Wednesday's Story

I can still remember my parent's huge storage room, as we called it. This room was originally a bedroom for my brother's with four large bunk beds that my dad built into the wall. By the time I was in my teens this room became the food supply room along with a large upright freezer and cold bottled water dispenser. (This room also had the occasional hidden Christmas gift that we always seemed to find!)

The bunk beds now held precious silver cans from the cannery full of wheat, oats, beans and rice. These precious cans could also be found under every bed in the house. Mom knew exactly what was under each bed. My bed had oats so when mom needed oats, it was my errand.

The bunk bed closest to the door held mostly non-food items such as toothpaste, toilet paper, paper towels, foil, shampoos, soaps of all kinds, toothbrushes, etc. To our delight, we would occasionally discover a box of ding-dongs hidden away!

One day as our family vacation approached I noticed Dad in the storage room taking inventory. He held his lined yellow pad of paper and sharp red pencil. He'd write an item down and then scratch mark how many of each item was shelved. There were several items with no scratch marks. This would come to mean to us that we did not have enough food supply, according to Dad.

Our family vacation was canceled that year.

We needed to spend our vacation money to build up our food supply.

There were lots of kids in our family who were all extremely disappointed and crying on mom's shoulder.

There was nothing she could do...or so we thought. Mom always had a way to make things better. I don't remember exactly what we did, but fun at home was had for all. Dad would occasionally join in as if to say, "I'm sorry....for doing what had to be done!"

The shopping began. Our storage was built back up to where dad thought it needed to be.

It was not until several years later with most of the kids gone from home that the food storage was an absolute need for mom. Dad was not at home for several months and money became extremely tight. Mom absolutely needed the storage she had and she was very grateful to have it in this time of personal need.

You see, there was no world catastrophe, devastating storm or world economic downturn that required mom to need this storage. Simply put, a family in need was able to get through their own crisis because they were obedient to the counsel of having food storage.

Looking back, I am thankful for the lesson I learned from my Dad about the importance of food storage.