In the April General Conference of 1981, Elder Mark E. Petersen told this story:
“On the street in front of my house is a row of chestnut trees. In the spring they are beautiful, all covered with gorgeous blossoms.
“As the summer moves on, I see nuts begin to form in their little green pods. In the autumn the nuts drop to the ground. As they do, squirrels seem to appear from nowhere. They sit on the sidewalk, bite off the pods, and then run quickly away with each nut to store it for their winter’s supply.
“They are wise little animals, and they are industrious. They are quite fearless, too, for no one on our street ever disturbs them. It is intensely interesting just to watch them work for their living the way they do.
“They do not allow the chestnuts to go to waste, not one of them. They know their lives must depend on them during the cold and unproductive winter months when nuts do not grow on trees.
“They don’t depend on anyone else to gather those nuts for them, either. They rely entirely upon themselves. The Lord gives them the harvest, but they must gather it in.
“They teach us a great lesson in self-reliance. It is a lesson that is applicable to human beings as well as to the creatures of nature.”
Elder Petersen observed that the squirrels were
• storing for winter,
• wise,
• industrious,
• fearless,
• working for their living,
• not wasteful, and
• self-reliant.
Can you see yourself in this story? Or not.
He introduced his story by first giving this counsel:
“There are many very good people who keep most of the Lord’s commandments with respect to the virtuous side of life, but who overlook His commandments in temporal things. They do not heed His warning to prepare for a possible future emergency, apparently feeling that in the midst of all this trouble ‘it won’t happen to us.’ It is not always the other fellow’s problem. It is our problem also whenever there is economic trouble afloat.
“To prepare for the future is part of God’s eternal plan, both spiritually and temporally. To protect ourselves against reversals and hardships is only good sense.”
From “Blessings in Self-Reliance” by Mark E. Petersen, April 1981.
