self-reliance

Marie, at Food Storage, A Necessary Adventure, recently wrote about the importance of perpetuation, or the need to gain skills that allow you to replenish your storage supplies from your own resources. Marie is currently learning about storing and using her own pumpkins. I love her thoughts on perpetuation. If you are able to consistently replenish much of your storage with items that you produce and preserve, you become self reliant and the idea of "If you are prepared, you shall not fear" (Doctrine & Covenants 38:30) translates into a whole new level of confidence.

You may recall from a recent post on home storage centers that Kevin Nield, director of bishop's storehouse services for the welfare department of the LDS Church, said "Following the guidelines of the First Presidency is about "the spirit of preparation" and the "idea of being strong and self-reliant . . . " So, in my own words, the purpose of home storage is a lot about self-reliance.

Becoming self-reliant in a way that you can count on, however, definitely takes practice. I think that is the main reason that we've been counseled to grow a garden. As much as you might wish it was different, you can't just pick a spot and grow a successful garden. We've been growing a garden for more than 10 years now and we still have regular failures. It takes practice to grow a garden, to preserve peaches and to gain the skills that allow us to be able to count on more successes than failures.

Initial efforts with home storage, especially for the beginner, are often centered on simply acquiring supplies. That's great! As you acquire food supplies, you are doing exactly what the prophets have asked us to do. I suspect that as you gather your supplies, you will be filled with the "spirit of preparation" and have a desire to be more self-reliant. That's what happened to me. And now I find myself wanting to gain the skills of producing, preserving and personally perpetuating my home storage.