There Was Bread

“From the beginning of time, the Lord has provided direction to help His people prepare spiritually and temporally against the calamities and trials that He knows will come as part of this mortal experience. These calamities may be personal or general in nature, but the Lord’s guidance will provide protection and support to the extent that we heed and act upon His counsel.”

There Was Bread

by Bishop W. Christopher Waddell

Bishop W. Christopher Waddell serves as First Counsellor in the Presiding Bishopric. It is no surprise at all that he will address our temporal needs. The principles of preparation always been encouraged by the Church Leaders to the members to apply “in wisdom and order” so that in the future we might say, as did Joseph in Egypt, “There was bread”.

Bishop Waddell quoted from a resource entitled Personal Finances for Self-Reliance which was published in 2017.

“The Lord has declared, ‘It is my purpose to provide for my saints’ [Doctrine and Covenants 104:15]. This revelation is a promise from the Lord that He will provide temporal blessings and open the door of self-reliance. …

“… Accepting and living these principles will better enable you to receive the temporal blessings promised by the Lord.

“We invite you to diligently study and apply these principles and teach them to your family members. As you do so, your life will be blessed … [because] you are a child of our Father in Heaven. He loves you and will never forsake you. He knows you and is ready to extend to you the spiritual and temporal blessings of self-reliance.”

My thoughts and heart felt closer to this talk may be is because I had been studying the Personal Finances course for several months during when the coarse is newly add on into the Church Self-Reliance chapter.

This resource includes chapters devoted to creating and living within a budget, protecting your family against hardship, managing a financial crisis, investing for the future, and many more.

I joined with few other sisters in the Church to learn about it. We were having our discussions every Sunday after the Church. I gained a lot of knowledge and confirming witness of the things that I have learned through the Holy Spirit.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to study this coarse. Even though now, I am still struggling on some finances but it have helped me to set aside monies to start the emergency fund and pay my tithes every month.

“The Lord does not expect us to do more than we can do, but He does expect us to do what we can do, when we can do it. As President Nelson reminded us in our last general conference, “The Lord loves effort.”

“When considering the principle of preparedness, we can look back to Joseph in Egypt for inspiration. Knowing what would happen would not have been sufficient to carry them through the “lean” years without a degree of sacrifice during the years of abundance… It was not enough to know that challenging times would come. They had to act, and because of their effort, “there was bread.”

“A good place to begin is to understand that all things are spiritual to the Lord, “and not at any time” has He given us “a law which was temporal.” Everything, then, points to Jesus Christ as the foundation upon which we must build even our temporal preparedness.”

“Being temporally prepared and self-reliant means “believing that through the grace, or enabling power, of Jesus Christ and our own effort, we are able to obtain all the spiritual and temporal necessities of life we require for ourselves and our families.”

“Additional aspects of a spiritual foundation for temporal preparedness include acting “in wisdom and order,” which implies a gradual build up of food storage and savings over time, as well as embracing “small and simple” means, which is a demonstration of faith that the Lord will magnify our small but consistent efforts.”

The most important each Conference talk to let us see the result is to act upon on the promptings that inspired us to do and to start.

“With a spiritual foundation in place, we can then successfully apply two important elements of temporal preparedness—managing finances and home storage.”

“Key principles to manage your finances include the payment of tithes and offerings, eliminating and avoiding debt, preparing and living within a budget, and saving for the future.”

“Key home storage principles include the storage of food, the storage of water, and the storage of other necessities based on individual and family needs, all because “the best storehouse” is the home, which becomes the “most accessible reserve in times of need.”

“As we embrace spiritual principles and seek inspiration from the Lord, we will be guided to know the Lord’s will for us, individually and as families, and how best to apply the important principles of temporal preparedness. The most important step of all is to begin.”

“Elder David A. Bednar taught this principle when he said: “Taking action is the exercise of faith. … True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to action.”

I am blessed that our family still able to have food on the table and jobs during this challenging pandemic time that had seriously affect economy globally.

I can see how the Lord blessed and helped me build my spiritual reserves for a time. When I need it the most, the Lord would bring those memories into my mind and strengthen me even though He knows that I would struggle to figure it out slowly but I am not alone. He is with me all the time.