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Why have latter-day
prophets counseled Church members to build up a food storage? Find out
why, what to store, where to get the money, and if you should share your
food storage in this four part article.
Why Have a Food Storage?
Here are a few of the
main reasons why we should have a food storage program:
1. Through Latter-day
Prophets God has commanded us to have a year's supply of food and other
essentials in our food storage:
-
"The Church
and its members are commanded by the Lord to be self-reliant and independent.
(See D&C 78:13-14)
"The responsibility
for each person’s social, emotional, spiritual, physical, or
economic well-being rests first upon himself, second upon his family,
and third upon the Church if he is a faithful member thereof."
(Spencer W. Kimball, "Welfare
Services: The Gospel in Action," Ensign, Nov. 1977,
76)
-
"There is something
in the Doctrine and Covenants, which says, 'And there shall be a great
hailstorm sent forth to destroy the crops of the earth.' (D&C
29:16). ...What are you going to do when that happens? Ah, brothers
and
sisters, [support] your welfare project, and when that happens and
if you have your year's supply of food in your home, let the hails
come, and the winds blow, and our storehouses in our homes, in our
wards, and in our stakes will be full just as they were in the days
of Joseph, and we will be preserved. I like that plan. What good will
be our greenbacks that we get from the government for security when
all the crops of the earth are destroyed by hail?...You know in the
days of Israel they worked this plan." (Matthew
Cowley [Apostle from 1945-1953], "Matthew Cowley Speaks,"
Deseret Book, 1954)
2. Have a food storage
of essential foods, clothing, fuel, and water will help us during times
of personal and natural disasters.
- "In section
1 of the great Doctrine and Covenants, a volume of modern scripture,
we read these words: 'Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come.
…' (D&C 1:12)
Further in this same revelation are these warning words: '… I the
Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of
the earth . …' (D&C
1:17)
"What are
some of the calamities for which we are to prepare? In section 29 the
Lord warns us of 'a great hailstorm sent forth to destroy the crops
of the earth.' (D&C
29:16) In section 45 we read of 'an overflowing scourge; for a desolating
sickness shall cover the land.' (D&C
45:31) In section 63 the Lord declares he has 'decreed wars upon
the face of the earth. …' (D&C
63:33)
"In Matthew,
chapter 24, we learn of 'famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes.
…' (Matt. 24:7)
The Lord declared that these and other calamities shall occur. These
particular prophecies seem not to be conditional. The Lord, with his
foreknowledge, knows that they will happen. Some will come about through
man’s manipulations; others through the forces of nature and nature’s
God, but that they will come seems certain. Prophecy is but history
in reverse—a divine disclosure of future events." (Ezra Taft
Benson, "Prepare
Ye," Ensign, Jan. 1974, 68)
- "If in 1936
we had told the Saints, 'You would better prepare, because the time
is coming when' - remember, in 1936 the problem was money,-there was
always enough to buy, but the problem today is something to buy, not
money - if we had told you then that the time would come when you could
not buy all the meat you wanted, and perhaps not any at times; that
you could not get butter, and that you could not get sugar, and that
you could not get clothing, and that the farmers could get no machinery,
and so on down the whole list of things that you can not get now and
that therefore you should prepare for a stormy day, we would have been
laughed to scorn. But I say to you again, the advice then given is good
today, and you would better prepare for the times ahead, that you may
not be like the five foolish virgins with no oil in your lamps. (J.
Reuben Clark, Jr. "Church News," March 2, 1946)
3. When we are prepared
we don't have to worry about "what if's" because we'll have
our food storage.
- "If ye are prepared
ye shall not fear." (D&C
38:30)
4. Building up a
food storage helps us learn how to prepare and use basic foods.
Next page >
How to Start and Build up your Food Storage
> Page 1, 2, 3,
4
Don't miss this other
great Food Storage article, "Food
Storage - It's Like Laundry"
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