If Ye Are Prepared...

"If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear" (D&C 38:30).

President Hinckley has warned of possible disasters
and has counseled members to prepare:
“There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to
which we had better give heed. . . . No one
knows when emergencies will strike. . . . Set
your houses in order. If you have paid your
debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be
small, then should storms howl about your
head, you will have shelter for your wives and
children and peace in your hearts. That’s all I
have to say about it, but I wish to say it with
all the emphasis of which I am capable” (in
Conference Report, Oct. 1998, 70–72; or
Ensign, Nov. 1998, 53–54).*

My family always uses Conference time to rotate our 72 hour kits. We have a family night where we pull out the kits, rotate the food, and put in better-fitting clothes that are more suitable for the weather. For example, in the Spring, we take out the cold-weather clothes, and put in warm-weather clothes and vice versa in the Fall. We replace the water and the food. It's also fun to have the food as a snack for Family Home Evening.
We also like to check our smoke/Carbon Monoxide Detectors, make sure our doors and windows are properly secured, and go over evacuation and life-saving procedures. Be aware that disaster could strike at any time anywhere. It would be ideal if the family were together during such a disaster, but if some are at school or work, be sure to form a plan as to how you would meet up with each other. Be sure the children know their emergency contacts and have a meeting place decided if there is a fire or the area needs to be evacuated.

Heavenly Father has promised us many times that if we do all we can, He will make up the rest. If we follow the Prophet's council to keep our home in order, and we prepare "every needful thing" (D&C 88:119), we are assured that He will make up for that which we cannot prepared for. After all the natural disasters that have been happening recently, it is daunting to think of all the horrible things that could happen. That is why I take comfort in this scripture, "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." I can rest easy knowing that I have done all I can to prepare for the unexpected.

*Review:
http://www.providentliving.org/pdf/English_TrainerResource_37058.pdf

If Ye Are Prepared...

A House of God

Topic: This lesson is about making our homes like the temple.

Scripture: In D&C 88:119 we read "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God."

Lesson: Start by holding up a picture of the temple and talking about how it is a special place where we go to learn about our Heavenly Father and try become more like him. We want our homes to be like the temple. Read D&C 88:119 and talk about the attributes of the temple. You could write them on a white board or a piece of paper, or just list them out loud (we just listed them out loud). We focused on three things: prayer, learning, and order. We had a short activity to practice each of those three things.

Activities: To practice having a house prayer, we let each child say a prayer. We had them repeat a very short prayer one word at a time. My boys (18 months) don't talk much, so most of the words didn't sound like what they were. You could pretty much only understand "Jesus" and "amen." But they both looked very pleased with themselves, and Mommy and Daddy were very proud. These were their very first prayers. :)

To practice having a house of learning, we read two books together and talked about what we saw on each page. We did a picture bible and a story book to show that we can get learning and knowledge from all good books. :)

To practice having a house of order, we dumped out some blocks and practiced putting them back away in the bucket. We played a couple times. :) While we practiced, we sang "Picking up blocks is fun to do." :)

Closing: We closed by going back to the picture of the temple and restating how it is a holy place and want our homes to be holy too.

A House of God