants us to find the peace and joy that comes from loving each other. I love Father in Heaven, I love my Savior, I claim my right to worship them, to know them and to be numbered among their flock, to live my life in service to them and to you and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
22nd October
It has been a while since I last updated my blog.
Or even made Waverley Welfare newsletters.
But here are my last two that I have done... and finally uploaded.
Hopefully be back on track extolling the blessings and virtues of being prepared for all things.
Until next time
yours in preparedness
Georgia
Or even made Waverley Welfare newsletters.
But here are my last two that I have done... and finally uploaded.
Hopefully be back on track extolling the blessings and virtues of being prepared for all things.
Until next time
yours in preparedness
Georgia
20th September
Wednesday night’s enrichment night with the Grotaers was a very educational evening for all who attended.
Based around President Kimball’s admonition to grow as much fruit and vegetables for ourselves that we possibly can and to learn the skills of home production, the Grotaers shared with us their vast wealth of knowledge and the importance of using certified organic seeds and plants in our gardens.
Briefly: the reason is that the large seeds companies such as Yates have been bought out by even larger chemical companies who have introduced genetically modified seeds. These seeds contain herbicides and pesticides already built into them, worse yet they are genetically engineered to grow sterile fruit and vegetables, so that each year we must buy new seeds. As collecting the seeds from your crop will produce either little or no results. The most important thing for us to
know is that if we are growing genetically modified sterile fruits and vegetables then we are no longer eating living food and it will impact our health. It also means there can be little doubt the fruit and vegetables we buy are also sterile. We can see the impact of this in the rise in disease and illness in the population.
It may sound like hippie tree hugging propaganda, but it is a sad reality of the times in which we live. The seeds companies you can use with peace of mind are certified organic seeds companies such as Green patch, Green harvest and Eden. The Diggers club, which is an online ordering company, carry all organic seeds, their website is www.diggers.com.au.
Another company that has a select range of organic seeds is the New Gippsland Seeds & Bulbs, 120 Lewis Road, Silvan Victoria, Australia, 3795 P.O. Box 1 Silvan Victoria, Australia, 3795 Enquiries: (03) 9737 9560 Free call for orders: 1800
887 732 Free fax for orders: 1800 088 077 Email: orders@newgipps.com.au
I have used this company before and found them to be very helpful. You can see their full catalogue online.
The Grotaers are passionate about gardening and living the Prophets counsel to grow what we feasibly can, they run an organic growing class on the second Saturday of every month. Their contact details are: Pat and Vic Grotaers, 18A
Britannia Creek Rd, Wesburn, ph:59671134.
Of all that the Grotaers shared with us, the most important comment was: ‘Whether you like gardening or not President Kimball said to do it.” he likened it to years ago before there was a Temple in Australia, if you wanted to go to the Temple you had to go to New Zealand. He talked abut how people had to step out in faith and set a date to go and work towards it,
relying on the Lord to help them achieve their goal of getting to the Temple. He said we can liken it to gardening , make the determination to start, rely on the Lord and do it. Step out in faith and see what happens.
We also learnt that some bugs and creepy crawlies are friendly bugs and well worth keeping in your garden, such as the red centipedes we see, these are carnivorous and eat other bugs, namely the bad ones that like to munch on our tender plants like slatter bugs. Those little gray ones that roll into an armoured ball if you touch them. I think most of us came away from
the night with a renewed determination to grow our own vegetables. Attached is a copy of their monthly newsletter for their organic growers club, well worth a read.
One thing that is plainly clear is that growing your own vegetables used to be common practice in nearly every back yard. Now it is almost considered an old fashioned hobby. We need to embrace learning all we can to be prepared for all things. We need to teach our children, our youth, our young adults to be able to grow a garden, sew their own clothes, to be self
sufficient in as much as they can. We are quickly loosing the skills our grandparents grew up with, we need to get them back.
Based around President Kimball’s admonition to grow as much fruit and vegetables for ourselves that we possibly can and to learn the skills of home production, the Grotaers shared with us their vast wealth of knowledge and the importance of using certified organic seeds and plants in our gardens.
Briefly: the reason is that the large seeds companies such as Yates have been bought out by even larger chemical companies who have introduced genetically modified seeds. These seeds contain herbicides and pesticides already built into them, worse yet they are genetically engineered to grow sterile fruit and vegetables, so that each year we must buy new seeds. As collecting the seeds from your crop will produce either little or no results. The most important thing for us to
know is that if we are growing genetically modified sterile fruits and vegetables then we are no longer eating living food and it will impact our health. It also means there can be little doubt the fruit and vegetables we buy are also sterile. We can see the impact of this in the rise in disease and illness in the population.
It may sound like hippie tree hugging propaganda, but it is a sad reality of the times in which we live. The seeds companies you can use with peace of mind are certified organic seeds companies such as Green patch, Green harvest and Eden. The Diggers club, which is an online ordering company, carry all organic seeds, their website is www.diggers.com.au.
Another company that has a select range of organic seeds is the New Gippsland Seeds & Bulbs, 120 Lewis Road, Silvan Victoria, Australia, 3795 P.O. Box 1 Silvan Victoria, Australia, 3795 Enquiries: (03) 9737 9560 Free call for orders: 1800
887 732 Free fax for orders: 1800 088 077 Email: orders@newgipps.com.au
I have used this company before and found them to be very helpful. You can see their full catalogue online.
The Grotaers are passionate about gardening and living the Prophets counsel to grow what we feasibly can, they run an organic growing class on the second Saturday of every month. Their contact details are: Pat and Vic Grotaers, 18A
Britannia Creek Rd, Wesburn, ph:59671134.
Of all that the Grotaers shared with us, the most important comment was: ‘Whether you like gardening or not President Kimball said to do it.” he likened it to years ago before there was a Temple in Australia, if you wanted to go to the Temple you had to go to New Zealand. He talked abut how people had to step out in faith and set a date to go and work towards it,
relying on the Lord to help them achieve their goal of getting to the Temple. He said we can liken it to gardening , make the determination to start, rely on the Lord and do it. Step out in faith and see what happens.
We also learnt that some bugs and creepy crawlies are friendly bugs and well worth keeping in your garden, such as the red centipedes we see, these are carnivorous and eat other bugs, namely the bad ones that like to munch on our tender plants like slatter bugs. Those little gray ones that roll into an armoured ball if you touch them. I think most of us came away from
the night with a renewed determination to grow our own vegetables. Attached is a copy of their monthly newsletter for their organic growers club, well worth a read.
One thing that is plainly clear is that growing your own vegetables used to be common practice in nearly every back yard. Now it is almost considered an old fashioned hobby. We need to embrace learning all we can to be prepared for all things. We need to teach our children, our youth, our young adults to be able to grow a garden, sew their own clothes, to be self
sufficient in as much as they can. We are quickly loosing the skills our grandparents grew up with, we need to get them back.
7th September
Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to the Welfare day set up by the Bayswater / Mooroolbark wards. It was an informative day of stalls and information classes including: fire safety, managing finances, Home storage, Time management ( which I missed coz I was running late!) and mental strength. I met some very interesting people and came home with a nice little bundle of new recipes to try out. I also discovered who knows how to make both soft and hard cheese and I intend to add it to the welfare know how classes early next year.
Brothers and Sisters in what way can I help you to help yourselves become more prepared? I am at your service. Please let me know, even if you want to come around for a hot chocolate and a chat to fully cover everything you want to learn, I make a pretty good hot chocolate and I want very much to be of service. Put me to use my brothers and sisters.
On and off over the years we hear others say or even say ourselves that if the time came to rely on our storage we would not share with those who heeded not the counsel to prepare. Vaughn J Featherstone can put this to rest for us and for others when he said during the 1976 April conference ‘... I should like to address a few remarks to those who ask, ‘Do I share with my
neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?’ - No we don’t have to share -- we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share!’
Also from 1976 April conference Marion G Romney quoted Brigham Young ‘... If we are to be saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will be because we built it... My faith does not lead me to think the Lord will provide us with roast pigs, bread already buttered, etc. He will give us the ability to raise the grain, to obtain the fruits of the earth, to make habitations,
to procure few boards to make a box, and when harvest cines, giving us the grain, it is for us to preserve it--to save the wheat until we have one, two, five or seven years provisions on hand, until there is enough of the staff of life saved by the people to bread themselves and those who will come here seeking safety ... (the fulfillment of that prophecy is yet in the future)’
In 1980 October conference Ezra Taft Benson said ‘Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize the the ravagers of war, economic disaster, famine and earth quake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not
happen, that they will somehow be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harboured such a delusion.’
Pretty straight forward and to the point for the Saints then and for us now. All of these trials are happening around us now. Some of it in this very country and we had better sit up and take notice. I am not without guilt here, I give thanks for the life I have and often times feel sure in my meager preparations. But no more, my brothers and sisters we need to be actively doing
what we can to prepare ourselves and our families and then get out there and help others to prepare. Not just food storage but every aspect of the gospel and its doctrine needs to be in place in our lives so that we may stand firm and sure in the days to come.
We can be as the the people the Lord called Zion ( Moses 7:17-18) of one heart and one mind. We can dwell in righteousness and have no poor among us. No poor of purse, of understanding, of heart, of want. The elect of the Lord are saved for the last days, if it is not us, it is our children to follow, we must help them so that they may indeed be the strongest and most faithful
and be able to endure all things to come. Make a start come to HFPE this Wednesday and learn from the Grotaers, by all accounts they are an incredible wealth of information. Men I know HFPE is for the women so if you want to know what they have to share ... send you women folk along to take notes for you.
Brothers and Sisters in what way can I help you to help yourselves become more prepared? I am at your service. Please let me know, even if you want to come around for a hot chocolate and a chat to fully cover everything you want to learn, I make a pretty good hot chocolate and I want very much to be of service. Put me to use my brothers and sisters.
On and off over the years we hear others say or even say ourselves that if the time came to rely on our storage we would not share with those who heeded not the counsel to prepare. Vaughn J Featherstone can put this to rest for us and for others when he said during the 1976 April conference ‘... I should like to address a few remarks to those who ask, ‘Do I share with my
neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?’ - No we don’t have to share -- we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share!’
Also from 1976 April conference Marion G Romney quoted Brigham Young ‘... If we are to be saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will be because we built it... My faith does not lead me to think the Lord will provide us with roast pigs, bread already buttered, etc. He will give us the ability to raise the grain, to obtain the fruits of the earth, to make habitations,
to procure few boards to make a box, and when harvest cines, giving us the grain, it is for us to preserve it--to save the wheat until we have one, two, five or seven years provisions on hand, until there is enough of the staff of life saved by the people to bread themselves and those who will come here seeking safety ... (the fulfillment of that prophecy is yet in the future)’
In 1980 October conference Ezra Taft Benson said ‘Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize the the ravagers of war, economic disaster, famine and earth quake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not
happen, that they will somehow be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harboured such a delusion.’
Pretty straight forward and to the point for the Saints then and for us now. All of these trials are happening around us now. Some of it in this very country and we had better sit up and take notice. I am not without guilt here, I give thanks for the life I have and often times feel sure in my meager preparations. But no more, my brothers and sisters we need to be actively doing
what we can to prepare ourselves and our families and then get out there and help others to prepare. Not just food storage but every aspect of the gospel and its doctrine needs to be in place in our lives so that we may stand firm and sure in the days to come.
We can be as the the people the Lord called Zion ( Moses 7:17-18) of one heart and one mind. We can dwell in righteousness and have no poor among us. No poor of purse, of understanding, of heart, of want. The elect of the Lord are saved for the last days, if it is not us, it is our children to follow, we must help them so that they may indeed be the strongest and most faithful
and be able to endure all things to come. Make a start come to HFPE this Wednesday and learn from the Grotaers, by all accounts they are an incredible wealth of information. Men I know HFPE is for the women so if you want to know what they have to share ... send you women folk along to take notes for you.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
week ending 10th August
I would like to share with you some very sage words from the Blackburn Ward Welfare Coordinator Carolyn Kwong.
‘It was pointed out that many of the pioneers had to suddenly move West with only a handcart for survival. Hopefully our storage, our garden edibles and our 72 hour emergency packs will never have to be modern day ‘handcarts’.’
In 1976 Spencer W Kimball said ‘The time to disregard this counsel is over ... We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year’s supply. You don’t argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organise and get it done.’
In 1988 President Gordon B Hinckley said ‘There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.’
Then most recently from the Church we have been counselled to keep a Three-Month Supply ‘Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.’ www.lds.org
It puts me to mind of the early days in the bible, Exodus 31-34. The Lord commanded Moses to cut two tablets of stone and bring them with him to the top of Mount Sinai where He, the Lord God, wrote on them with His finger the commandments which the people should follow. While Moses was away the people quickly forgot the Lord and looked for an idol, using the gold from their adornments they made a calf of gold to worship. The Lord was wrath with them and sought to destroy them because they had become a stiff necked people, yet Moses pleaded with the
Lord not to. After he came down from the mount with the tablets and saw for himself what the people had done Moses broke the tablets. The people could not live the law which he had received from the Lord. Later the Lord again bade him hew two stone tablets in which He would write the commandments upon. Moses then brought down these commandments, known to us as the ten commandments.
For close to, if not more than, seventy years now we have been counselled to prepare ourselves. First with a years supply and now a three month supply. How much longer will the Lord be lenient with us before He, as He was with the people led by Moses, is wrath with us.
President Hinckley said ‘Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the
commandments of God.’ The Times in Which We Live,” Ensign, Nov 2001, 72
The time for excuses is over, we need to do everything in our power to prepare ourselves and our families now.
‘It was pointed out that many of the pioneers had to suddenly move West with only a handcart for survival. Hopefully our storage, our garden edibles and our 72 hour emergency packs will never have to be modern day ‘handcarts’.’
In 1976 Spencer W Kimball said ‘The time to disregard this counsel is over ... We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year’s supply. You don’t argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organise and get it done.’
In 1988 President Gordon B Hinckley said ‘There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.’
Then most recently from the Church we have been counselled to keep a Three-Month Supply ‘Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.’ www.lds.org
It puts me to mind of the early days in the bible, Exodus 31-34. The Lord commanded Moses to cut two tablets of stone and bring them with him to the top of Mount Sinai where He, the Lord God, wrote on them with His finger the commandments which the people should follow. While Moses was away the people quickly forgot the Lord and looked for an idol, using the gold from their adornments they made a calf of gold to worship. The Lord was wrath with them and sought to destroy them because they had become a stiff necked people, yet Moses pleaded with the
Lord not to. After he came down from the mount with the tablets and saw for himself what the people had done Moses broke the tablets. The people could not live the law which he had received from the Lord. Later the Lord again bade him hew two stone tablets in which He would write the commandments upon. Moses then brought down these commandments, known to us as the ten commandments.
For close to, if not more than, seventy years now we have been counselled to prepare ourselves. First with a years supply and now a three month supply. How much longer will the Lord be lenient with us before He, as He was with the people led by Moses, is wrath with us.
President Hinckley said ‘Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the
commandments of God.’ The Times in Which We Live,” Ensign, Nov 2001, 72
The time for excuses is over, we need to do everything in our power to prepare ourselves and our families now.
Friday, August 1, 2008
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