Improvement Era, 1947 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion

To Help a Neighbor By Roscoe W. Eardley

Of the General Church Welfare Committee

ONE NIGHT in a small town in southern Utah, I met a friend whom I had not seen for a long time. Among other things, he mentioned that he and his wife had been reading the counsel of the Church leaders concerning storing at least a year's supply of food. He said that his faith in the gospel and the Church leaders was as strong as it had ever been, that he aimed to pay a full tithing each year and also remembered to consecrate his fast day with an appropriate offering. The ward in which he lived was not as active in welfare work as he thought it should be, but whenever the bishop had called upon him to assist, he had tried to do his part. "But let's talk about this storing of food that I'm interested in," he said.

Taking a memorandum book from his pocket, my friend showed me a list of foods which he and his wife had decided to store. We went over it item by item. The list had been very carefully prepared and was the most complete list of its kind that I had ever seen.

We talked about each item and its storing qualities. I complimented him on the thoroughness of the list, but added that it seemed to me that the quantities he proposed to store were excessive. I told him that the counsel had been to store only enough for one or two years so that the food would not spoil, because the Lord does not look with favor upon waste. I suggested also that the food which he stored should be used from time to time as needed, and that as the food was used, it would be well to replenish the stocks so that there would always be a fresh supply on hand to last for one or two years.

MY friend smiled and said, "You know, I have some neighbors that are not very provident, and I have some more neighbors who lack faith in what our leaders have said, and I have other neighbors who are not in very fortunate circumstances; I am thinking not only about myself and family, but also about my neighbors. I think that if hard times come, I can enjoy my stored food and be happy in my home only if I know that my neighbors are not hungry.

It seems to me that it would be very comforting to have a little on hand-a few pounds of sugar or a little flour or some canned fruits and vegetables that one could pass over the fence to my neighbors who might be in need. President Brigham Young, President Heber C. Kimball, and others of our stalwart fathers and mothers took from their own supplies in the early days in Utah and helped their neighbors who were in need. This should be a splendid example to guide us today."

TO help a neighbor in need was a fundamental teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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