Preparing Your Family for Any Situation

Hi, this is Jim Daly with Focus on the Family. I want to let you know about an online experience called SeeLife 2021. In this six-episode video series, we're sharing stories and encouragement that will inspire and empower you to live out your pro-life views.

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Hey, this is John Fuller and thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. Before we get to our regularly scheduled program, we wanted to take just a moment to remind you of an outstanding opportunity coming up tomorrow, the 28th of August. Yeah, we're so excited as we're gearing up for our SeeLife 2021 event happening tomorrow in Dallas, Texas. Over the last six weeks, we've been sharing a compelling digital experience hoping to change hearts and minds in our culture on the issue of abortion.

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I'm looking forward to seeing you there if you can make it. More details are at FocusOnTheFamily.com slash SeeLife. And let's go ahead now and hear today's scheduled Focus on the Family broadcast.

Have that conversation. What's going to be most important to you? Let's make the decisions now while our adrenaline is not going off the charts, while we're not in fear for our life. Let's make decisions now so that we can be able to be that help to the people who need it in the emergency. That's Kathy Lipp and she joins us today on Focus on the Family and we're glad you have as well.

Your host is Focus President and author Jim Daly and I'm John Fuller. John, emergencies can strike any of us at any time. We're never promised an easy life without any worries at all. If you thought that was it, think again. You might encounter something like wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes. Several years ago we had a fire not far from our home and we had to do the emergency evacuation. And it's surprising when you're in that moment, if you haven't thought ahead, what you throw in the car to get away. Yeah, a lot of stress associated with that. We want to pull the stress levels down and help you, as Jim said, be wise about preparing. Kathy Lipp is one of our favorite guests here. She is a popular speaker and author and is the host of Clutter Free Academy, the podcast with Kathy Lipp. And she's written a great book we'll be talking about along the way. It's full of ideas.

It's called Ready for Anything, preparing your heart and home for any crisis, big or small. And just click the link in the episode notes or call 800, the letter A in the word family, for your copy. Kathy, welcome back to Focus on the Family.

Always my favorite place to be. You stated in the book something that I mentioned in the open. You had a fire coming at you, but it wasn't a wildfire. I think it was a house fire with a neighbor.

What went on and what got your attention in that experience? This was years ago. And my husband and I live in a townhouse with our four kids. And we were both working from home that day. And somebody comes knocking on our door and is screaming fire. Not a good way to start the day.

Not a great way. So we grab the dog and head out to the grass where we're standing out there. And I look two doors down and it's engulfed in flames. It was terrifying.

It was just terrifying. And so we're standing out there and we're sitting and we're thinking. And, you know, at this point, all of our kids are in college.

They're doing their own thing. But it was our son Jeremy's first day of school. And I said to Roger, there's no way that Jeremy came back from school today.

Right. And he said, no, no, no. We would have heard him. And Roger's just standing there. And then suddenly my husband goes into the burning building.

And I'm like, what are you doing? And about a minute later, he comes out and I'm like, thank God. And Jeremy is behind him. So he had come in late and you guys didn't notice him?

We didn't notice that he had come in. So we are literally the people who grabbed the dog and left the kid in a burning building. OK. And that's not what you want to be doing in an emergency. And so it was at that point we're like, yeah, we need a better plan.

We're standing out there, all of us in our bare feet. I have my phone, but we don't have we don't even have a leash for the dog. It just you can't think in those moments. So you have to think beforehand in order to say what happens when a crisis comes?

What do I do? Yeah. You had a travel experience, which I loved where I mean, you laughed about it, which was good. I would hope that I could laugh about something as horrific as what you went through. But what happened and how did that add to the fuel for you to think about a plan?

Yeah. So I was flying cross country. I was going to be speaking at a charity event, one that's pretty near and dear to my heart. And we get up in the air and it turns out we have to land in a different airport than where we were supposed to be. And I needed to be at this charity event the next morning because I'm speaking for this group of people. And I'm not used to being on the East Coast.

I don't know how to maneuver things. Well, every hotel room, every rental car, everything was gone because people who were smarter than me were making reservations in the air. Like I didn't go.

Yeah. So I land at this airport. I end up spending the night at the airport and I put out a call to all my friends on Facebook. It's like, OK, how can I get from Pennsylvania to Virginia?

Like, how does this happen? And now if you're on the East Coast, maybe you're like, oh, I could do that in my sleep. I'm from California. Like, we don't do trains.

That's not our thing. And so somebody suggested the train, me and a group of other people that spent the night at the airport. We formed our own party and we we traveled over there. We got Ubers. We get on the train and I finally get like two hours of sleep while I'm on the train. By the way, I don't have any of my luggage. So the person who's picking me up for the event takes me to Target and I get together. I know you've done this at Wal-Mart, you know, in the middle of the night. Yeah, exactly. I show up.

I do the event on no sleep. And then I'm flying out the next day and my flight's been canceled. And the person who is the agent agent, the poor recipient of all this angst, I just start cracking up.

Like, I mean, what else are you going to do at this point? It's so easy to get angry about, but this is not in her control. And I just start laughing and she says, why are you laughing? And I said, I came here to speak to a church and I told her everything. And she goes, well, that's why you're getting all this opposition because you're a preacher. And this woman gave me a sermon right there at the ticket counter and she encouraged me.

And she says, you know what? This is going to be a story that you're going to use about God's provision for years to come. And here I am on Focus on the Family.

And by the way, those agents, four agents got together, all of them believers. And so we're going to get you home. We're going to get you back to your husband. Now, it took about a day and a half, but I got I was one of the few people that weekend to actually get home. It's so funny.

I remember when I was first hired at Focus in 1989, I was on a training trip with somebody. And we got to the rental car counter and they had lost the reservation. And so we're there. And this colleague was very upset and kind of going at the agent talking about being out of your control.

I'm kind of quiet because I'm the newbie. Right. So I'm just listening to how this goes. And then the agent goes, oh, you work for Focus on the Family. I love that radio program. And this person's demeanor changes. Oh, well, thank you for listening. Yeah.

So do you happen to have a Volkswagen? I mean, it was so funny. It's so true. But you know what? What what are our tools in that situation? We can if we get angry, we have less than the amount of tools we have. But when we approach a situation like that, believing in God's abundance, believing that, you know, if we pray, we show up. We're trying to serve the people who are trying to serve us.

We can actually get a lot farther in these emergency situations. And I like that reminder that these are things that are out of your control and they're out of usually out of that service person's control, actually. And it's so much nicer to respond out of the spirit than the flesh. Yeah. But it really it does test your mettle.

Well, and I don't know about you, but when I'm tired or hungry or hot, breathing or great. Exactly. These are all things that make me not be my best. But I can remember I get to choose my attitude.

Yeah. Kathy, you I love the fact that you do this incrementally, this awareness. So it's not just one instance like the house fire and, you know, standing out on the lawn with your 40 pound dog and wondering where your son is. But other things that contributed to this idea that you need to be prepared. So in that buildup, you also had a vacation that went awry 16 days, which is rather Canada. Yeah, we were we it was my 50th birthday. We were doing a long trip and we decided we wanted to test some of our readiness. So instead of bringing our giant suitcases to be prepared for absolutely everything, we said, OK, how little can we bring and still make this enjoyable? And I started to research, like, how can you do your laundry without a washing machine?

And the number one supplier of that information are some very scary doomsday prepper sites. And I'm like, OK, I'm not down with that. But but it started to open me up to, you know, this is not an if situation.

It's a win. We're all going to approach crisis in our lives. And I think a lot of people don't want to prepare because to prepare for every circumstance is overwhelming. And we'll often say, I'll trust God. But I think so much of what we see in God's word is to have wisdom.

So that's the approach I want to take is how do I have wisdom? And I was going to mention that because, you know, some would put that in the faith category. Right. You know, modern conveniences. I'm going to just have faith in God that things continue to roll and I don't need extra water.

I don't need things in the garage to take care of us. Yeah. I would encourage you to talk to somebody who's been through a crisis. And the question is, for those that aren't thinking and maybe don't have the discipline, let's face up to it. Yeah. You know, it takes some thinking and some planning and some doing to do this. How does a person not become overwhelmed at the task?

And then what's enough? Yeah. OK, so let's just start off with I have never been known as somebody who is super disciplined. Anything I've learned about organization and preparing, it's against my nature.

It really is. But I see the need for it. So one of the things I would say is to start off very small. So I would encourage everybody who's listening, could you within the next month get 10 gallons of water together? A hundred one dollar bills and come up with a five minute plan. And what I mean with a five minute plan is, hey, what would we do within the first five minutes of a fire?

What would we do within the first five minutes where I live in California of an earthquake? It seems like a weird topic, but here's the thing. It was so freeing to have a plan that was written down. Right.

That's good. This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly and I'm John Fuller. Our guest today is Kathy Lipp. And we're talking about being ready for whatever might come our way. Kathy has captured so many great ideas about doing this in her book, Ready for Anything, preparing your heart and home for any crisis, big or small.

Just check the episode notes for all the details to get your copy. Kathy, I like that. That's easy. Ten gallons of water. I think we might have that in the laundry room. It may be distilled.

That's OK. You could even get those. What did you just say? Distilled water. Oh, I thought you said toilet water. No, hoity-toity. Hoity-toity water?

What is that? Distilled water? You pay extra for distilled water.

Very, very fancy. She has to be very precise in emergencies, John. Yeah, John, we don't live like that. But the other, the next phase, other than one. Now, why the one hundred dollars? Yeah. So it's never bad to have extra money on hand. Right. Right. And then also, I mean, we all have apps on our phone that hopefully we'll be able to use if we need to pay somebody for something.

But in a lot of places, cash is king. And so if you need to and this is just the start of what you're saving up. You know, I want you to start with one hundred dollars eventually. One hundred ones.

One hundred ones. Yeah. Because, you know, somebody might not be able to make change.

And probably not. Yeah. So they can't make it now. Right.

Exactly. I didn't know we were in emergency, but every place I go is please use exact change. Well, and also I was on a trip in northern California where all the power went out for three days and they couldn't accept our debit card. They couldn't accept our credit card.

We couldn't even pump gas. And so the cash we had on hand was really important to us. Yeah. So having that on hand, water is always a good thing to have on hand. And then that little plan, not toilet water.

Sorry to say anything. If you need to flush a toilet that your water becomes toilet water. Yes.

OK, let's let's move on. OK. Three, two, three plan, which I think is a little more extensive, a little more ambitious. What is the three, two, three? So you want to have a three day go back. So that's three days of water, food, clothes. If you need to leave your house, grab that bag. This is some sort of backpack or something.

Exactly. And you can keep it in your car during like with us, with high height and fire season. We keep it in our car. So that's three days. Then two weeks of being at home without being able to get outside resources. So, you know, make sure that you have two weeks worth of water for everybody in your family. Two weeks worth of food, two weeks worth of everything. And then three months of financial, you know, backup. So if there is a job loss or there's a crisis. And I wrote all of this book before we had a pandemic. And people are like, really, do you need two weeks worth of toilet paper?

And I felt like that was my prophetic voice. Yes, you do. By the way you do. That's good. Let's talk about that three day bag, because that one, you know, that that could be a lug. If you're thinking about water for. Yeah, well, water, food, toiletry items.

And so we have a list in the book and on the Web site of exactly what you need. Hopefully you're leaving by car. You know, that's the hope. And so that's not going to be too much. But at least get your clothing together. You need minimal clothing. But, you know, three days worth of fresh underwear is going to be good for anybody. Get some dried food in there that's going to last for a while.

And make sure you think about your pets to any pets that you're going to be bringing along. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. They need their bowl. They need their leash. They need their water.

They need their canned food. So, yeah, it does take a little bit to think about it. But three days isn't that overwhelming when you start to get it together. Yeah.

You know, Kathy, experience is a great teacher here in Colorado Springs. We had two big fires, almost back to back different years, but close together. I think over a thousand homes were lost in the two fires and one was the Black Forest Fire, the one that we had to evacuate. People died because they were getting their stuff.

You know, the irony with a fire like that is there is some time to make some decisions. And this one person went and got a U-Haul and started loading their furniture and everything in. And by the time they were ready to leave, the fire had really collapsed around their house. And they went to start the truck and there was no oxygen in the air. So the engine couldn't start. And then they had to flee by foot.

Another elderly couple, they died in the garage, both of them right near the car as they were loading it. So speak to the spiritual dimension of this. Nothing like that is worth your life. No possession is worth your life.

No. This is why, you know, the bag, I want people to get that together because your medications, you know, your communications with your loved one. But nothing is worth your life. Nothing. And the idea of loading a U-Haul with your couch in the middle of a fire in the middle of a fire.

And let's just admit it. We make bad decisions in the midst of a crisis. And so I think it is worth praying about is worth planning to say, what do we do in the circumstances? What are our priorities? Like if you're going to run into a burning building for photos of your grandparents, that needs to be something that you've thought about first. You don't need to be looking for those things. And you have to realize this is why I want people to prepare because I want you to live without regret.

You know, do you need to scan those photos? It's it's a spiritual posture to say my job is not just to protect myself, but my job is to protect my neighbor and nothing in my house is worth either my life or my neighbor's life. So let's prioritize those and let's be the hands and feet of Christ in the midst of a crisis. Let's go through a couple of others. You mentioned the extra money.

What about the emergency binder? Yes. Now we're getting into, wow, this is really taking some time. Yeah. Okay. But it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Okay. So if when I had kids, I had a binder for kids, by the way, they're just older.

They just I don't count them on my taxes anymore. Yes, exactly. So when when somebody would come and be at the house, like, here are the important things you need to know. And it's almost a history of like, who would you call in a crisis? And I also I don't know anybody's phone number except for my husband's. I remember we used to know everybody's phone remembers these things.

Yeah, exactly. So I have those numbers written down. I have our emergency response numbers, all of those kind of things in that binder.

You know, it's better to have it and never need it than to not have it when you need it. You know, one of the things Jean and I did a kind of a gray grab box that has our stuff in it, the home mortgage, car titles, insurance information, those things that are so hard to replace. We haven't done a fireproof box yet, but that would be the next thing for us to grab and to have scans of those on the cloud. Yeah, that's a great idea.

We haven't done that. You just slide them through and you're set or even just taking pictures of them will help you in a crisis. I want to come back to the decluttering comment because, you know, we were talking about it in kind of a different context. Why is it important to declutter in the event of an emergency? I mean, you can only imagine it's pretty self-evident.

Absolutely. Well, first of all, for some people, it's just the physicality of getting out of the house. I mean, really, seriously, I've dealt with clients like that. The other thing is you need to know where your stuff is like in an emergency. Do you know where your backup medications are?

Do you know where your cell phone is being? I mean, just having a place for everything and everything in its place, it sounds so kindergarten, but it's so important. And like you said, when you're grabbing things or we've had people have to go into homes to recover things for other people to know where those items are is very, very important. You know, it's fascinating when you for Jean and I going through that experience of having to evacuate due to a wildfire. You know, I was actually coming back from a trip, so I'm coming in. Jean's been working all day because we had, you know, probably the morning we had the evacuation notice and then we had about eight hours.

I think we had to leave at 5 p.m. was the goal. Yeah. And so I showed up and, you know, it's everything you could put into a car, basically.

Yes. And so I, you know, I get there about four o'clock and I'm looking at what Jean has put in. It was awesome that she did that. And she, you know, had to do it all on her own, which made me feel a little bad, actually. But then I started looking and I found this candle opera that was still in the box. I pulled it out and I said, why are we putting this in there? She said, well, it just came in the mail and it's the centerpiece for the table. I said, you know, I think insurance will take care of this one.

So I put it back. But it is you have to have kind of an idea of what you want to stuff into your car when you have to go. Right. And that's the plan.

Having that list ahead of time is so important. And one thing I hear you both saying is talk about it with your spouse, with your family. So there's not negotiating in duress when you're stressed out. That's not the time to start saying, but, Jim, that's an heirloom item. And I it's I mean, you don't have that conversation then.

Right. You know, and you know, it's fire season around our house when the cage is out for the chickens, the cat carriers out. You know, it's like to think about those things in advance. You don't want to have to go digging through your garage to be able to find those things, you know, in a crisis. Kathy, one thing you suggest repeatedly throughout the book is that in being prepared ourselves, we're in a position to help others, your neighbor. You mentioned that a couple of times already.

What does that look like practically? Yeah. So when we lived in San Jose, our neighbor was somebody who is in her 80s. She's, you know, just she lives by herself. And as we thought about being prepared, we thought about we wouldn't deny her our food. We wouldn't deny her our water, of course.

So we kind of prepared for us plus her because we knew that, you know, that would be somebody that we would need to be taken care of. And when we think about it, like now that we live in the mountains, caring for our neighbor looks very different. We're part of the Omo Ranch Fire Safety Council, and we meet once a month and people think it's overkill. But we live in Northern California.

And if you've watched the news at all, you know that we are a tinderbox up there. And so we get a lot of experience like what happens in an emergency? How do we make sure that everybody's accounted for?

How do we make sure that roads are taken care of? So you need to figure out what your neighbor's situation looks like and say, how do I care for my neighbor? For us, it was also exchanging keys with another couple that if they had an emergency, they could come stay at our house. No questions asked and back to them. So we made sure that everybody had the codes and everything to know that you have a soft place to land on the hardest day of your life is a gift.

That's a good statement. Right at the end here, Kathy, talk to the person who's listening and thinking, you know, this is really important. I haven't done a thing.

I haven't thought about it. You know, modernity hasn't really alerted me that I need to think about an emergency like this. What are the simple things they should do right from the get go? A good starting place. Yeah. So I would just I would reiterate the hundred one dollar bills.

So every time you go to the store, could you get five dollars out, you know, and start stacking that up? Get your water supply. Water is your most precious resource in many, many emergencies. And then have a conversation with, you know, whether it's a husband or a wife or maybe it's your roommate or, you know, in our case, my mom. We're charged with her care.

Have that conversation. What's going to be most important to you? Let's make the decisions now while our adrenaline is not going off the charts, while we're not in fear for our life.

Let's make decisions now so that we can be able to be that help to the people who need it in the emergency. I like that so much. And again, there's lots of spiritual application here. Taking care of your neighbor, loving your neighbor. Wisdom, wisdom, all of that.

So this has been so great as it always is. Remember, declutter. Get rid of everything you don't need for sure.

I always cringe when you're here. Yes, I've got to think in the garage. Now that the garage is in pretty good shape. Now it's the closet.

I've got to think of my part of the closet. So, but Kathy, it's always so good to have you. Thank you so much for being with us.

This message is so important to me and I'm so glad to be able to share some good starting points. It's kind of like going to the doctor. It's not what we want to do. Right. You know what?

Can I just tell you every time you walk into your pantry and you see a little bit of food stored up, you see your emergency bag by the front door, you're going to be proud of yourself. And that's a good feeling. That's good. And let me turn to you, the listener.

This is a resource you really need. Very practical. And again, Jean and I have lived through it.

John, you and Dina have done something similar. So it may happen to you in your life where you need that emergency plan. You need that emergency kit.

You need the extra dollars. There's no downside to preparing. And if you never encounter a problem like we're talking about, then that's wonderful.

But if you do and you're not ready, that's a disaster. So do get a copy of Kathy's book from us right here at Focus on the Family. And when you make a gift of any amount, we'll send it to you is our way of saying thank you for joining the ministry.

Yeah. Be a part of the support team. Make programs like this possible. Resources online. We have so much for you. Donate today.

A monthly pledge or one time gift. Our number is 800-232-6459 or stop by the episode notes for details. We'll have a great weekend.

And if you can join us in Dallas or watch online. See Life 2021 is tomorrow. Then on Monday, be sure to be back with us as we hear from Amy Ford, who will inspire you to live out your pro-life beliefs. The big issue is the girl doesn't actually feel like it's a safe place to go to when she has an unexpected pregnancy. The church is not the first thing that crosses her mind of like, I need help. Let me go to the church and ask if they'll help me. On behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team, thanks for joining us today for Focus on the Family. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.