My friend Julie recently wrote a post about preparedness in connection to the recent winter storms. This evokes several thoughts and memories for me.

I have lived in this area most of my life and have only had to survive once. We endured being snowed in for a week. At the time I heated my house with wood so heat wasn’t a problem. We had camping gear, a gas stove, and lantern coupled with the wood stove. Cooking wasn’t a problem. Candles, kerosene lamps and the lantern provided what light we needed. We had produce from the garden stored, powered milk, cocoa and sugar along with other staples. At the time, we had 2 young children and an infant at home. It was one of the best vacations I ever had. It was 5 days before I even thought about trying to contact the rest of the world. We played in the deep snow and drank hot chocolate. It was a wonderful time of bonding with my children.

We had a mind set of preparedness then- extra blankets, tools, and food to last a couple of weeks. Water, electricity and heat weren’t issues at that time. Today they would be. I still have a wood stove and even if I didn’t have a reserve of wood I have the capability of cutting a tree down. Water would be a problem unless it was snow or ice that had us shut in. I still keep a couple of week’s worth of food around- staples, garden stuff and, yes, powered milk, cocoa, and sugar. We keep talking about getting a generator but haven't yet. Electricity would be a bigger issue now.

I do think it is important to do what we can to be responsible for ourselves. We can not rely on someone else (goverment) to meet our needs in the event of any catastrophic event either weather related or man made. The latter is my greatest concern.

I will turn the corner here. I truly believe we are in the end times as outlined in the Bible. It is time to turn back to the Bible where the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation describe OUR DAY. Our spiritual health is more important than how much food we have or whether or not we even have a home to heat at all. There will come a time when God will supply every material need, but today we must learn the daily lessons of obedience, faith and trust in Him. Without this, all will be lost.

Peace be with you