Japan and Preparation

My heart goes out to all of those affected by the disasters in Japan. I saw some footage and the devastation is mind-boggling. I feel so bad for those people. It's overwhelming to see such destruction.

Watching the effects of this disaster made me question my own preparation. Would I be prepared if struck with a natural disaster? I don't live on a fault line, near a large body of water, or in tornado alley. However, we've had enough snow fall at times to knock out our electricity and make it impossible to get out of our driveway for a few days. Even losing electricity for seemingly no reason means we can't use our well so we have no water. Droughts can also cause us problems because it means we'll have very little water for household use. Certainly not a disaster but it does take some forethought and preparation.

And what about personal disasters? In the course of one week we had a member of our ward suffer a heart attack and another one that was involved in a head-on collision. The member with the heart attack is self-employed and he has 9 of his 13 children still living at home. The man involved in the car accident had serious injuries to his leg and has been in a wheelchair. Neither of these people expected what happened and both will be out of work for a while. I'm thinking their food storage will come in very handy.

And that's the thing with disasters, natural or personal, we usually don't see them coming. So we have to ask ourselves, are we prepared? The brethren have been counseling us to build up food storage, fuel, and the like for many, many years. Are we listening? I believe a lot of that storage will be used in personal disasters like losing a job, sickness, accidents, etc., but each of us, especially in lght of the disaster in Japan, would be wise to take stock of our preparation in case of a disaster.

No one can deny we are in the last days and we are seeing many prophecies being fulfilled. There will continue to be natural disasters, and if our government doen't get itself under control we'll be seeing more and more personal disasters. I've watched the housing market where I live come to a standstill and those involved in the construction industry have lost income and even their own homes because of this current economy.

There will come a time, just as Joseph Smith prophesied, when we will not be able to buy a loaf of bread for a wheelbarrow of money. We will have to depend on what we've stored. We've been warned and we need to heed that warning to protect ourselves and our families from suffering.

I know of a family that told their kids that they'd never go on missions or get married because the end of the world would come before then--that was 20 years ago. I don't believe in being scared or going all doomsdayish, but I do believe in being prepared. If we're prepared we need not fear.

So let's learn from what's happened to Japan and now, while we still can, let's get prepared. We never know when a disaster is lurking around the corner.