Preparedness Isn't Just About Emergencies

Yes!  Being prepared will help you get through life's emergencies, and most often we talk about it in this way.  Be prepared for emergencies, disasters, and challenges of life.  In reality, "Preparedness" needs to become our way of life.  It needs to become a part of who we are, in what we think and all we do.

We need to become more self reliant and less reliant on government, jobs, and other agencies and people.  How about asking yourself questions each time you do something, or buy something, like:

"Is this helping me live a more self reliant, prepared life?  Or is it something that won't matter two, five or ten years from now?"

"Instead of buying one or two cans of whatever is on sale, why not buy ten, then you won't have to buy it again, until it comes on sale again."  Also, you are building your 3 month supply this way.

I know we need to prepare for those big emergencies, but keep in mind, the daily living things we need to be thinking about like:

• Job layoffs
• Family Emergencies
• Sickness
• Localized emergencies
• Drought
• Financial setbacks
• Government shutdowns
• Delays in food distribution
• Medical emergencies and long-term needs
• Financial realities
• Outside influences that keep us where we are
  
  
  For years, I’ve wanted to move to a homestead out in the country, far from the maddening crowds, raising my own food, working alongside my family in developing skills that allow us to thrive.

However, my reality is far from that. I’m tied to the area I’m in because I have family who need me to be here to help them in their own life. I have a husband who is obliged to remain at his job. Moving away would mean him being on the road for all of his free time, and none of us want that. We live in a suburb on a small plot of land and cannot raise our own meat, but we persevere by doing as much as we can with what we have.

Your reality doesn’t mean that you can’t live a prepared lifestyle to the best of your abilities and use your talents where God has planted you for this season of your life. My hope is that you embrace that, do what you can do, and be prepared.

On a side note: For those of you who have embraced this life, but still feel the shame of the label some try to put on you, DON'T.  If you are doing your best to be productive, to protect your family, to provide for your family, and to prepare for your family in every way that you can in the area you have been planted on during this season, know that no label defines you. You aren’t less because you can’t be called a homesteader, you aren’t less because some label you a prepper (because this lifestyle isn’t about being a prepper), and you aren’t less because you haven’t embraced the call of a world!  Who says that you cannot be different. Have faith!

BE DIFFERENT!  Live the life of being prepared.  It brings a peace of mind that can be found nowhere else!