Self Reliance

The Visiting Teaching Message and a lot of the other articles in the January Ensign were about Provident Living and being self-reliant. I've been on the Relief Society Activities Committee (previously called Enrichment) since we moved into our house, and I've been heading up the Provident Living Group. I think the topic of Provident Living is SO important for our day. We take a lot of what we have and what we know for granted, and there is a lot we need to be doing to be more prepared and self-reliant. We should also be using what we know to help others be more self-reliant as well.

For Scott and I, we are doing little by little to get more on track.

Last year, we planted a garden. This year we plan to have an even better garden that is more organized and hopefully more fruitful--though we did get a TON of tomatoes. We also plan to do some canning this year (last year we opted not to--baby steps).

We're slowly building our food storage. I went to the LDS Cannery and learned what to do, and I'll be returning soon to can some items for my family and bring them home. I'm also using websites like everydayfoodstorage.net and http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net and their wonderful resources and excel spreadsheets to get more organized and get going on serious food storage.

We're also going to be working on some Emergency Preparedness in our house too--like 72 hour kits and emergency planning. (Great FHE ideas *wink)

We're being very financially responsible and saving as much as we possibly can. We used Mint.com to keep track of our budgeting and spending (awesome site by the way)

There's a lot you can do. These are 3 things we've been working on, and we're slowly adding more to the list.

I thought it was such a good article, so I'm just going to post it all up.
From the article:

“Becoming Self-Reliant,” Ensign, Jan 2010, 9
What is Self-Reliance?

“‘Self-reliance means using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems.’ Each of us has a responsibility to try to avoid problems before they happen and to learn to overcome challenges when they occur. …

“How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being.”1

A Gospel Responsibility

“As we live providently and increase our gifts and talents, we become more self-reliant. Self-reliance is taking responsibility for our own spiritual and temporal welfare and for those whom Heavenly Father has entrusted to our care. Only when we are self-reliant can we truly emulate the Savior in serving and blessing others.

“It is important to understand that self-reliance is a means to an end. Our ultimate goal is to become like the Savior, and that goal is enhanced by our unselfish service to others. Our ability to serve is increased or diminished by the level of our self-reliance.”2

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“Self-reliance is a product of our work and undergirds all other welfare practices. It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being. Regarding this principle, President Marion G. Romney [1897–1988] has said: ‘Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation in temporal as well as in spiritual things.’ …

“President Spencer W. Kimball [1895–1985] further taught concerning self-reliance: ‘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.’”3

President Thomas S. Monson.