Provident Living

In our ward we are the Provident Living specialist and last week we gave our first lesson on Self Reliance focusing on the six categories that makeup self reliance: Home/food storage, Resource Management, Employment, Physical Health, Spiritual,Social and Emotional Health, and Education. We touched on each one and the importance of them. I was SO nervous enough to were I'm sure they could see me shake but together with Collin at my side, we did awesome. I won't go into each thing we talked about but after teaching it I know that if we follow the Lord's council we can be prepared in every aspect for our future. Something fun to do with your spouse/family that Collin and I did right before we got engaged... we went to the local dollar store and made our own individual 72 hr kits! It was fun, easy and cheap. As part of our lesson we were planning to share two video clips (but we ran out of time): this first one just as part as our introduction from Mormon Messages:

I couldn't help but tear up a little bit after watching this. There has definitely been times were I complain about not having a house, not being done with grad school (Collin that is but I view it as a team thing) and other things I wish we had, but it reminded me that if I prepare now I will not only be ready for tough times in the future but that I can also have and achieve some of the things I want in life. Being content with were we are in our lives... college students trying to get through school or starting our careeres and realizing and being grateful for what we do have because I know we are very fornuate and blessed and that there are many who are perhaps not as fortunate as we are.

This next clip is from Mint.com which is an amazing (and free!) budgeting website. I had found out about this from a friend a year or two ago but never really looked into it until we were asked to give a lesson and I thought it would be a good idea to check out since budgeting was something we wanted to focus on. We didn't really budget as newlyweds and just kinda knew when we got our paychecks this is where our money was going, how much we need to spend/save but now we LIVE by this, it is so awesome and helpful and it does pretty much everything for you. If you don't already have some kind of budgeting system (and even if you do) check it out...

So just like we asked our class.... which of those areas that I mentioned above, are you most prepared in? What are some ways that you have prepared for some of these?

 Here are a couple of articles about provident living and self reliance that we referred to while preparing for this lesson. Read them!
Provident Living: A Way of Life
Applying Principles of Self Reliance and Preparedness