Thoughts On Preparedness

I was talking to my friend Marjorie the other day about how glad that I am that we have been taught to prepare. She is teaching a class on preparedness, and asked me to write my feelings down about it. It was hard. I wish I was an eloquent writer, and could express my feelings really well. I am not. But I feel so strongly about this. I wish I could just tell people to take it seriously- do what you can now, because you just never know when you'll need it. Anyways, here's what I came up with.
 

For years I have heard about preparedness. Preparing temporally and well as spiritually. I have always made an effort to work on these. I have never had a years supply, or even close. We have not had the financial ability to do that yet. But we do have at least a good three months supply. As I have gathered our items, I have sometimes wondered if I would ever even use this stuff, or if it would just go to waste. I have never been in any type of natural disaster. That always happens to someone else, in some far away place. Not us. But I have a testimony of following the prophets, and have tried to follow their counsel. I have gathered items, little by little, and eventually our supply has built up. We have also tried to follow the prophets counsel to get or stay out of debt. It has not been easy, and we have had to make many sacrifices, but we have been blessed to be able to do it. Well, there was no hurricane, earthquake, or tornado. But my husband recently lost his job. It is not a natural disaster. But it could be a financial disaster. I have friends ask, "What are you guys going to do?" or "How are you going to make it?" I am not always sure how to answer that question, because we have no idea how everything will work out. What I do know though, is that I am so grateful that we have followed the counsel of our church leaders to prepare. I am so comforted knowing that we have food to feed our family for quite awhile. I am also so grateful to not have debt. This experience would be much more difficult if we had the weight of debt to add to the normal stress of unemployment. In the Doctrine and Covenants 38:30 it tells us that if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. Of course, like any normal person dealing with unemployment, I worry. A lot. But I do not fear. I feel peace. We have prepared. We have done our best, and I know Heavenly Father will bless us. The time for our family to prepare for this challenge has passed. The test has come- it is here. And thankfully, we are ok. I am so grateful for living prophets who lead and direct us. If we follow their counsel, we will be blessed.