Self-reliance

Not to be paranoid or anything, but every once in awhile I wonder how long we could live on our food storage, if we had to. I have a friend who's bishop one Sunday challenged them to live off what they had in their house for a week. Our food storage isn't in fantastic shape, but I think I could go two weeks if I had to, maybe even a month. I'd really miss fresh milk and fresh produce, but I think we could do it. I used to imagine scenarios like this would only be necessary if there was some kind of natural disaster. But with the current economic mess, I started thinking about how long we could last if we had no income. We'd have to go to the store because we really wouldn't try to live without milk or produce, but what expenses could we cut out or cut back on? What truly are necessities? How many months could we be completely self-reliant before we had to ask for help?

Several years ago I read a talk by President Marion G. Romney entitled "The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance." It's one of those talks that made so much sense to me that the message has stayed with me. I was happy to see it reprinted in the March 2009 Ensign. There are temporal reasons why being self-reliant is a good idea, but President Romney explains the spiritual reasons for being self-reliant. Here's a quote:

"Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also know service is what godhood is all about? Without self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak. . . . Once a person has been made whole, or self-reliant, he reaches out to aid others, and the cycle repeats itself."

I'm far from there, but that's where I'd like to be--self-reliant enough that I'm in a position where I can help others become self-reliant too.