Thursday, June 2, 2011

Be Prepared



Last month was kind of interesting. People were waiting for the Second Coming, the Rapture, The End of the World, as we know it. It was all over the news, the Internet, even talk shows and comedy routines had the Rapture as a note of interest. Commentators kept mentioning the scripture in Matthew 24:36

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
But just in case I decided not to go to that R rated movie the night before. Now we find out that we have until October 21 when supposedly, the world ‘really will end!
I mention this because we have always been encouraged to prepare ourselves for “every needful thing”.
Doctrine and Covenants 109:8
“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God…”

Doctrine and Covenants 109:15
“And that they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing;”

I use to be ready. I had a dream one night after the birth of my second son. I dreamed that I went to my neighbor and begged for food for my two children. I knew she had her’s. She was the Relief Society President and had told us of the cabinet that her husband had built in the garage to rotate her canned goods.
She said, “ No! I should have been prepared to take care of my own family.”
In the next couple of months my husband and I started to get the things we needed to prepare our family. I told Sherrie about my dream and she laughed and said that she would have given me food for the babies but not for me. She loved to tease me.

I had planned to be a wife and mother. That’s all I wanted. But life intervened in the shape of the Viet Nam War. My husband was drafted the night our first child was born. Because “We need to be prepared for every needful thing” I got my degree in Home Economics Education two weeks after he died. With degree in hand and buckets of wheat and cans of honey and dried milk, I moved back home with my two boys to enter a new phase in my life.
Twenty-six years later my un-rotated stores of food burned in a fire and I needed to start over.

When I watch the news I think, Rapture or not, there are a lot of life changing events happening in our world for which we are not all prepared. Wars, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, accidents, crime, political unrest, and economic downturns are affecting us and the lives around us.
Sit down and make a list. What do you need to do? How can you prepare yourself and your family, physically, emotionally, spiritually for what ever happens in your life. Do you have a job, an education, money saved?
My husband doesn’t think I should dwell on disasters happening. I tell him, “I’m a Girl Scout. I am prepared. If you think about what you would do when a crisis happens, you’re one step ahead if it does. And you will know how to move forward.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

I AM SUMMER




I am dolphins flying over the waves.
I am sand washing castles out to sea.
I am starfish basking in the sunlight
I am crabs creeping along the shore
Waiting for the tide
I am children running, running, running

I am angel fish and clown fish floating
In the blue lagoon
I am turtles tumbling among the rocks
I am octopi occupied with summer's opulence
I am sea horse watching children hatching
I am children running, running, running

I am summer