How to Withstand Calamities

Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, spoke of the seven years of plenty and famine in Egypt, reminding us that, because the Pharaoh heeded the prophetic warning, even when the famine came, "There Was Bread." Naturally, Bishop Waddell's main message was that we should do the same. As we read in the Book of Ether this week, we read about King Coriantumr, who failed to heed a prophetic warning, and subsequently watched all his people get killed in a terrible war, leaving himself the sole survivor of his entire civilization. Blessings follow when we listen ot the prophets and heed their teachings, and curses follow when we don't. This is because God speaks to us through His prophets to tell us how we can obtain blessings and avoid curses. As in Pharaoh's case, God knows when calamities will befall, and He knows what we must do to prepare for them.

Calamities are a natural, necessary, unavoidable aspect of mortality, but while we can't avoid such calamities, we can mitigate their effects, and we do that best by heeding the warnings of the Prophets. Coriantumr didn't, and his people were slaughtered. Pharaoh did, and his people thrived. I know which example I would rather follow.