"Let Us Avoid Debt...Let Us Get Out of Debt"

In the talk "Prepare Ye" President Benson showed the steps to being prepared. The first two steps were follow the counsel of the prophets and live righteously. The next one was to avoid debt and get out of debt if you are already in it. After that it says to live strictly within our incomes and save our money. I think this video is my favorite way to explain how to avoid debt and live within our incomes:

Yes, it's meant to be funny, but at the same time it teaches a very valuable lesson that many people in this world don't fully understand. Now many people here in Lubbock (us included) are students struggling to pay for living expenses, while at the same time constantly getting more and more into debt with student loans. Some people may be blessed financially, and some may just feel like they got the short end of the financial stick. But what's great about this teaching is that it's applicable to anyone, no matter where they are in life. We are taught to avoid debt, but there are a few exceptions, as told in this talk by Joseph B. Wirthlin:

Some debt—such as for a modest home, expenses for education, perhaps for a needed first car—may be necessary. But never should we enter into financial bondage through consumer debt without carefully weighing the costs. (emphasis added)

On the main "Debt" page of lds.org, we are also taught that "the debt should be repaid as quickly as possible." Sometimes, "as quickly as possible" is a very different amount of time for one person than for someone else. This is perfectly fine as long as we are doing what we can to get out of debt and become financially prepared.

This web page from lds.org is extremely helpful in teaching how to manage finances and live within our means. I won't talk about the whole thing on this blog (it's your job to click on the link and read the whole page yourself), but I will highlight the main topics.

First and foremost to becoming financially stable is to pay an honest tithe and a generous fast offering. An honest tithe is simply 10% of your income, and a fast offering is simply at least the price you would have paid for the two meals you don't eat when you fast.The "generous" part of a fast offering is completely up to the individual.

Next, we need to distinguish between wants and needs. I once heard a talk given in a church meeting that addressed this distinction, and one big message I got from it is if you really work to distinguish between your wants and needs, there are often many "weeds" that are mixtures of wants and needs. If you completely take out the "weeds" in your life, you can find that most of them were really just wants anyway.

The next topic is to use a budget. There are many different ways and philosophies to budget out money, but we'll post about that later.

Next is to build a reserve. Many times this reserve will start out small and grow slowly, but no matter where we are in life, be it wealthy or not, we can start saving a reserve.

Finally, we need to teach family members about financial management. We should inform our spouses or children, or even siblings or parents about the importance of being financially stable. When we obtain this knowledge, it is our responsibility to help our family understand it as well.

I know that many people are in different stages of life, and some reading this blog might be thinking well this is easy for some people to talk about, but I can't afford to live like that. My question to you is how can you afford to not live like this? There are so many blessings from doing what the prophet asks us to do, including more blessings than we can even handle (Malachi 3:10). These are not just my opinions, but the teachings of the leaders of our Church. As we discussed earlier, the first step to being prepared is to follow the counsel of our prophets. I know that even if you have to start small and it's a very slow process, as long as you are striving to live the teachings of the prophets you will be blessed for it in ways you may not even be able to imagine. I have seen the blessings in my own life, and I know you can too.



Do any of you have any experiences where following the financial advice of the prophets has brought blessings to you or your family?

Let Us Live Righteously and Look to the Prophets

The first two steps to becoming prepared are follow the counsel of the prophets and live righteously. It's interesting, but many people do not understand that being physically prepared and being spiritually prepared go hand in hand. Luckily for us, we just had our wonderful General Conference, which is the perfect time to find out what the prophet wants us to do and to know how to follow it.

In this last April 2013 session, there wasn't a whole lot specifically about physical preparedness. However, there were tons of talks that mentioned our spiritual state. One image that I loved was given in President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk during the Priesthood session. As a side note, even though this talk was given to brethren and he was specifically talking about the four titles of Priesthood holders, I firmly believe that the titles he gave can be applied to anyone in the Church. One title he gave is that of a "healer":

As home [and visiting] teachers, we are healers....we should be committed and dedicated healers. We carry in one hand a vial of consecrated oil for blessing the sick; in the other we carry a loaf of bread to feed the hungry; and in our hearts we carry the peaceable word of God, "which healeth the wounded soul" (Jacob 2:8).

I love this image of bread and oil in the hand and the word of God in the heart. It shows how closely physical and spiritual matters should work together. It shows that even though we may want to just focus on physically preparing for upcoming emergencies, it is just as important to be spiritually prepared.

So what did we learn at conference? For me, the overarching theme was obedience to God's commandments. President Thomas S. Monson's talk titled "Obedience Brings Blessings" focused on a few specific commandments that he found very important. One commandment was home and visiting teaching. He told a story of how two home teachers living in east Berlin right after the Second World War received an assignment to visit a brother in Hungary on a regular basis. The trip would take a whole week, and because of the political climate, they were not certain they would even return. Even so, they fulfilled their duty and helped another member of the Church. Now I know that no one here in Lubbock, TX, is asked to visit someone in a completely different country with the uncertainty of even returning, so my question is "What can we do better?" No, I am not perfect at my visiting teaching (which is why this applies to me just as much as it does to everyone else), but it's a really good question to ask ourselves.

Another commandment President Monson focused on was paying tithing. This man in Hungary was unable to pay his tithing because of how far away he was from the Church, but instead of saying, "well it's not my fault I can't pay, so I just won't" he consistently set aside 10 percent of his earnings, not even knowing when or if he might "have the privilege of paying it" (emphasis added).  How often do we look at paying tithing as a privilege? It may not seem like it at first glance, but we have been promised that if we do pay our tithing that we will be given so many blessings that there won't be room for it (Mal. 3:10). I think if we could have a better attitude towards paying our tithing that we can see it more like the privilege that it really is.

Finally, the talk right before President Monson was titled, "Obedience to Law is Liberty" by Elder L. Tom Perry. He mentioned that there are four of the Ten commandments that are still taken seriously in society: don't murder, don't steal, don't lie, and honor your parents (obvious paraphrasing). However, Elder Perry explained that as a society we routinely dismiss the other six: 1) looking at worldly priorities, we certainly have "other gods" we put before the true God, 2) if we make idols of celebrities, of lifestyles, of wealth, then we have graven images, 3) we use the name of God in all kinds of profane ways, 4) We use the Sabbath day for our biggest games, our most serious recreation, our heaviest shopping, and almost everything else but worship, 5) we treat sexual relations outside marriage as recreation, entertainment, and normal, 6) coveting has become a far too common way of life. In another talk from conference by Elder L. Whitney Clayton, he says that we shouldn't consider the commandments to be a "buffet from which [we] can pick and choose only the most appealing." The point of the Ten Commandments is to follow all ten of them.

So why do we have all of these commandments? Not only do we have the Ten from Moses, but there are others like tithing and home and visiting teaching and fulfilling our church callings and assignments...Why? To quote Elder Perry, the reason is because "they are loving counsel from a wise, all-knowing Heavenly Father. His goal is our eternal happiness, and His commandments are the road map He has given us to return to Him."

Our Heavenly Father has given us these commandments out of love so we can return to Him. Living the commandments is a blessing, not a burden. If we listen to the counsel of His servants, we can learn what God wants us to know. And if we truly strive to follow those teachings, then we can be more prepared to meet Him.



What other teachings and messages from General Conference did you like that showed how to be more spiritually prepared?

How and What to Prepare

The title of this blog is inspired by the General Conference talk by President Ezra Taft Benson, "Prepare Ye." If you have the time, I would advise everyone to click on the link and read the entire talk. Many people may ask, "How should I be prepared?" or "What should I prepare?" Here are some of my favorite quotes from President Benson's talk that answers what we should do to prepare.

In response to the question of how to prepare for the earth's calamities, President Benson quotes from the Doctrine and Covenants:

“Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments;
“And also gave commandments to others. …” (D&C 1:17-18.) He has also said: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.”(D&C 1:37.) Here then is the key—look to the prophets for the words of God, that will show us how to prepare for the calamities which are to come. (emphasis added)

President Benson quoted President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. when he asked what we, as individuals, should do to prepare for "this oncoming disaster, which God in his wisdom may not turn aside from us"

"First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …
Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.
Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.
Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead." (Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26.)

So there is the answer - we need to listen to the prophets' counsel, live righteously, avoid debt, live within our incomes and save that income, and have a year's supply of food, clothing, and fuel. Obviously there are many other aspects to being prepared, but these are the main topics that this blog is going to focus on. 

My husband and I are the authors of this blog and we hope this will be an ongoing tool to help others, including ourselves, follow the words of the prophets in taking care of our temporal and spiritual preparedness.