To Prepare or Not to Prepare?

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As storms drew closer to our area over the weekend, local residents saw warnings to be ready. Ray and I spent Friday night preparing for the possibility of tornadoes. We filled a tote with necessaries and put it in the bathroom in the middle of the house, which has no windows. We still protect Ray’s bones from fractures, so I do the heavy lifting around our house. I moved Mother’s laundry rinsing tubs from the laundry room . . .

. . . and into the bathroom, pulled a twin mattress down from upstairs, and put the mattress on top of the tubs. That gave Ray and me a space to get between the tubs and under the mattress. That night we slept in the library, which is much closer to our safe place than our bedroom is.

When the floodwaters came up on Sunday, the water pressure in our plumbing went down. After our next-door neighbor told us that he had no running water, I started filling jars and pots, in case our water stopped entirely.

Praise God that the tornadoes never got very close to our area. Our waterflow never stopped completely. Our water pressure was fine by late Sunday afternoon. So, am I sorry that we made those preparations? Not at all. Some say, “See! You did all of that for nothing. There was nothing to worry about.” I don’t think those who were in the storms’ path or those who lost their water on Sunday would agree. I have long taken difficult weather forecasts seriously, but I think about them even more seriously after nearby Cookeville lost 17 people in a tornado in 2020.

Refugees preparing a meal on the rudest of ovens, 1906,
Golden Gate Park, after the San Francisco earthquake,
International Stereograph Co., publisher,
courtesy of the Library of Congress

Ray always says, “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” Likewise, it’s better to prepare and not need it than not prepare and regret it.

I love you homeschool mamas and your families, too. I share this perspective because of that love for you.

Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler,
Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8

The Arkansas farmer, undismayed by last year’s drought,
prepares his ground for another crop, 1931,
Lewis Wickes Hines, photographer,
courtesy of the Library of Congress

Preparation has a spiritual dimension, too.

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8

Following are two of many examples. The time for young people to decide to be pure is in a quiet moment of prayer and reflection before they are in tempting situations. The time to decide about worshiping with Christians on a Sunday morning is at least on the Saturday before so that breakfast and clothes and Bibles are ready in time.

The Lovers by William Powell Frith, 1855,
courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago,
purchased with funds provided by
Irving Lauf and Irene McNear,
Mrs. P. Kelley Armour through The Old Masters Society,
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Patterson;
through prior acquisition of Mrs. Dellora A. Norris

Aren’t we thankful that Jesus is making preparations for us!

“Do not let your heart be troubled; 
believe in God, believe also in Me. 
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;
if it were not so, I would have told you; 
for I go to prepare a place for you. 
If I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there you may be also.”
John 14:1-3

 

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