If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

A couple days ago there was a tornado warning for Lubbock. When James woke up from his afternoon nap, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then half-inch hail stones began to fall from the sky. The hail could be heard overhead, at our back door, on the windows, at our front door; I felt as if the apartment might cave in from all directions. I thought it was cool. I didn't know there was a tornado warning. James and I were at the window watching and video taping it all. We needed to pick Jordan up from school, but I doubted we could remain conscious trekking from our apartment to our car. (Sometimes I forget about a nifty little invention called the umbrella).

When the hail calmed down, I started to get James ready for our trip to the law school. My phone vibrated. It was Jordan. He told me not to leave the house because there was a tornado warning for Lubbock, and all of the law students and faculty were being herded into the basement of the library. A small bit of terror filled my being as I realized we had no basement. We had no cellar. We had no pole that runs deep into the earth to which we could be tethered (see Twister). What were we going to do? Where could we be herded? Then began the thoughts...hide under a table and hold onto the table legs...no no that's for an earthquake...stand in a door frame...no NO that's for an earthquake...stay away from the windows...yes yes away from the windows. We could at least stay away from the windows and then pray that the roof wasn't torn off.

I got off the phone with Jordan and turned on the TV. Sure enough three local stations were broadcasting updates by the second on the "wall cloud," "funnel clouds," and possible "tornadic" weather (yes, apparently tornadic is a word...even though spell checker is underlining it in red right now). Hail stones the size of golf balls and even baseballs were being reported. The weather was becoming quite calm around our apartment however. The thoughts began again...I'm glad 72-hour kits and a 3 month food supply is one of my goals for this year...it's too bad it wasn't my goal last year. After an hour or so, the tornado warning was over. We were spared.

I, however, was left with a deep impression concerning emergency preparedness. That night as I sang "When He Comes Again" (Children's Songbook, 82) to James before putting him to bed, I also became further impressed by the constant need for spiritual preparedness. We truly never know when disaster will strike or when the wonderful day when our Savior comes again will be, so we must always be prepared. The safety of our family and our eternal potential are far too important to slack in these areas.

Here are some helpful links for emergency preparedness and food storage:

http://www.providentliving.org/

http://www.redcross.org

Plan It: http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

Buy It: http://theobsessiveshopper.net/

Eat It: http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Grow it: http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/

Here are a couple helpful links for spiritual preparedness:

http://www.lds.org

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

http://www.mormon.org