365 Days to Self Reliance: Day 10 - Update

So it's been a few days since I mentioned my goal of attaining self-reliance within the next 365 days well now 355. I've been pretty busy over the past week and a half as I've been starting to take a look at just what that might look like and mean for our family. After lots of talks with EC and the kids and reading and searching and praying here are some things that we've come up with.

So to review the 6 areas of Self-Reliance (at least in how I define it) and some of our goals for each area:

1. Education: This will be a big one this year. Since we're still at the start of our journey I want to make sure that I don't dive headfirst into an empty pool. I plan on studying a lot more about self-reliance and ways to meet the goals that we've made. We're also planning on continuing on with homeschooling the kids.

2. Health: I don't think I know anyone that wishes that they were less healthy. Especially with the challenges in maintaining our health that we've had over the past year I really want to work with the kids and myself about getting back to the basic routines of good healthy living (water, nutrition, exercise, sleep, cleanliness). I also want to learn more about how to manage basic health problems on our own - basic first aid and what to do when you're sick etc.

3. Work: We all are making a goal to work together on our home to be more self-reliant. I've been tossing around some new income ideas as well. Monkey has actually decided that she wants to start a micro-business selling crochet and knitted goods with half of the profit being donated to a local children's hospital.

4. Home Storage: The goal here is pretty simple and straightforward. We are planning on having a least a three-month supply of food, fuel, and goods in case of an emergency or unexpected need. Our goal will be to produce as much of it as we can and work on being able to do more of our own each year following as well as increase the amount of storage to a year's supply.

5.  Finances: Another pretty straightforward goal. Work within budgets and pay off as much of our debt as is reasonably possible. Part of this will include working with the kids to help them understanding finance and budgeting principles as well.

6. Spiritual and Emotional Strength. I think making a goal to get back to the basics here will also be good. Taking time to make sure we do prayer, scripture study, meditate, and take care of ourselves will surely help.

Monday Gospel Musings: Having Christ's Truth

Yesterday at church I was given some food for thought. It's simple enough but I keep mulling it around in my head. The thought is this - as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I believe that our church is the only church to have the fullness of Christ's Gospel or in other words all of His Truth.

I've believed that pretty much all of my life. What got me yesterday was that I have to confess that sometimes Latter-day Saints say that or think that in sort of a prideful way as if it makes us better than everyone else. Logically that just isn't true. Here's why - yes, we are the only church to have the fullness of Christ's Gospel. For me I can't even state that as an opinion. I just know it is true. However I also know something else to be true - there are also lots of other religions and people who have lots of Christ's truth as well and that's where things can get a little sticky for us if we're not careful with how we think about things.

Since I'm probably not making much sense yet here is a comparison that I started thinking about. Two friends are in an English class together. One friend has the whole textbook to study and learn from. The other friend for one reason or another has only half of the text book. The first friend who has the whole textbook available ignores most of it and doesn't go to class thinking that it's okay because they still have all the information available to them. The second friend who only had half of the book studies it intently and always shows up for class, listens, and takes notes. In the end - which friend will do better in the class?

In the end I think it doesn't matter so much how much how much truth we have available to us as much as what we do with what we have. I believe that there are many people out there that aren't of my faith that do some pretty amazing and incredible things. I believe in the end we will each be responsible for acting on whatever truths we've been given. It should never be a matter of pride but of great responsibility. 

365 Days to Self-Reliance: Day 1 - Making the Goal

There seem to be lots of books and blogs and even a movie or two about people striving to reach certain goals within a year. I’ve got to admit ever since watching Julie & Julia I’ve been intrigued myself. I don’t know about anyone else but even though a year seems like such a long time it’s frustrating to see how quickly it can go by. Lately one of my biggest ponderings has been about the time that Heavenly Father gives us. Personally I believe it’s one of His greatest gifts. If that’s true and each year or day or even minute is a gift from Him shouldn’t I be working harder to make the most of them? When I look back on the past year do I see growth or stagnation? Worse yet, am I falling behind?

I usually would put it off indefinitely with the notion that I should wait for something like New Year’s or my birthday but I’ve come believe in the wisdom of starting where you are and starting now. Although there are lots of things I feel like I need to work on the one that's been weighing most heavily on my mind lately is self-reliance.

So today I'm making a goal. Over the next 365 days I'm going to be learning more about self-reliance and implementing  the ideas and information that feel right for us now. By July 30, 2015 I plan on having achieved a basic level of self-reliance. This means that I'll be making goals in the areas of education, health, work/employment, home storage, finances, and spiritual strength. The intent of my year long challenge is to strengthen and secure my home and family so that we can then reach out more effectively to help those around us. That's what I believe the basic message of self-reliance is.

What about you? Do you have any big goals that have been nagging at you lately? Suggestions for me to help with mine? I’d love to hear about them.Wish me luck!

Monday Gospel Musings: Anchoring Deep

In general I try my best to listen to the talks that we have during our meetings on Sundays. It's often hard with the three little ones. I'm usually busy just trying to keep them maintaining some semblance of reverence that I might get a piece here or a piece there but overall I don't get to just listen. Yesterday was a bit of an exception. It was one of those amazing talks that I think everyone was listening to. Even Tiger for once just sat on his daddy's lap contentedly. (although I think I did have to chase down Bear once when he decided that the chairs in front of us made a great tunnel to crawl through).

So as the rain poured and thunder crashed outside the speaker shared these thoughts:

He had been working in South Florida 30-40 years ago when a big hurricane was destined to hit. He described the rush of preparations that takes place prior to these events. It brought back many child-hood memories of mine as we were caught up in similar preparation rushes.

His story went on that he had a friend from work that had recently purchased a house boat. The friend was desperately trying to secure it against the storm and asked for help. A couple of them got together and started trying to tie the house boat down with great lengths of rope.

Sometime during this process an older man spotted them and took pity. He told them the only real thing to do was to place four anchor points around the boat, anchor it deep, give the ropes some slack, and hope for the best.

The speaker then went on to say how we all face impending storms in our lives. It could be in the form of natural disasters, employment, relationships, or health. It really doesn't matter. What matters is how we are anchored.

Are we anchoring deep in to the Gospel of Christ? Do we know that God is our loving Heavenly Father? Do we know that He sent His Son to live and die for us? Do we believe that Christ atoned for our sins and that we can live again with Him? Are we keeping the commandments that He has given us and searching His words?

Anyways, the talk got me thinking. A lot. I think it's time that I worked a bit on my own anchors.

My Two Cents: The Problems with Child Immigration

Lately there have been a lot of postings and articles about the current waves of children coming from South and Central America to the United States. There is a really good article on some of the problems and statistics written by Kathleen Newland here.

I will say that the articles that have irked me the most are the ones who say that it’s un-Christian to say that we should do anything but accept these children freely. It’s true, if we believe in Christ we are to do all we can to take care of the poor and less-fortunate. That’s not my issue. My issue is this - Are we really doing what we can to take care of these children by encouraging them to come to America on their own?

I don’t think so.

First we’re encouraging these children to be separated from their families. In some cases this may have happened prior to their decision to come to the United States but I personally think that children need to have a family to take care of them and that’s something that they’re not likely to get coming into the United States right now. According to some figures in 2010 there were 74,181,467 children under 18 in the United States. On an average day 397,000 of these children are in foster care. Over 58,000 of these are children who have had their parental rights permanently terminated and could be adopted but aren’t. Each year 10% of these children are aging out of the system. With almost 60,000 children coming in illegally each year that would need placement and homes as well the chance of these children finding families becomes pretty unlikely.

Without homes and families these children are going to struggle for the rest of their lives. Statistics for those who age out of foster homes without being adopted show an increased risk for homelessness, poor health, unemployment, illegal activity and the like. When you add in the fact that these refugee children will also be facing these challenges while dealing with language and culture barriers, the odds are against their success here.

To me placing these children in that kind of situation doesn’t speak of Christlike love. That doesn’t mean that we can just sit back either. If we really want to extend Christlike love to these children, I believe that there are some changes that we can make.

The first is accepting our own role in their problems. America is facing a drug crisis and until we stop consuming drugs from these foreign countries the drug cartels and violence are going to continue.

The next thing we can do is to work on strengthening their families. We need to find ways to help keep their families together. Part of the solution might mean working towards policies that promote legal family immigration. Even better than that would be working on ways to strengthen these families and help them find safety and education in their own countries so that they can help be a force for good there to help fight against the evils that are so threatening now.

I think in addition to those things we also then need to look at being willing to open our own homes to those who can’t find other solutions. I’ve known some amazing people who were foster/adoptive parents and really did a lot of good. It’s hard and challenging no doubt but in the end result I think we can do more and must do more to make sure that those who really can’t be with their biological families for one reason or another are taken care of and loved.