Why Spiritual Preparation Comes First

I've been around a lot of preppers over the years. I've walked through prepper stores, sat in on preparedness groups, and seen basements that would make your jaw drop. Some folks have a bunker stocked with food. Some have a million rounds of ammunition. Some have thousands of gallons of water lined up along the wall.

Those things are important. I'm not going to tell you otherwise. This whole website exists to help you get them.

But here's what makes this site different from most of the others you'll find. I believe that if you ignore the spiritual side of preparation, you might as well forget everything else. You can have a full year's supply of food, and it still won't save you.

Things Are Just Things

Think about it for a minute. Without a spiritual foundation underneath them, your supplies are just objects. Objects can be stolen. They can be destroyed in a fire or a flood. They can even be used against you by someone who wants what you have.

A pantry doesn't give you peace. A stack of water barrels doesn't tell you what to do when your neighbor knocks on the door hungry. A generator doesn't hold your family together when everyone is scared and tired and short-tempered.

Those are spiritual problems. And when hard times come, they show up right alongside the physical ones.

Prepared, and Not Afraid

There's a promise I come back to again and again. In the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of scripture in my faith, the Lord says, "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30).

I love that verse because it ties the two kinds of preparation together. Being prepared isn't only about what's on the shelf. It's about walking into a hard day without fear running your life. Food storage can take away some of the worry. Faith takes away the rest.

The Savior taught the same thing in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). Ten young women waited for the bridegroom. Five brought extra oil for their lamps, and five didn't. When the bridegroom finally came in the middle of the night, the five who weren't ready asked to borrow oil. They were turned away.

That always struck me as harsh until I understood it. Some kinds of preparation can't be borrowed. Nobody can hand you their faith at midnight. You have to fill your own lamp, drop by drop, long before the knock comes.

I'm Not a Preacher

I want to be really clear about something. I'm not writing this as somebody who has it all figured out. I'm not perfect. I'm not a preacher, and I don't have any authority to speak for God or for any church.

I've seen too many people turn faith into a business, setting themselves up as the light everyone should follow and making money off of it. The scriptures call that priestcraft, and I want nothing to do with it.

I'm just a fellow traveler. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I've been preparing for a long time, and I'm sharing what I've learned along the way. Take what helps you. You'll find the deepest answers on your own knees, not on my website.

What Spiritual Preparation Looks Like

So what does it actually mean to prepare spiritually? For me, it comes down to a few daily habits.

Prayer. Talk to God every day, not only when things go wrong. If the first time you really pray is in the middle of a disaster, you'll be learning a new language under pressure.

Scripture. Read every day, even if it's only a few verses. When the lights go out and the internet is down, what you've already put in your heart is what you'll have.

Service. Look after the people around you now. A neighborhood that already trusts each other handles a crisis far better than a street full of strangers guarding their own garages.

Family. Keep your family close and talk with them about why you prepare. Children who understand the reasons are calmer when the plan has to be used.

Character. Practice honesty, patience, and self-control on ordinary days. Hard times don't create character. They reveal it.

None of these cost a dime. All of them take time, and that's the point. You can buy a year's supply of wheat in an afternoon. You can't buy a strong foundation of faith. You build it one day at a time.

Both Kinds of Preparation

Please don't hear me saying "just have faith and skip the food storage." That's not it at all. Faith and works go together. Noah had faith, and he also built the ark. Joseph of Egypt trusted God, and he also filled the granaries for seven years.

So do both. Get your water stored. Work toward your food supply. Figure out your fuel and your light. Then make sure the foundation underneath all of it is solid.

If you're ready to start on the physical side, the free Food Storage Calculator and Family Planner on this site will show you exactly what your family needs. There's no sign-up, and nothing you type in is ever saved.

A Thought to Carry With You

Everything else on this website is about filling your shelves. This page is about filling your lamp. When the hard days come, and they are coming, I hope you'll have both. The shelves will feed your body. The lamp will carry your family through the dark.