Preparing your storage

This past week has been more obviously end times than some. Both the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines jet and the bombing in Gaza seem like things that could lead to conflicts involving multiple countries, and the stream of refugees fleeing Central America reminds us how bad living conditions can get, and how badly people can react.

If some of you are thinking more about food storage and evacuation plans, that is completely reasonable. There are many previous posts on preparedness topics, but there can be new things to say too. My thoughts today come from a conversation with a friend about people she knew and some of the things she stored. She was pretty clear that these were good people, but these are bad ideas.

The one man, along with more traditional items, stored coffee, alcohol, and cigarettes. His reasoning was that these would be good items to barter, because people with addictions could be desperate for it, and then he could get what he wanted from them. There are several problems with this reasoning.

I admit that I would just not feel right buying them in the first place, but the really fun part is that eventually he would have to rotate them, and since he couldn't just use these items up he would have to find something to do with them. If that seems impractical, it might also be worth remembering that over a prolonged period of deprivation people would get over their addictions, so the window of opportunity for using them might be small.

Now, there are people who like alcohol without being addicted to it, and and people who made it through the caffeine and the nicotine withdrawal might still want it again, those habits being very powerful, but it feels wrong to exploit that. Accepting other people's needs is good, and accepting that if they do not believe in the Word of Wisdom they are not going to follow it is good and reasonable. However, facilitating their use of items that we believe is harmful is questionable at best, and specifically planning on exploiting it seems really wrong. Plus, back to the practical side, what makes you so sure they will have anything useful?

One thing I frequently notice about provident living is that it seems to bless in multiple ways. Yes, we have some preparation for a famine, or a snow storm that keeps us from the store, but also it allows us to wait until things are on sale, and we have more flexibility with what we can cook; maybe you suddenly get a craving for something you didn't shop for last week, but the ingredients are still there. It works on multiple levels. I don't think that works for the contraband storage.

The other persons unusual stockpile was of guns and ammunition. That was not for barter purposes, but it was planned with other people in mind because she felt that she would need to defend her food storage from other people who didn't have it.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who will find this very sensible, but I'm pretty sure we are supposed to share. We are commanded over and over again to love our neighbors and told that without charity we are nothing. Food storage is a counsel that is valuable, but I know it doesn't preempt charity. Loving your neighbor is going to look more like feeding your neighbors than shooting them.

Does that mean there won't be enough? Maybe, but there are promises involved in laying down your life for your friend that are not associated with shooting your friend. We have also read about manna, and meal and oil that never ran out, and multitudes being fed with a few loaves and fishes. Isn't part of knowing the Gospel that we can feel more faith than fear.

I do worry about a case where my life or the lives of those I care about are in danger. Guns have never felt like the answer though. I have kind of decided that I will throw knives if it comes up, because we have a lot of knives, but I suspect I am not really committed to that, because I never practice. I do hit really hard, so there's that.

Ultimately, I don't know what will happen, but I believe in inspiration. I know warnings can come. I know we can be helped. I know that a lot of the problems that society has come from us fracturing apart instead of pulling together, and I don't want to contribute to that.

Having food storage is good. Being willing to share it is better. And maybe sharing that knowledge, and inspiring those around you to get in their own food storage, and share things we know with them, is best of all.