My friend responded to my email this morning while I was in Kindergarten. LOL, I’m the room helper on Fridays. Looks like I missed the Kindergarten-level spat that occurred in here!
Anyway, here is how my friend responded to the email I sent her:
“Wow! You make some good points. I see both points of view. I do think we need to be prepared but I also believe that if it is our day to die, then it is our day. How we live and how we die may be somewhat determined by the way we live our lives and the choices we make. Thank you for your insight.”
See, the power of scripture verses to pursuade a Christian is strong. Now, just maybe, she will think to buy an extra can of this and an extra can of that when she’s at the grocery store. She has 4 children, all 12 and under, so I hope that for their sake, she does start stockpiling.
Thank you for all the info. It was very helpful and has cleared my own head up as to how I am looking at this entire scenerio.
worst case,
Since you work with the school…and have an “in” to some degree. Why not offer to present a kid-friendly class about it. It is in direct response to the govt requesting schools to start thinking about it. Cater the class around personal hygiene habits to avoid passign disease…nto just the flu…between students. Bring up the President’s request we all stockpile. Maybe a “class project” can be to create stockpile lists…homework teh kids have to work on with their parent’s help… and then use it to stockpile food in the classroom. -each kid brings in a little something from the list. Maybe these stockpiled goods can be donated to a family that can’t afford to do so themselves…or kept in the classroom until the need may arise to dole it out. -just a few ideas.
The point is, if the kids hear about it, and are “forced” to expose the parents to it as something that they are being taught/made aware of, the parents can’t help but take notice and at least assist the kids.
In fact, if I remember, wasn’t there some scripture akin to “learn from the children, let them be your example” …i know, different context. lol
i just say to christian folk “It wasnt raining when Noah started building the ark”
Actually the belief is: from creation to that point it had never rained. Imagine that level of disbelief.
Today our April newsletter at church came out.We had a small preparedness list going over social distancing,hygeine,pet protection and a sample food list.I was excited to see that our service on April 30th was listed as preparedness Sunday,titled “Are we Ready” with scripture from Matthew 24 and 25.This will be the day I serve a fellowship meal made from cheap and easy to store items and we will have a special collection to benifit our food pantry.Baby steps but coming along :)
Also remember Joseph (of coat of many colors fame). He saved Egypt (and more) from starvation by correctly interpreting Pharoh’s dreams ( seven fat cows eaten by seven skinny cows, etc), and prepping like crazy while there was time.
I was thinking about something similar the other day re: verses. I know sometimes the ‘be not concerned for what you shall eat’ verse gets quoted against preppers, and I think there is a wisdom to not letting fear of the future gain hold on you. However, there are a lot of verses coming from the other side, which encourage people to be wise in their preparations in good times so that they are ready for bad times.
A few I thought of along with Joseph preparing for the famine in Gen. 41 and the foolish maidens in Matt. 25 who did not prepare (as listed earlier) ~ mostly from Proverbs:
but a foolish man devours all he has.”
and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong….”
Genesis 6: Noah was told to take every kind of food and store it away for his family and the animals
I’m sure there are more; those are just the ones that were floating around in my brain. Maybe they will help when you talk to your friend.
I live by one biblical quote “It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.” Not particularly religious, but I am deeply spiritual. These are the words I live by, whether weathering the next adolescent storm coming my way or BF. I now find these words so……on the mark, no?
I am a Christian and have already stocked in 4 months of food and supplies. God gave us a brain and expects us to use it at times! I also think the coming pandemic is part of the end times ! Now would be a good time to ask God into your life. God Bless and buy a taser online!
jt-
Some may find your quote ironic and objectionable:
I think it is very right to prepare, be obediant, be compassionate and to protect and steward what you’ve been given. All are biblical mandates.
The Lord helps those who help themselves. Other than that, we do recommend keeping religion to a respectful minimum. Not everyone who posts here is Christian.
xoxorn,
I’m glad you find comfort in your faith, but your quotation is not from the Bible, it is an old Chinese proverb. You are unintentionally interfaith this evening. But there is a theologian in the house keeping an eye on things ;-)
I’ve got a strong spiritualist bent too — one that is decidedly mired with cutting edge science and not beyond what materialist scientists refer to as mysticism.
Don’t let superstition get in the way of preparation. God, like your goverment isn’t poised there to save you from your own stupidity and ignorance. Remember: free will…what a great gift.
As a gambler in life on all levels. I do what I can, let the chips fall whereever they may, and then don’t whine. If I wanted another outcome I should have done something else, and didn’t.This doesn’t stop me from putting my faith in fate, praying for others wellbeing. I am of those who think what will be, will be.Being inconsistant in everything is my one constant.
Lily, Try this. Go stand in the middle of a road. Wait for a great big truck to round the corner and barrel straight toward you. Watch it accelerate, listen to the engine roar, hear the screams of the people on the side of the road telling you to move. What’s your choice? Fate? Good Luck. Here’s my advice, get off the road, Lily, there is a truck coming.
Roman., Please notice I said… I do what I can. Look a few months ago I was crossing at a crosswalk in town, a truck came to a halt, just a hair away from running me over. I was on my knees my hand on the grill of the truck,. He zoomed away no apologies. It was not my fate to go under the wheels. I didn’t turn a hair, didn’t even get nervous or shaky. At my age, I’ve had a lot of trucks coming my way, I’ve survived many a bizarre accident. For example a sixteen wheeler loaded truck that pushed my stalled Mercedes about twenty feet. It was going down hill. Not a scratch on me. I don’t know how many times I’ve just missed accidents because some little thing kept me from being the unlucky person who accidently was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have had dumb, dumb, luck all my life, so for me it works. Maybe not for you.
Try this one: I Tim 5: 8 But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. You should be ready to prepare so you can provide for “you own” even in bad times.
I would use the following as well, but it may cause debate with some since most churches use it for members to “lay by” and the church store their money for them- but really it is about each person storing up so that there would be no need for others to take care of them like they were having to do for those back at Jerusalem. If you look closely, you will find that EACH individual should each store up to avoid such problems.
1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
> Roman., Please notice I said… I do what I can. Look a few months ago I was crossing at a crosswalk in town, a truck came to a halt, just a hair away from running me over. I was on my knees my hand on the grill of the truck,. He zoomed away no apologies. It was not my fate to go under the wheels. I didn’t turn a hair, didn’t even get nervous or shaky. At my age, I’ve had a lot of trucks coming my way, I’ve survived many a bizarre accident. For example a sixteen wheeler loaded truck that pushed my stalled Mercedes about twenty feet. It was going down hill. Not a scratch on me. I don’t know how many times I’ve just missed accidents because some little thing kept me from being the unlucky person who accidently was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have had dumb, dumb, luck all my life, so for me it works. Maybe not for you.
These were near misses that you could not avoid (and only God could save you - and he did).
The point Roman is making is that the truck IS bearing down on you (not “might be bearing down on you”, not “a risk of a truck bearing down on you”; the TRUCK IS BEARING DOWN ON you).
I don’t live my life worring about whether I’ll get hit by a truck either, but when a truck is unquestionably heading straight toward me… I move! (Christians *are not* idiots; we have faith that our Lord will do what is best for us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use common sense when he sees fit to give us the benefit of seeing the truck *before* it hits us - you might want to check out the “ye shall not test the Lord your God” bits in the Bible :-).
For quite a while Lily has been posting on the Forum about the preparations she is making and giving helpful suggestions-why lecture her? She doesn’t need my help, but I want to say: lay off.
Thanks Jane. I think this is why it doesn’t sit well with people. I am not about to change. If I become road kill, why that is how it is. Poof. I am really of no importance. I have a happy life and my stance is always spiritual, never religious. I prefer not to be lectured. Lets leave it at that, and remain friends. To me the bible is a historical narrative of a people search for an identity and a place to settle. I visit every place of worship, I have been to the Kabbahlist Center in NYC. I don’t try to change anyone. Let us not persue this further, you have no influence on me. Very few people do.
Lilly’s unique riffs on her laissez-faire attitude toward life remind me of Montaigne’s Essays. He lived in France during a time of periodic plague and Civil War and somehow managed to navigate through to a natural death. He took no special precautions against marauders while he lived on his estate, but somehow they left him alone while they cleaned other people out (or worse). He did flee the plague at times by moving to another, supposedly safer location, but he was probably just lucky there, too.
It would not surprise me in the least if Lilly would outlast us all.
A reminder:
Thank you all.
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