Update Added 9/14/23
For over 6,000 years humans have been enjoying the wonderful nourishing food provided by GOD. Fresh vegetables, fruits, animals, and herbs, delicious, satisfying and health giving. As long as we were following God’s plan for farming and trusting Him we did just fine. We ate all manner of produce with no fear!
When I was growing up, you never heard of foods being contaminated. Spoiled yes, but not contaminated. We drank eggnog made with raw eggs, ate raw batter and licked the beaters, some people even at raw hamburger a a delicacy. The milk we drank was delivered to our door and was not homogenized. The cream was floating on the top.
When the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ARRIVED, it destroyed everything. Suddenly, farming was a corporate venture, processed foods became common, and we began to consume foods from all over the world. They no longer gave the land rest and started giving our animals feed instead of raising them on the pasture.
As long as we were an agricultural society and humans raised their own food and slaughtered their own meat people understood from whence their food came. They had a great deal of respect and gratitude for the source. They raised their animals with love, and they became part of the family. When one had to die to feed them, they did it in the kindest, most painless way possible. The meat was consumed at the source, so there was far, far less opportunity for contamination or spoilage. These days we have no idea where our food comes from or how it is handled.
Corporations don’t care. The people they hire to do the job are only there for a paycheck. Corporate farms are the worst possible way to raise food.
Factory Farming in 60 Seconds Flat
Science, Technology and Industry are not the blessing that they want you to be believe.
Once they discovered how to manipulate DNA, first in BACTERIA, suddenly our food was in question. The started putting more and more additives in our food, giving growth hormones and vaccines to our livestock, spraying our vegetables and fruit with insecticides and forcing the land to produce more and longer with fertilizers.
When Crispr came into the picture, which first was developed using EColi, suddenly we had outbreaks. Our food was killing people.
I hate to tell you this, but the elite have been working for a very long time to bring us to the point where we are today. They have been corrupting everything and everyone, especially our food supply. Genetic Engineering is nothing but the Fallen Angels genetic corruption which lead to the flood.
I have been watching our food supply dwindle for the last twenty years. When I was growing up, stores kept stock. I you did not see it on the shelves or on the rack, you could ask if they had it “IN STOCK”. They would bring it out for you from the back. That does not exist anymore. Today the stores are allowed to order minimum amounts of anything. They may order something and still not get it. Why? Because the elite control our supply. I have watched to shelves in the grocery store over the past twenty years as the amount of each item and the number of items dwindled away. We used to have so much over choice, now we have very little choice if any. What you see is what is available and once it is gone it may never come back. I have spoken to store personnel and asked about what I was witnessing. They told me what I already surmised, they are only allowed to order certain things and that some things they order but do not receive.
Another thing that I have been noticing is the serious decline in the actual food itself. Fruits and vegetables often appear much smaller and blemished at first sight, if not they look attractive when you buy them, but deteriorate very quickly once you get them home. Even hardy items like potatoes and carrots. Often with potatoes and apples it seems as though they are old before they arrive at the store. Perhaps last year’s crop kept in storage.
As for the meat first I noticed the meat that you get in restaurants and fast food places does not even look or taste like real meat. I had a fish sandwich that I swear was plastic. The raw meats also appear to be different. They do not look, smell or behave in the pan like real meat. And when eating the meats, there is no pleasure or enjoyment. Often I cannot even finish the first bite. They are disgusting. Young people who are used to eating processed foods and junk food, probably have no such objections to the new meats.
They would like you to believe that they are only considering or only beginning to offer modified food. DON’T BELIEVE IT. You have been eating them for some time now. At least some of them. They are about to OUTLAW ALL NATURAL FOOD. They have everything prepared to switch the world’s population over to ONLY Genetically Modified foods and man-made, lab grown foods. They actually even have foods made from plastic that look like the real thing.
spacer
Update Added 9/14/23
spacer
Why Fruits Have Lost Their Vitamins
spacer
GROCERY PRICES Are About To SKYROCKET & More FOOD SHORTAGE Reports!!!
spacer
Everywhere you look, it seems like another food item is being taken off the market because of contaminants or improper labeling. Trader Joe’s has issued six voluntary recalls in five weeks, while companies like Hillshire Farms, Banquet and Skippy are warning customers that their groceries may contain foreign objects like plastic, stainless steel and even bone fragments.
Are we actually seeing more food recalls than before?
Food recalls are becoming more common, according to data from reporting agencies. There has been an upward trend for a while. According to a 2019 report from the non-partisan Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the number of food recalls in the United States increased by 10% between 2013 and 2018, hitting a peak of 905 in 2016.
TIME reported that “class I recalls — those based on a ‘reasonable probability’ that contaminated food could cause health problems — of meat and poultry rose by 83% during this time period.”
In March 2023, a new report was released from the Sedgwick organization, which collects and compiles recall and safety information across several industries, that found that The total number of “units” recalled under the authority of the FDA increased by around 700 % in 2022 compared to 2021.
In terms of overseeing recalls, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in charge of meat, dairy and poultry products, which make up about 20% of the country’s food supply, while The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in charge of virtually everything else put on American plates.
According to Food Safety News reporter Coral Beach, the number of Food and Drug Administration food recalls rose marginally at a rate of 2.2 percent from 414 recalls in 2021 to 423 recalls in 2022.
“However, the number of ‘units,’ such as individual bags of salad or containers of infant formula, went up 700.6 percent,” Beach wrote. “There were 52.1 million recalled units in 2021 with an average size of 125,796 units compared to 416.9 million units in 2022 with an average recall size of 985,658 units.”
What is behind the increasing number of food recalls?
Much like our country’s increasingly industrialized global food supply chain — it’s complicated. There is no single reason that we are seeing an uptick in food recalls. However, there are several trends that are worth exploring.
The first and largest is that the distance between the origin point of our food and our plates is growing farther and farther apart with each passing decade; for instance, in 1870, 100% of all apples consumed in Iowa were also produced there, but by 1999, only 15% of apples consumed in Iowa were actually grown by Iowan farmers. This can make tracing individual contaminants particularly difficult, especially if there are mismatches in technology usage throughout the process. This was addressed by former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a 2020 statement following two outbreaks of E. coli in romaine lettuce where records were being kept mostly on paper.
He continued: “When the lack of transparency in supply chains delays the identification of contamination sources and the root causes of product problems, the economic and public health costs can be considerable.”
Another reason we may be seeing more recalls is actually the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was originally drafted and approved in 2011, though some compliance rules didn’t go into full effect until more recently.
Under the guidelines, the FDA actually has more resources and funding to increase the frequency and rigor of inspections of food facilities. This is to ideally catch issues before they arise. However, in tandem with that, the FDA was also granted unilateral authority to mandate recalls of contaminated or adulterated food products. Prior to the implementation of the FSMA, recalls were mostly voluntary actions taken by manufacturers.
So, a small percentage of the increased recalls is likely stemming from that development. However, it’s important to note that, per the FDA, food recalls are still “usually voluntarily initiated by the manufacturer or distributor of the food.”
This makes sense because, put plainly, food manufacturers and distributors want to get contaminated items off the market before someone is injured or dies, potentially prompting a lawsuit.
Should you be worried?
While the uptick in recalls is disconcerting, some experts say that it actually points to increased vigilance about consumer safety (albeit once the items have actually reached market). In speaking with TIME, Jaydee Hanson, policy director at the Center for Food Safety, shared this point of view.
“You want things recalled before anybody dies. You want things recalled, ideally, before anybody’s sick,” Hanson says. “If companies think that the FDA and the USDA are looking over their shoulder, they’re going to do a better job.”
This to say, more recalls doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s more bad food on the market; it means that there are more checks and balances in place to catch that bad food before it ends up on someone’s plate.
However, if you are still concerned about contaminants, one of the simplest solutions is to become more familiar with where your food actually originates and the conditions under which it was made or processed. There’s a big difference between the industrialized meat-packing industry (which the Washington Post aptly described as “rest[ing] on a thin reed of worker abuse and poor sanitation”) and a regional farm.
When your budget and time allow, purchase products with clear points of origin — for all its ingredients — and eat more whole foods. While you may find, say, bone fragments in industrially-produced sausage, it’s unlikely that’s what you’ll find biting into a locally-grown apple.
about food safety
- The sniff test is not reliable for food safety – here’s why
- Love watermelons? This summer, be wary of the ones that foam and explode
- Food expiration dates don’t have much science behind them — a food safety researcher explains
They want the masses to believe that the Government is protecting them, looking out for their best interest. They want you to be afraid to eat anything without checking first for their warnings Afraid to have eggnog, or even eat eggs, afraid to eat your salad, or give your baby their formula.
FEAR is the name of the game. When people are in fear they will look to anyone who promises them some semblance of peace.
And afterall, the scientists, medical experts, technology experts, the judges, and governors and politicians they are so much smarter than the average joe. They surely have the answers, it is best to “TRUST THE SCIENCE”. Right?
That is what they want you to believe. The truth is that though you don’t have a “degree” YOU have just as much intelligence and capacity for self determination as anyone else. If you find yourself face a topic about which you feel under qualified, you can talk to GOD about it.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:5-7 spacer
They don’t want you to trust your own judgement, and certainly they do not want you to TRUST GOD! They want to be GOD in your life.
spacer
From the Great Michigan Pizza Funeral to tainted peanut butter: How we got today’s recall system
Katie WedellFoodborne illness has been around for as long as humans have been eating food. Scientists believe typhoid fever from Salmonella may have been what killed Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.
President Zachary Taylor also is suspected to have died from bacteria in food or water he consumed at a Fourth of July celebration in 1850.
The U.S. had some food safety regulations as far back as the colonies, but the laws we have today about food inspection and reporting to the public didn’t start to take shape until the early 20th century.
If you read Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and were grossed out by the descriptions of how meat was processed at the stockyards in Chicago, you weren’t alone. Then-President Theodore Roosevelt didn’t like what he read and helped push through two bills in 1906 that began the modern era of our food safety laws.
►FOOD RECALLS: How technology could alert you before you eat that tainted salad
►FOOD SAFETY 101:How to prevent food poisoning by monitoring recalls
The Pure Food and Drug Act set testing requirements to ensure the safety and cleanliness of all food and drugs meant for human consumption. It also broke off a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to become the FDA.
USDA, FDA enforce food safety laws
Those two agencies remain the key enforcers of food safety laws and issuers of recalls – the FDA for all drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, pet food and human food other than meat, poultry, or eggs; the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service for those specific three food categories.
The Meat Inspection Act, also passed in 1906, required certified officials to inspect all animals before slaughter and all meat after slaughter to detect any diseases.
1973: First major recall involved canned mushrooms
The first major national recall didn’t happen until 1973 when 75 million cans of mushrooms were pulled from shelves due to suspected botulism. There’s no record of anyone being sickened, but the recall gave the world the story of the Great Michigan Pizza Funeral.
►HOW RECALLS WORK:Food recalls 101: How the chicken and salad mix get pulled from the shelves
1993: Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak
An E. coli outbreak from Jack in the Box hamburger patties that killed four children in 1993 was the impetus for the USDA to mandate the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system at every federally inspected meat and poultry slaughter and processing plant in the United States.
HACCP is now a widely used system in the food industry designed to identify and control potential problems before they occur. HACCP consists of seven steps used to monitor food as it flows through a facility, whether a food processing plant or a retail food operation.
The public hadn’t heard much about the type of E. coli that causes foodborne illnesses before the Jack in the Box outbreak. In fact, scientists had only recognized it as a cause of disease in 1982.
2008-2009: Salmonella outbreak in peanut products
It was a Salmonella outbreak in peanut products that killed nine people in late 2008 and early 2009 that eventually led to the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011.
It aimed to shift focus to preventing food contamination rather than responding to it, so most of its provisions deal with food manufacturing, harvesting, storing and testing rather than the public-facing recall system.
The act also gave the FDA new authority to order a mandatory recall if a company refuses to do so voluntarily.
The 2008 outbreak related to Peanut Corporation of America products was unique in that the company continually denied responsibility for the outbreak while manipulating testing to avoid a recall.
In February of 2009, the FDA reported that the company shipped tainted products either without retesting after a positive pathogen test, before the retest results came back from the lab, or after a second test showed no bacterial contamination. In all three cases the product should have been destroyed.
Investigations by the federal government and journalists uncovered emails that implicated the company’s owner Stewart Parnell in knowingly shipping tainted products because he was losing money.
Parnell was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted of dozens of criminal counts including fraud and conspiracy. His brother along with a former quality assurance manager and two former plant managers for the company were also convicted of criminal acts and sentenced to prison time.
Most recalls today are voluntarily initiated by food companies when they become aware of a potential contamination, mislabeling or other issue with their food.
►PRODUCT RECALLS: Check USA TODAY’s recall resource for the latest updates
spacer
I posted about the fake food being produced in China, some time back. Well, NOW it is HERE. In the USA they are selling fake food! It is not even real in any sense of the word. Made of plastic and containing absolutely no nutrition what so ever. One can only imagine what it does to the inside of your body!
Who would have ever thought they would be feeding us plastic? What devious mind came up with that?
Now that we know about this, it is just one more reason to be wary of the food in the stores. One more reason to be anxious, worried, concerned, FEARFUL!
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6
spacer
spacer
Real Egg vs Fake Egg /How to Identify Plastic Eggs?
spacer
Video footage shows a man producing what appears to be fake rice, made from plastic bags. He can be seen feeding a mound of small, clear plastic bags into a machine which processes a rice-looking substance.
481K subscribers
spacer
spacer
Top 10 Fake Foods You’re Eating & How to Avoid Them
spacer
They have genetically modified our food, and destroyed their ability to create seeds. They have also develop methods of growing plants without soil, and even in ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT. THIS IS DEATH to humanity. Food is not nourishing to our bodies unless it contains life. Though it may look like food it is NOT. FOOD takes life from sunshine and from the earth and brings it to us in a form that our bodies are able to process. LIFE comes from GOD. You cannot get life from artificial food. The atmosphere the food is grown in is also vital for the process. That is why they are poisoning the air around us.
Their phony food may curb your appetite but it will not NOURISH your body. It will leave you wanting.
We are living in the END TIMES and the DEVIL and his minions are highly motivated and working around the clock TO STEAL, KILL and DESTROY and YOU are their number one target. We are coming into PERILOUS TIMES.
spacer
2 Timothy 3:1-13
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
spacer
Matthew 2412 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
spacerMATTHEW 24
21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Matthew 24
spacer
On top of all the insane things that they are doing to our food, they are also making sure that we have no food options but the ones they provide. They want us to eat bugs, poop and artificially created food. So, they are killing all the livestock and free reigning edible animals and taking over all the vegetable and fruit farms to grow Monsanto seeds that are chemically treated and Genetically Modified. They have been doing these things for years, now they are just more upfront and blazon about it. And, much more aggressive!
spacer
112K subscribers
/ @thepoplarreport -Genesis Gold Group | https://poplargold.com 1-800-200-4653 | 🇺🇸 #1 Trusted Gold IRA Company -Deals At MyPatriotSupply: https://mypatriotsupply.com/pages/spe… Sign-Up For “The Poplar Report” Newsletter http://eepurl.com/hRgqpr Jase Medical (Antibiotics) http://jasemedical.com/poplarprepared… Use Code POPLAR10 for $10 off Steve Poplar, PO Box 326 Strabane, PA 15363 Website: https://thepoplarreport.com/ Twitter @thepoplarreport Host of: Bold Faith Bible / boldfaithbible OnScene Reports: (Free Trial & 30% discount with Code: POPLARPREPAREDNESS) http://www.onscenealert.com Rumble Link: https://rumble.com/vyzv66-most-poplar… Odysee: https://odysee.com/@PoplarPreparednes… BEST Prepping Deals: You Will also support this channel by using these links: (At NO additional cost to you!) Don’t buy full gas mask…get the much cheaper 3M respirators with more filter cartridges… Half mask https://amzn.to/3JyQzED Filters- https://amzn.to/3FeY0i0 (Pair with swim goggles or safety goggles if you want) Dried Onion 15 lbs https://amzn.to/3BqzMP3 Dried Onion 3 lbs https://amzn.to/3BtVzVV Spam 12 pack https://amzn.to/3BV7UnI Nido https://amzn.to/3qRxlzX Jasmine Rice 18 lbs https://amzn.to/3DFduMg Red Lentils https://amzn.to/3QWn1kQ Bulk Pinto Beans https://amzn.to/3UnkvXT Knorr Chicken Bullion 6 lbs https://amzn.to/3dv7Ott Rechargeable AA https://amzn.to/3BQXdCy Rechargeable AAA https://amzn.to/3Lr04Fc Wound Gauze https://amzn.to/3f0KIez Generic Ace Bandage https://amzn.to/3f2G3ZM Minced Garlic 5 lbs https://amzn.to/3DU1SoP Skippy Peanut Butter 5 lbs https://amzn.to/3xEdFn3 Kitchen Trash Bags https://amzn.to/3DCCCD6 Yard Trash Bags https://amzn.to/3DDkwkj Paper Plates https://amzn.to/3BTzPUV Dollar Tree https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=845001… Or you can make a DONATION at .. https://ko-fi.com/poplarpreparedness Thanks! #inflation #breakingnews #dailynews Always come here for the latest news on all prepper related food shortage. Prepper news similar to other channels like Canadian prepper, alaska prepper, full spectrum survival, pinball preparedness, the economic ninja, and goshen prepping. As the europe drought, energy crisis europe, and financial crisis 2023 get worse we need to be prepping for 2023. Having a prepared homestead so you can be ready for the empty shelves 2023, inflation, recession, walmart food shortages, and aldi empty shelves 2023.spacer
New Labels for Bioengineered Foods | NBC4 Washington
86.3K subscribers
Irish Potato Famine: Date, Cause & Great Hunger
Isn’t that interesting right at the time of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. I wonder what “modernization” was the reason for the manifestation of this disease. Or was it the hand of GOD brought on by the lasciviousness occult practices and spiritual dabbling that was going on? This was another time when people turned their back on God and embraced the Technology of the New Era.
59452:08I can only take from this that the bullshit “bird flu” was not an efficient way to get rid of or harm the food supply. And only so may planes can crash into buildings and catch fire.
HOWARD LAKE, Minn. Massive flames burned down a barn with tens of thousands of chickens in Wright County. The fire started late Saturday night at Forsman Farms in Howard Lake, causing major damage.A barn housing tens of thousands of chickens was leveled, in what a farm spokesperson called a “tragic accident.” The farm started in 1918, AND SELLS MORE THAN 3 MILLION EGGS A DAY to some of the nation’s largest retailers.
“Overnight, a fire destroyed one of our barns at our Howard Lake farm. Unfortunately, chickens were lost because of the fire. We are evaluating the extent of the damage – which appears to be confined to a single structure – as well as investigating the cause of the fire,” a Forsman Farms spokesperson said.
1 year, 3 months ago
507027:34
12.6K19:37SUPPORT MY SHOW BY GETTING PREPAREDNESS SUPPLY
SEND PACKAGES / LETTERS:
PO Box 3492Post Falls, ID 83877
1 year, 4 months ago
12.3K8:41
97692:41I would be fine with hanging the vast majority of these sold out traitorous bastards running this shit show. It’s now undeniable, that the government has been lacing chicken feed so that chickens stopped laying eggs. What have they been putting in our foods to poison us?
It begs the question…Which came first the mutant chicken or the GMO eggs?
158K subscribers
spacer
We hear the phrase “endure to the end” often in the scriptures and in gospel messages. But what does it truly mean to endure, and what does it look like in our individual lives?
Enduring is a fundamental part of our covenant obligations. It can also be a joyful way of living as we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, repent, and prepare ourselves for baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As we continue in our spiritual progression, we enter into more covenants with God in the temple and potentially with a partner for eternity.
And yet enduring sounds a bit grim, doesn’t it? Perhaps for some, it evokes images of the handcart pioneers with their heads bent down into the wind, toiling through hunger and trudging on day after day with no end in sight.
But what if the Lord is asking something different of us? Let’s examine the word “endure” to see if our expectations line up with His plan for our lives.
Active Growth, Not Passive Suffering
Originating from the Latin indūrāre and Old French endurer, the term “endure” means “to harden, to make lasting.”
This definition clarifies that enduring isn’t passive or reactive—it actually expresses a sense of growth. It is hopeful. We’re not just getting through the rest of our lives, instead we are agents unto ourselves coming to know good and evil through our own experience.
What does this look like in our lives? Elder Richard G. Scott observes:
“When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. . . . Rather ask, What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial?”
Elder Scott describes moving from a victim mentality to taking an active role while enduring trials. We come to mortality to learn. We will experience good and evil, both from the world around us and within ourselves. That is a given. But are we learning from those experiences? Do we come to a profound understanding of the nature of God and His plan for us? That is our great opportunity while on this earth, and if we are curious about our experiences, our learning can be accelerated.
Benefit from Trials
Many of us are experiencing difficult trials as a result of COVID-19 as well as tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural events outside of our control. However, with those trials come the opportunities described by President Joseph F. Smith:
“We believe that these severe, natural calamities are visited upon men by the Lord for the good of his children, to quicken their devotion to others, and to bring out their better natures, that they may love and serve him. We believe, further, that they are the heralds and tokens of his final judgment, and the schoolmasters to teach the people to prepare themselves by righteous living for the coming of the Savior to reign upon the earth” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 393).
During times like these, President Smith invites us to anticipate the Second Coming of Christ. Rather than simply surviving and focusing on ourselves, we can measure our growth by caring for and helping others.
As we ask God how we can better learn His will and serve His children, we are enduring well—not just suffering, but growing stronger in Godlike attributes.
Expectation Based on Experience
Hope is an essential characteristic of enduring well. While faith encourages us to look to the Savior and trust in Him, hope gives us expectation of good things to come, an exchange of beauty for ashes. Larry Hiller states:
“In my own life, when I patiently endure trials, the Savior, who took upon Himself all of our ills and sorrows (see Alma 7:11–12), ministers to me through the Spirit. I experience the Savior’s tender mercies. My trials may continue, but having taken upon me the yoke of Christ, I find Him sharing my yoke, making my burdens bearable, and giving me hope. I then have strength to endure. . . . Hope is anything but wishful. It is expectation based on experience. “I see Hope more clearly now. She is serene. Her eyes have the deep, knowing look of someone well acquainted with sorrow, the luminosity of recently being wet with tears. Hope has the confidence of one who clearly sees a bright future even when the next hours seem fog shrouded. Hope is steady and strong, a friend I am glad to have beside me during my own trials.”
As our experience increases, our expectations become refined. We replace a transactional faith, with its expectation of reward for good behavior, with a rock-solid trust in God regardless of outcomes. Even if we don’t see His purpose for us in our current circumstances, we can move forward with hope and faith in our future.
Tools for Hope
How can we increase our hope? I use two tools that have helped me during times of trial—a gratitude list and a fear list.
Most of us are familiar with gratitude lists. Recognizing what we are grateful for shifts our focus from feelings of scarcity to feelings of abundance. We also begin to see more clearly how often the Lord works in our lives to bless us.
Here are three steps that help when creating a fear list.
- Identify your fears: Write a list which includes all your current fears, big and small. This is hard. Sometimes, it feels like writing down our fears might make them more real or likely to occur. We might believe that if we avert our eyes, our fears will go away. But the opposite is true. When we write down and name our fears, it gives us greater power.
- Face and own our fears: When we name our fears, we shine a light on them, helping us to see them in the context of our faith. We may realize we are powerless in a situation—but that doesn’t mean we are helpless. Writing down fears by name begins the process of owning and responding to them in a healthy way. Some might already do this with their children, helping them name the emotion they are feeling. When we do the same and own our fears, we begin to have power over them.
- Prayerfully surrender our fears to our Savior: This is where there is real relief and comfort. Beside each fear on your list, try writing “Even if this happens, my Savior will always sustain me.” If your fear is for a family member, consider adding “and work in my loved one’s life for good.” There is a fundamental shift here, from our panic that we can’t control everything to trusting our future to a loving God. We exercise our agency by surrendering our fears to God, because He cannot take from us what we are unwilling to give.
Both a gratitude list and a fear list have increased my trust in God. I have gained the power to let go of my own will and surrender to God’s will. It has helped me increase in hope, enabling me to turn to God with a teachable heart during trials.
I am no longer afraid of enduring to the end. It’s not something to be feared, but to be anticipated, as I grow in godly attributes, become stronger, and fill the measure of my mortal experience. I am an agent who acts, not a passive player to be acted upon, and that means every experience can be consecrated to my good as I learn to lean on the ample arm of the Lord.
Know who you are
Understand purpose of life- Live obediently
The scriptures teach, Elder Robert D. Hales said Sunday afternoon, that it is essential to endure to the end and there must be opposition in all things.
“It is not a question of if we are ready for the tests; it is a matter of when (the test will come). We must prepare to be ready for tests that will present themselves without warning.”
“Our mission in life is much the same,” he said. “We were not sent by Father in Heaven just to be born. We were sent to endure and return to Him with honor.
“Dwelling in the world is part of our mortal test. The challenge is to live in the world, yet not partake of the world’s temptations which will lead us away from spiritual goals,” he said.
The basic requirements for enduring to the end, Elder Hales explained, include: “knowing who we are – children of God with a desire to return to His presence; understanding the purpose of life – to endure to the end and obtain eternal life; and living obediently with a desire and determination to endure all things.
“We learn to endure to the end by learning to finish our current responsibilities, and we simply continue doing it all our lives,” he said, explaining that people cannot expect to learn endurance in later years if qualities of completing assignments are not learned in younger years.
“Enduring to the end applies to all of God’s commandments,” he emphasized.
“There is more to endurance than just surviving and waiting for the end to overtake us. It takes great faith and courage to pray to our Heavenly Father, `not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ “
Enduring to the End is Kind of Hard
Kacy Faulconer is an author, thinker, blogger and all-around great person. We’re excited to share this guest post from her.
When I was a kid the churchy end-all be-all was getting to the temple. It seemed like the last big thing after getting baptized and doing Personal Progress. Once you went through the temple (covenants made, endowments in place) the only thing left to do was endure to the end. D&C 18:22 puts it like this: “As many as repent and are baptized in my name, which is Jesus Christ, and endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” Easy peasy!
It dawns on me that enduring to the end is kind of hard. It’s not necessarily smooth sailing once you “enter the the strait gate.” Grabbing hold of the iron rod is, I think now, less “you’re all set,” and more “hold on tight!”
The adults I knew best as a child (my mom, my grandparents) were selfless and charitable. They did the right thing. Doing the right thing seemed to come easily to them. I took for granted that if I survived the perils of peer pressure described in seminary videos and never started smoking I’d grow into a nice, good adult.
I see now that doesn’t automatically happen. I see this because I am middle-aged and still not selfless or charitable. I see this because people my age (and OLDER) struggle with faith, fidelity, finances, fear, depression, temptation, doubts, and other unmentionables that make “enduring to the end” kind of a big deal.
The elderly Ezra Taft Benson was the prophet when I was young. He was another example of a benevolent old soul just hanging around and enduring to the end. There was some buzz as he became too incapacitated to speak at conference. My mom explained to me that some critics of the church complained that our leadership was too old. This complaint seems quaint to me now—especially since 74-year-old Dieter Uchtdorf is one of the hottest commodities we have in terms of the LDS milkshake bringing folks to the yard, but at the time it blew me away. Old people are so perfect and kind! They’re like little angels walking around. Of course our prophet would be a really, really, old guy!
I had kind of a patronizing attitude, if you think about it. Anyone who gets to the end or close or even halfway in a manner that could be described as “enduring” is a champion. Ezra Taft Benson was a champion. Perhaps there are some who grow naturally benign, wise, and good as they get older. But I think mostly it is hard-won.
I just read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. It’s about an old guy—An old guy for whom it is not too late to fix his marriage and change his life. The book explains that to outsiders one of the characters looks like a doddering old man, but inside his heart beats as passionately as a teenager’s. Rage, rage against the dying of the light, and all that.
I don’t know what to say about enduring to the end except to appropriate some unhelpful advice Amy Poehler shares about writing in her book Yes Please: “The doing is the thing,” Poehler says. “The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing” (xv). The enduring is the thing.
I guess we can help each other endure by being nice and compassionate. Once after my youngest daughter had started kindergarten I saw my neighbor wrangling her fit-throwing toddler and baby at the grocery store. I was remembering how hard it was to shop with all my young kids on board and feeling glad that I could shop while they were at school now but also feeling like I hoped she didn’t feel stressed out because the situation she was in used to really stress me out and I just kind of wanted to beam goodwill at her. She looked at my kid-free cart and snapped, “Wouldn’t THAT be nice.”
Yeah. It is nice. But the kid-free shopping trips I now enjoy have been a long time (maybe 15 years or so?) coming. She lashed out because she was having a hard time. We all do it. It’s OK. How many times have I been in her position looking at someone else and jealously thinking that they had it made? How many times have I blocked someone’s goodwill with contempt? Lots, probably. Maybe enduring to the end would be easier for me if I stopped doing that. Everyone has their particular struggles. It’s worse when people are mean.
I’m not sure if Facebook is a greater help or hindrance when it comes to enduring to the end, but my friend posted this quote from Marvin J. Ashton on his wall which caught my attention both for addressing some of the reasons people struggle with enduring to the end and for suggesting how to endure to the end with style: “Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other” (Marvin J. Ashton, April 1992 General Conference).
Enduring is the thing. It’s kind of a big deal.