Monday Message

"As we have been continuously counseled for more than 60 years, let us have some food set aside that would sustain us for a time in case of need. But let us not panic nor go to extremes. Let us be prudent in every respect. And, above all, my brothers and sisters, let us move forward with faith in the Living God and His Beloved Son." (President Gordon B. Hinckley) 

This is quite a statement, it sums it all up.

How many times have you said clean up your room to a child?  That is what I think of when I read that quote as we have been continuously counseled for more than sixty years. Fortunately, our girls both have very clean rooms and that didn't take sixty years :p

Seriously, everywhere we look it seems prosperity is everywhere. It's on TV, in magazines on computers, phones... everywhere we look everyone looks happy and everyone looks well off, like things will always be like this or better, right? 

But look again. Look closer at the flashy page in your magazine with a bowl of cereal in it. Why is it when you fix your bowl of the same cereal it doesn't look the same? Hmmm... Well to get theirs to look that good they can't put milk on it as it takes hours to get their pictures just right and milk would make a soggy mess. So they put glue on it as it looks like milk but that perfect look is not edible.

So next time you ask yourself, "why can't my house look as good as the one in the magazine?" Well they have an army of people setting up that room with the best things and we all don't have that plus no one lives really in that room.

It reminds me of when we were in student housing, which were tiny chicken coop type metal structures on a cement slab. I had a table shoved up against the wall with three chairs. Now I had a friend in another unit call me to say was my unit bigger than hers. I said nope. She said but you have three kitchen chairs around your table and she could only get two. I said for her to come over and when she got there I said there are three because the one chair touches the refrigerator. For every meal I had to move the table out...so things aren't always what they seem.

I once was at a talk where a lady was telling us of her visit to Russia and was invited to a Russian lady's house. The Russian lady was embarrassed and kept apologizing saying her house was not like those in America. The American lady said that the woman's house was very nice so why did she think that? Come to find out the Russian lady could see the show 90210 Beverly Hills show and she thought we all had homes like that. I never saw that show but I am guessing they were mansion type homes.

Things are not what they seem and we should never compare ourselves to others.

Same thing goes for the "everything will always be great" part, because I can say everything is not always great. We have worked for companies who down-sized without warning. We have gone from a good wage to doing the same amount of work for only our insurance and let me tell you I have had lots of learning how to get by and I feel it was all to help me now at this time and I can share with you so you will know what to do when your hard times come.

So when things get hard and you feel like giving up.....think of the blog and what things I have shared.

When your basket looks empty, find ideas here on the blog to put in your basket.

Fill your basket with knowledge and skills.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be lazy.

Work on being prepared. Little by little you will get there.

Learn skills that will help your family and know that every skill you build will add to what you already have and some day when things get tight you too will have learned what you need to know.