Promptings to get our houses in order

[inspire]

Hello, I'm new to the site (my first post). Please bear with me as I get the jist of how things work around here.

Several months ago, my wife and I received the promptings that we need to get our "house in order" by the end of the summer (complete year's supply, debt-free, good gospel habits, etc.) I know these things are personal and pertain to my family and stewardship, but I can't help but raise my eyebrows when I hear of other family members, friends and fellow ward members who have had very similar impressions.

It could be that the economic tide has turned in the states, that more and more signs of calamitites are being manifested (on a daily basis, it seems), which has made me and others take a good look of where we are and what could happen. I'm not saying that something "bad" is eminently forthcoming, but I've just had this ominous feeling for the last year or so. I don't want to get myself worked into a frenzy, but I'm not about to deny the promptings that have come our way.

Any thoughts on how to stay even-keeled during these tumultuous days?

[Truegrits]

HI! Welcome to the site. :)

Any thoughts on how to stay even-keeled during these tumultuous days?

I think you stated it well when you said...

complete year's supply, debt-free, good gospel habits, etc.)

I think knowing that you have done what has been counseled, being prepared, is what will keep one calm during these times of stress.

And prayer always eases my anxious moments.

[Hemidakota]

I am in the midst of remodeling our home. I was reminded by promptings to add an additional food pantry beside the oversize kitchen and alternative energy source to power the house.

Yes, the Spirit does prompt us in moving in the same direction on what our leaders been saying for many years.

Welcome to the forum...:)

[rameumptom]

Yes, many are being prompted to do the things that prophets have been asking us to do for decades. Perhaps it is because we will be going through a tough recession, or perhaps it IS the last days. Regardless of the reason we are inspired, developing a strong and abiding faith and relationship in Christ is what will carry us through the difficult times.

I recall Pres Hinckley telling us that even though problems abide in the world, he was an optimist. Why? Because he knew God's plan was in effect and the outcome ain't gonna change. As Ether finished his record of the death of his people, he stated that whether he was translated or passed away did not matter, as long as he received eternal life. What a refreshing view from a man that watched millions die over several years. He put things into the proper perspective for us today.

[Guest Username-Removed]

For the last year I have been prompted to get my 72 hour kit perfect and more perfect. Then I was prompted to get my 3 months supply going. Then I was prompted to store an extra bunch of 72 hour kit items - Those that know me know what that turned into. Financially I'm good, so no prompting there other than save, save, save.

Last week I had a prompting to give a full survival kit ($200 value) to someone in my ward. Go figure . So, I met them and said, I was inspired to give this to you - dont know why, here you go.

Its important to follow promptings, I've had some incredible ones in my day. We sometimes dont know why we get them, but we just follow.

Edited June 25, 2008 by WordFLOOD

[Hemidakota]

Are you prompted to give me your kits? LOL Just kidding.

That was quite impressive. You will be blessed for that action. :)

I remember when the church [perhaps a couple years ago] was looking for donation for Christmas lights - Salt Lake Main Street. While visiting my home ward, old friend who serves in the Stake High Council stopped by when seeing me, was prompted to ask me for a donation. I had to laugh when I asked how many of the HPs gave to the pot, he sadly said none. He was prompted by the Spirit to ask me after he returned empty handed. For this, I told him, "What is mine is the Lords." and handed him all the cash in my wallet.

Interesting how the Spirit works...

[Guest Username-Removed]

Hemi,

HA! Thats funny! Well, you and I know the HG knows more whats going on than we do. I was thinking about this earlier today. When I was younger, I probably wouldnt have recognized the spirit so quickly as I do now, now that I'm old - LOL - But from what you are saying, perhaps I shouldn't become a High Priest huh?

Two months ago, after getting strong inspiration, I worked overtime for nearly a month putting in 12 hour days just so I could fill my closet with "stocked" items for 72 hour kits. There they sit with a 5 year expiration on most of it. So, maybe something will happen in 5 years ... who knows?

All I know is I have over 100 survival pocket knives, whistles, and more! LOL. But I am way ok with that! The HG has opened the windows of heaven for me. Im only too happy to reciprocate when asked.

Edited June 25, 2008 by WordFLOOD

[VisionOfLehi]

Wow!

That's awesome dedication, WordFLOOD! Talk about blessings for hard work!

[Guest Username-Removed]

Hello, I'm new to the site (my first post). Please bear with me as I get the jist of how things work around here.

Several months ago, my wife and I received the promptings that we need to get our "house in order" by the end of the summer (complete year's supply, debt-free, good gospel habits, etc.) I know these things are personal and pertain to my family and stewardship, but I can't help but raise my eyebrows when I hear of other family members, friends and fellow ward members who have had very similar impressions.

It could be that the economic tide has turned in the states, that more and more signs of calamitites are being manifested (on a daily basis, it seems), which has made me and others take a good look of where we are and what could happen. I'm not saying that something "bad" is eminently forthcoming, but I've just had this ominous feeling for the last year or so. I don't want to get myself worked into a frenzy, but I'm not about to deny the promptings that have come our way.

Any thoughts on how to stay even-keeled during these tumultuous days?

Inspire,

I know the local leadership in my stake here in Utah is very concerned about the earthquake potential here. With (at least) the research that I have done, I would concur with that. It's interesting though, that in my position for my branch, my direct inspirational message has been that members need to prepare (at least) like they would for a power outage. The message is clear to me. I could talk about earthquakes, the fault line dropping 20 feet in 10 seconds, and even more ..... way more! But instead I get inspired to talk about what happens during a power outage and help people prepare for that. My conclusion is that, most of the things that we can prepare for in an earthquake, are also included in preparing for a power outage. Having extra food & water on hand, Learning how to cope with no electricity, etc etc. Yet, its a lot less fearful when we prepare for a power outage rather than an earthquake. So my conclusion is that fear is not what motivates people, and Heavanly Father knows that. So, we get inspiration on what we need to prepare, rather than the event (or events) themselves. My inspiration leads me to also believe that many of us still have a long ways to go. I think I'll leave it at that.

Edited June 26, 2008 by WordFLOOD

[Misshalfway]

Our Stake Pres is really hitting this hard. He challenged the whole stake to get out of debt, food storage/72 hour kits, and ready cash (2 months pay stubs) in reserves but the end of 2008. It is a wonderful goal. We are making progress on meeting the goal and it feels so good to the mind and soul. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed... but I am more determined than overwhelmed! :)

[Hemidakota]

Looking Ahead to Times of Drought

Meridian Magazine : : Emergency Preparedness: Looking Ahead to Times of Drought

[PapilioMemnon]

We were reminded of that a few weeks ago when a letter of the First Presidency was read to us.

It reminds me of theses scriptures... thank you for reminding me!

D&C 124

110 Verily I say unto you, even now, if he will hearken unto my voice, it shall be well with him. Even so. Amen.

D&C 45

1 Hearken, O ye people of my achurch, to whom the bkingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who cmade the heavens and all the dhosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which elive, and move, and have a being.

2 And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest adeath shall overtake you; in an bhour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the charvest ended, and your souls not saved.

• • •

6 Hearken, O ye people of my church, and ye elders listen together, and hear my voice while it is called atoday, and harden not your hearts;

• • •

11 Wherefore, hearken ye together and let me show unto you even my awisdom—the wisdom of him whom ye say is the God of bEnoch, and his brethren,

• • •

15 Wherefore, hearken and I will reason with you, and I will aspeak unto you and prophesy, as unto men in days of old.

D&C 43

17 Hearken ye, for, behold, the agreat bday of the Lord is nigh at hand.

D&C 21

4 Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give aheed unto all his words and bcommandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all choliness before me;

5 For his aword ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.

[Guest Username-Removed]

We were reminded of that a few weeks ago when a letter of the First Presidency was read to us.

It reminds me of theses scriptures... thank you for reminding me!

D&C 124

110 Verily I say unto you, even now, if he will hearken unto my voice, it shall be well with him. Even so. Amen.

D&C 45

1 Hearken, O ye people of my achurch, to whom the bkingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who cmade the heavens and all the dhosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which elive, and move, and have a being.

2 And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest adeath shall overtake you; in an bhour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the charvest ended, and your souls not saved.

• • •

6 Hearken, O ye people of my church, and ye elders listen together, and hear my voice while it is called atoday, and harden not your hearts;

• • •

11 Wherefore, hearken ye together and let me show unto you even my awisdom—the wisdom of him whom ye say is the God of bEnoch, and his brethren,

• • •

15 Wherefore, hearken and I will reason with you, and I will aspeak unto you and prophesy, as unto men in days of old.

D&C 43

17 Hearken ye, for, behold, the agreat bday of the Lord is nigh at hand.

D&C 21

4 Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give aheed unto all his words and bcommandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all choliness before me;

5 For his aword ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.

Exactly! We just need to listen!

[skalenfehl]

I, too, received this prompting last year. Unfortunately Maslow has me gripped on the lower half of the pyramid right now, but I have slowly, methodically and systematically been trying to get out of debt, while "cleaning" out my house. I am working to sell off everything. I look at all of my toys and wonder why I placed so much value on them. I've been selling them off and paying off debts and slowly trying to work on food storage. My goal since the new year has been to have my house completely in order by the end of this year. All that will remain is to continually hammer down my debt to nothing. I have only one credit card for emergencies and though work is hard to find for me right now, it's just enough to keep my head above water. I have a ways to go, but I've also made good progress in the last couple years.

Mankind goes through periods of droughts, depressions, and the typical highs and lows of the economy. Deeper scrutiny in history reveals that we do this to ourselves and some of it is from God as well, to keep us humble and remembering Him. Once we move out of this economic slump, and I believe we will (though maybe not as it has been before), many people will become complacent again, buy toys again, spend liberally, etc and start the cycle again. I will take advantage and sell, save and store. I believe this economic cycle has been going on since the time of Adam and in a 'type' of natural selection is a way that we tend to evolve (weed ourselves out). In the end will we count ourselves among the wheat or the tares?

Edited June 26, 2008 by skalenfehl

[HiJolly]

I really got a kick in the pants from the Spirit this past winter. I am now out of debt, and we have our 90-day/9 months of food storage, per the "Provident Living" guidelines.

I wish I knew better what is coming. I bought a hunting knife yesterday. I keep adding small things, as time progresses.

HiJolly

[Guest Username-Removed]

I really got a kick in the pants from the Spirit this past winter. I am now out of debt, and we have our 90-day/9 months of food storage, per the "Provident Living" guidelines.

I wish I knew better what is coming. I bought a hunting knife yesterday. I keep adding small things, as time progresses.

HiJolly

Talk to your emergency prepardness coordinator for your ward or branch. If you dont have one, talk to your bishop. The Emergency Prep person is inspired specifically for your ward or branch. I am one for my branch and we all live in apartments. I get VERY VERY specific info regarding apartment living and emergencies. This is why WE are SO big on survival kits and emergency supplies that are portable.

Also, visit my site, there are all kinds of reference material there that are bound to inspire you!

LDSready.org - Main Page - LDS Provident Living

Mark

Edited June 26, 2008 by WordFLOOD

[rameumptom]

Not long after we were married 22+ years ago, my wife was inspired to start doing food storage. Not an easy thing to do in the small southeastern stake we were in. But we jumped in, and helped our stake start a program where we ordered supplies from out west and elsewhere. 2-4 times a year, we would have large orders come in, some as large as 17,000 pounds of storage coming in on semi-trucks.

We would then organize canning days, to can the stuff. My wife and I don't can much stuff. Instead, we get 5 gallon buckets and some dry ice, or the oxygen absorbers, and store our food. It works well. I recently opened up a bucket of oats from 1993 and they were still very useable. Nice thing is, we can reuse buckets, while cans aren't reusable. Many of our buckets were able to get for free over the years by requesting the empty icing buckets from store delis. DON'T use pickle buckets, as it will render food with a terrible taste! As they say, good judgment is what you get from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment....

Anyway, our storage has helped us through a few periods of financial difficulty. After retiring from the USAF, we were able to get by just fine for 5 months while I looked for work.

When we moved from Alabama to Indiana, we had excess storage our grown kids didn't want. We had a struggling family with 12 kids in the ward (they moved in 6 months before, but couldn't sell their Utah home), and so we gave them hundreds of pounds of storage, which helped them immensely until they could sell their house and reduce their costs by $1000/month.

We are now at a point where for four people, we have a 2 year supply of most things. We now tend to buy a lot of nice things to add to our storage. Ramona just bought 25 pounds of Dutch cocoa from the Amish in Ohio this week (yum!). We have a few barrels for water (1 gallon per day/person = 60 days each), but recently purchased a Gravidyn filter system that will remove contaminants (little critters, chemicals and metals) for 6 months on one set of filters. So, if we need to, we can clean mud puddle water for drinking for extended periods of time.

I have about a 10 year supply of salt. Way I see it, if things get real bad (end times type stuff), and money becomes worthless, salt will become a trading commodity. It is cheap, and I can stock up on it easily. While it can get hard in a bucket, it never goes bad.

Finally, I know that if the bishop asks, he's welcome to any or all of it. My responsibility is to obey the commandment/guidance, and then use it to bless others' lives as needed.

If the Bishop doesn't want it, and others desire my assistance, I will do it based partially upon their need. For those with nice homes or abilities, I'll let them work/trade for what food I have available to share. For those who are unable to trade or work, that is where charity will come into play. The way I see it, I've sacrificed to obtain what I have, and it wouldn't be fair to the other individual who has known about storage, but spent their money on a big LCD television instead, to not have the opportunity to earn their food by trading that television (that is if it is still of value and there are shows worth watching).

[rameumptom]

Oh, BTW, I have some food storage info and a spreadsheet, etc., that you can use to help determine your basic food storage needs for the family.

Food Storage ProgramFood Storage Program

[Hemidakota]

Moments like with personal experience can be enriching to others. Thanks for sharing it.

[skalenfehl]

Ram, thank you for sharing that. I love your quote about good judgment. I can relate!

[Bookmeister]

*...sigh...* Okay, more stuff to do...talk to y'all later.

[Dale]

I am deeply concerned about gas prices. Truckers are really hurting and that is how food gets delivered to the store. That effects the cost of everything. I heard by 2010 today that gas might be seven dollars. A possible upcoming attack by Israel on Iran might be in the works. And i heard they stopped a plot to blow up refineries in the middle east. The terrorists know the price of fuel is hurting the economy and might like to hurt us more if they can.

I am not LDS. But i have a bad feeling about the world situation. I support the idea of home storage. I am buying many extras of various personal care items right now. I try and check the expiration date first. I bought twelve tubes of toothpaste. It has expiration dates of September 2009. I have a lot of razers, so i do know i don't have to buy them unless i want to.

Anyway i like knowing i only have to buy food for some time. That is why i focused on putting up personal care items.

With food items i have hesitated to put canned food up. I just have not had room for storing them. But it looks like i am moving in a couple of weeks to a place that has a good size walk in closet. So i plan to start putting up such stuff then.

[tefor]

I have had these promptings over the last year or so, even though I didn't consider myself in much of a condition to do much with them. These promptings have been increasing in both frequency and intensity over the last couple of months, especially with regard to getting out of debt and building up whatever food storage we can cram into our small apartment. I'm the only one working right now, trying to support a family of 5 on around $25,000 annual take-home with $13,000 in debt (about 1/3 medical, another 1/4 car loan). We rent our apartment, have cut down everything to a survival budget, and still have trouble making ends meet. Our bishop won't help us, as he says we need to be more self-reliant, so we're thinking that we might just have to do a bankruptcy and put what we would have spent on bills into food storage. (I've been looking for night work and have applied for some jobs, but haven't heard back from anybody yet.) We have 2 (perhaps 3) autistic children who are pretty high maintenance, so my wife can't really work to help out. I keep hoping that as we continue to pay tithing and have faith, the Lord will sustain us and help us get things ready; I just hope it isn't too late for us.

[Hemidakota]

I keep hoping that as we continue to pay tithing and have faith, the Lord will sustain us and help us get things ready; I just hope it isn't too late for us.

He will...

[Guest Username-Removed]

Tefor,

Boy I hear you brother! All we can do it what we can do. In the end, I can tell you if you come up short, but have done everything you have been inspired to do, you are good! Rely on inspiration, and only use people to help you come to your own conclusions before taking your conclusions to Heavenly Father.

Just my humble opinion.