How many people here are prepared for an emergency?

[Britesea]

You're right of course. I try to do the same; but every once in a while I hear or see something that starts the alarm bells clanging. Usually I use that as the impetus to take a new look at my plans to see if I have any holes that need to be addressed.

 

[Beekissed]

Has anyone else been watching the news and getting more worried by the day?

No...and no! I know it's not real fashionable to be a rest and peace in the midst of a world filled with turmoil, but I can't really say I worry about much of anything and I occasionally read a news story now and again but none of them stir me into any worry.

I wish I could bottle this peace up and lace every single municipal watering hole with it. ,Britesea ....no worries, just hand it to God and let Him give you rest over it.

 

[Britesea]

I try to achieve that calmness, @Beekissed - but sometimes I fall short. I particularly worry about my son, who has ASD as well as some other disabilities- what will he do when I am gone? I know that God will take care of everything, but sometimes it's a rough ride... and being a mother, I want to coddle and protect him.

 

[Beekissed]

I'll tell you true that every mother worries about their children and I was no different and even yet there are moments when that worry will rise up in my mind like a specter.

But...awhile back I found myself worrying about news stories I had read and about my children and their spiritual lives and so I prayed about it. God led me to these verses and put it on my heart to apply these verses and see if He is faithful to His promises...and He was and IS!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4: 4-7

I applied these verses and practiced applying them until I give over my worry much more quickly than I did at first, as one gets better at anything with practice. A lot of folks will read that and say, "Yeah, yeah, easier said than done...." but I found that He really and truly gives me a peace that I can't really understand, it's that overwhelming and all encompassing! Now that I've experienced it, I just have to have more and more, so it sort of acts like a positive reinforcement to practice giving my anxieties over to Him. Some days I just walk around in a warm blanket of that peace and it feels like I'm walking feet above the ground, as if I'm walking in the hand of God Himself.

Mom and I will sit around and speak of that peace and joy in tones of awe and wonder, as we don't feel worthy of it all, nor do we understand how we can experience such things in a world filled with turmoil....but we have it, it's real, it's lasting and consistent, and it's all because we obey these verses and apply them immediately a worry starts to niggle in our minds.

It's sort of like the weather...all winter long I've heard folks whine and complain about the snow and cold, even though winter comes every single year and it should be expected by now. Never a good word to say about the beauty of the snow, the good aspects of their lives in the midst of it all~like warm clothing, warm shelter, abundant food and fuel, etc. Just complaining and nothing much else.

Then the snow melts and the sun comes out and, sure enough, the same people are complaining of the mud. It becomes a habit, you see...this attitude of complaining and ingratitude towards the Lord for what He has provided in their lives.

The same goes for worry. It becomes a bad habit and like all bad habits, it's hard to break and takes practice and determination, but it CAN be done with the help of the Holy Spirit. One cannot do it alone, as the verses imply~with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving~so it comes with certain instructions that will insure success. If we try and try on our own power, we will surely fail but if we ask for help~supplicate~ and thank God for all things, He will be faithful to us and provide the peace and take away our worry.

The God who made our children is capable of ordering the pathways of their lives more than we ever could do it and that's where the faith in His power to do so comes in. I hope these verses help you like they have helped me, as I was born to worrying parents and have been a worrying kinda woman for most of my life, but not now and not ever again now that I know what this "peace that surpasses all understanding" really feels like. It feels just like floating!

 

[hqueen13]

Glad to know it gets easier with practice. Sometimes I've got it and sometimes i don't!
I do know i stay away from all the news though. That is a bad thing for me to get sucked in. I just ignore it for the most part. I'm much happier that way!

 

[Britesea]

Thank you, @Beekissed ; I know that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it gets easier with practice. I am not normally a doom-and-gloomer; I believe that preparing for disaster is an act of faith and optimism (just like Noah!).

 

[Calista]

In perusing the threads to find a subject that relates greatly to my current level of preparedness, I decided to make my first post here.

Most "preppers" are familiar with the "Rule of Threes."

http://startprepping.org/prepping/rule-of-threes-survival

I think I've got the first two covered but I obsess on the third, even here in NorthWET Washington State. We have a 10,000 gallon pool and filters to make the water potable, and last year we built this:

http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm

We also have scads of filled recyclable water bottles and jugs, and I still itch to fill some more.

The news recently out of Cape Town, South Africa -- a major metro area with millions of people -- where ongoing drought, water system leakage, and lack of controls over usage has resulted in a prediction of Day Zero by April -- NO MORE WATER FROM THE CITY TAPS -- just leaves me astounded at what the poor residents there will be facing. Standing in line for hours every day to get an allotment that will barely keep body and soul together:

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2018/02/economist-explains

I wonder how many people in that area saw the handwriting on the wall and prepared by stockpiling water supplies.

 

[sumi]

@Calista that is interesting, about the 3's. I must confess I am woefully unprepared for a disaster of any kind and I should be. Thanks to the hurricane we had here last year which left us without power for a day and night and then water supply issues that left us without for three days. It makes you stop taking things for granted for sure!

I'm from S.A. originally (moved to Ireland 2.5 years ago) and started a thread on the above this morning: While we complain about the mud, rain and snow…. When we lived on our farm there, we put up quite a few rain water collection tanks. The locals laughed at us, because it rained so little there… I can't tell you how many 1000's of gallons of water we collected and who laughed when the town's water supply pipes broke? And that happened a few times!

A propert realtor in the town of George in the Western Cape started giving away rain water collection tanks to every new house buyer, to encourage collection of rain water, after they had a crippling drought a few years ago. I bet a lot of people now wish they had something like that in place…

We lived for more than a year on a farm where our only water supply was rainwater collection. We ran dang low a time or two and I remember how hard we prayed some days for some rain to top up our tanks. Water is something a lot of people take for granted. I must confess I do the same since I moved here. We have more than we need, complain about it, don't pay for it and well.. take it for granted.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We generally have NO shortage of water (and mud) here, but we have a few water collection devices anyway. Some years back we did have a drought so severe that some folks who had wells were having problems with them drying up. Our well is much deeper, and we've never had that problem but it happened to some neighbors. We have several of those big 275 gallon totes full and a hot tub and a pond. The pond has gotten pretty shallow a few times but hasn't dried totally up in the 10 years or so it's been there. But, it could happen. My biggest fear regarding the well is that we have electricity to run the pump!

It is so disturbing to think someday we could turn the tap on and nothing would come out.

 

[Chic Rustler]

In perusing the threads to find a subject that relates greatly to my current level of preparedness, I decided to make my first post here.

Most "preppers" are familiar with the "Rule of Threes."

http://startprepping.org/prepping/rule-of-threes-survival

I think I've got the first two covered but I obsess on the third, even here in NorthWET Washington State. We have a 10,000 gallon pool and filters to make the water potable, and last year we built this:

http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm

We also have scads of filled recyclable water bottles and jugs, and I still itch to fill some more.

The news recently out of Cape Town, South Africa -- a major metro area with millions of people -- where ongoing drought, water system leakage, and lack of controls over usage has resulted in a prediction of Day Zero by April -- NO MORE WATER FROM THE CITY TAPS -- just leaves me astounded at what the poor residents there will be facing. Standing in line for hours every day to get an allotment that will barely keep body and soul together:

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2018/02/economist-explains

I wonder how many people in that area saw the handwriting on the wall and prepared by stockpiling water supplies.

I like the way you think. I'm shamefully under prepared. But we could make it a couple days