Being Prepared

Last week our Bishop messed with a few families in our ward. Two of those families belong to sisters I work with in the Young Women's organization, so I thought of them often throughout the week (okay, mostly I was thinking I was happy it was them, not us). He had these families stand up in Sacrament Meeting and told them the stores had just closed for the week. They couldn't spend any money and would have to survive on the food and other essentials they had at home. In addition, on Thursday they learned they had no power until Saturday night.

Our ward also experienced an earthquake on Thursday where we tested the phone tree and the auxiliary leaders had to report back to the Bishop on the status of the members.

Yesterday, the youth, Relief Society and Priesthood all met together and learned of the experiences of the three families and the outcome of the calls made on Thursday. It was enlightening and also a little disappointing. The whole experience definitely made an impact and put our planning and level of preparedness into perspective (wow, that was a lot of P words). During the week I thought about what my family would eat, if we would be happy with our choices, what we were lacking, what resources might be available to us, how we could help others, etc... The whole experience left both Clint and me with a sense of urgency to do more to prepare our family for whatever may come. We have focused our energy on becoming debt-free and are getting closer with each paycheck, but I admit to not being very good these last several months with increasing our storage of food and other essentials.

It all feels a little overwhelming right now because I know we have a long way to go, but I can only imagine how much more overwhelming it would be to not have the things necessary to take care of our family. I think I have just found a new project.