(photo from providentliving.org)
"For over 100 years we have been admonished to store up grain. 'Remember the counsel that is given,' said Elder Orson Hyde, 'Store up all your grain, and take care of it! . . . And I tell you it is almost as necessary to have bread to sustain the body as it is to have food for the spirit.' From the standpoint of food production, storage, handling, and the Lord's counsel, wheat should have high priority. Water, of course, is essential. Other basics could include honey, or sugar, legumes, milk products or substitutes, and salt or its equivalent. The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."
--Elder Ezra Taft Benson (Oct. Conference 1973)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Provident Living

"Personal and family preparedness should be a way of life, a way of provident living. Being provident involves being 'wise, frugal, prudent, making provision for the future while attending to immediate needs.'

"Home production and storage is a very necessary element of personal and family preparedness; however, it is not the only element, nor is it necessarily the most significant element. Some people have reacted to the theme of preparedness as if it were a doomsday matter. In reality, all six elements of personal and family preparedness are to be emphasized so that the Latter-Day Saints may be better prepared to meet the ordinary, day-to-day requirements of successful living . . . Our emphasis on this subject is not grounds for crisis thinking or panic. Quite the contrary, personal and family preparedness should be a way of provident living, an orderly approach to using the resources, gifts, and talents the Lord shares with us. So the first step is to teach our people to be self-reliant and independent through proper preparation for daily life." (Essentials of Home Production and Storage)

So we can live the letter of the law and purchase a one year's supply of the very most basics and put them in a forgotten corner until an emergency arises or we can practice "provident living" by building up our food storage, especially the very most basics and USING them as part of our daily life.

If you read Doctrine and Covenants 89: 10-17 it sounds kind of like basic food storage, doesn't it?! Then read verses 18-21 in the same section and you'll hear the promises that come from obeying the Word of Wisdom. President Benson taught us that "God has never given any TEMPORAL commandments--and that which affects our stature affects our soul." This is true in application to the Word of Wisdom and it is true in application to the commandment to store food. If we will store the basics and use them in our daily diet we will be blessed temporally with better health, temporal security, etc. as well as spiritual blessings--wisdom and "treasures of great knowledge". These treasures will include knowing or learning how to store the things we need, what to store, and how to use it on a daily basis.

"It is prudent and wise for every household to have some food stored for use in time of need . . but a word of caution--any food storage program must be used. No food will last indefinitely. If food in storage is not used and rotated with fresh items it will become a waste of time, money, and resources and the very reason the food was stored (security, obedience, investment, etc.) will be lost. JUST BECAUSE THE STORAGE IS IN THE HOUSE DOES NOT MEAN THE STORAGE IS COMPLETE. USE IT!" ("Use It or Lose It" by Rebecca Low and Deloy Hendricks)

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