How long do you want to be prepared for? For evacuation and disaster kits, the standard time given is three days because they say it takes that long for help to reach you. For winter conditions, this would be better extended to the length of time the conditions are likely to make access difficult.

What other problems are you likely to be facing? If the water supply will be limited, try to avoid food that is high in fat and protein and don’t stock salty foods. Will you be able to refrigerate it, cook it or have the facilities to do much preparation?

You may need to consider the weight and space of your food supplies. This is especially important if it needs to be carried. However, many lightweight foods need water to make them palatable and some need hot water such as pot noodles.

How going to store things? Glass can break if not handled carefully. Tins and jars can be heavy.

What are your household’s tastes? Familiar foods can lift morale and give a feeling of security during stressful periods. Consider including comfort foods like chocolate.

Don’t forget the extras that make foods more palatable like salt, pepper, sugar, pickle and ketchup.

Think about what size of item to include in your stores. If you think that you might not have a fridge it would be useful to have items that can be used in a single sitting. In other words, if you only use half a standard tin of baked beans at a time consider having some smaller tins on hand

You need to be well nourished if you are to function at your best. If you are going to depend on these stores for any length of time you need to plan carefully so that you can have meals that give you all the protein, fibre, vitamins minerals etc. that you need. If necessary, you could include nutritional supplements to your stores.

Extreme survivalists include the means of providing themselves with food such as snares, traps fishing lines.

Remember that you need to use what you store and store what you use. This way you will rotate your stocks rather than gather things, which are not used and are just wasted. There is little point putting aside food for an emergency and then finding that it is unusable because the use by date was years earlier.

The basic amount of water to store for drinking and food preparation is usually reckoned to be 4 litres or 2 large pop bottles per person per day. This goes up to 8 litres a day if you want to use water for personal hygiene and 20 litres a day if you want to do the laundry as well. You can buy in bottled water but you could also rinse out old pop bottles and fill them with water. If you do this, mark the pop bottles with a date so that you can work out when the water has been in those bottles for six months so that the water can be changed. You will also need to check the use by date on the bottled water and rotate it with newer supplies.

Water can get a bit boring. Why not consider keeping some other items like cartons of fruit juice and bottles of blackcurrant juice. Some people will not be able to manage for very long without their tea and coffee and presumably dried milk to make it more palatable.
You should also consider how you would transport water from a standpipe if you had to depend on them. This might include having a trolley and some water containers that you would use when caravanning.

I suppose some people would assume that the heading drink refers to alcoholic drink. For some, this would seem a good idea as it would blot out the problems but that is a temporary fix as their problems do not go away and may possibly increase as a result. One possible problem of alcohol is that the body needs more water to be able to process it so increasing the demand for water which may be in short supply. The old saying “drink in wits out” is also relevant here as you need to keep your wits about you during an emergency situation.

The strange thing about this passage is that for many Christian women it is the bane of their lives because they struggle to meet its standards. Yet in the Jewish community, it is used as a way to praise wives. We often think of the Jewish community as being one where laws are important and as such add boundaries that are crossed at your peril. Yet the Christian one is plagued by the idea of reaching certain standards despite the importance of grace.

The fact that these ideas are so intertwined to me is a sign of the mutual heritage of these two great world religions. Jesus was a Jew and for some Jews following Him is a completion of their religion rather than taking on a new religion.

The basic foundation of Christian teaching comes from the Old Testament. Think about how many times the coming of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament, literally hundreds. The religious practices followed by Jesus and his disciples were definitely based on the Old Testament. There are so many links between them that the story of Jesus life just would not make sense without the Old Testament.

Comparisons or the struggle that comes from having two things that are similar but not the same

I don’t know about you but one of the problems with having a brother or sister is that horrible word comparison. They did this so why can’t you. So you have an older sibling fearful of stepping out of line in some way then the younger one behaves in a more normal way. The younger one is then told why can’t you be as restricted and fearful as the older one.

That to me explains a large part of the differences between the lifestyle of Jews and Christians. Except the difference is instead of the parents trying to course correct the children the corrections come from Jesus. Imagine adding a new idea to correct an old one. Then those hearing the correction go so far in the opposite direction to what was intended for them that they also needed correction.

It reminds me of a pendulum. Someone went so far in that direction so that they needed correction so now others go back in the other direction. The extremes of both sides are inappropriate. It is only the middle position that is comfortable and appropriate. In fact, that is where the one doing the correcting would like people to find for themselves but it is not an easy position to find.

That is how I understand the differences between the Jewish attitude to money i.e. gaining wealth is a good idea and the Christian idea that poverty is a virtue. You have the ones held up as an example going too far in ways. So then Christians hear the warnings and take them too far the other way. Somewhere in the middle is the perfect teaching.

One of the reasons why I wanted to look at this passage in detail is that it makes the idea of building a business and gathering wealth seem normal and natural. She is not greedy or trying too hard. Wealth just comes from following the right principles. That is what I would love to see more of within the Christian church.

My crazy idea.

What if that kind of balanced teaching on money led to people seeing huge improvements in their lives? What if those huge improvements made others want to find out more about what had happened to them so that they wanted to learn about such things? Add to that the idea that if people found out that following biblical principles related to money improved their lives and they tried other biblical principles and found that they worked as well. Then of course if the practical principles in the Bible had an impact on their lives then surely they could trust other things in the Bible as well. Those other things would include the idea that Jesus died for them and is their Saviour. That, of course, is the ultimate reason to rejoice. There would not necessarily be an immediate impact but learning to manage money wisely could be part of the pilgrimage to faith in Jesus for some people.

The Proverbs 31 woman knows how to make a profit. She knows how to gain from the work that she does. Her trading is successful. Her business is going well.

Why because she has learnt the skills that she needs. We look at celebrity business owners, like Richard Branson. We think they must be something special to have achieved all that they have in business. Well maybe they are but the truth is that they have also had a few failures along the way. Some of the lessons they have learnt have been learnt in the school of hard knocks.

One of the encouragements in the earlier chapters of Proverbs is that if things knock you down then pick yourself up again. One example is Proverbs chapter 24 verse 6 but this is not the only place. It is mentioned again and again. It is normal to be knocked down the issue is how well do you pick yourself up afterwards.

How do you pick yourself up?

First thing is to remember who you are and whose you are. The two things go together. We are all children of the King of the Universe who created us for a particular purpose. He designed us so that we are the perfect person to do certain tasks. He gives us the free will to carry out those tasks. We can say yes and do them. Or say no and run away from them.

I must admit that standing up to be all I have been designed to do has been a challenge. I have faced opposition many times. Sometimes I have allowed this to train me to do the wrong things. It is hard sometimes accepting that you are exactly what God says you are and that you are designed to do this rather than that. Yet part of the strength of the Proverbs 31 woman comes from knowing that she is good at what she does.

She keeps on going

Her lamp stays on and she keeps going well into the night. Past the time when it is easy to see clearly what you are doing. She might not be able to see but she keeps going.

The Amplified version suggests that the night symbolises trouble privation and sorrow. It also suggests that the light warns away fear, doubt and distrust. My mind is doing a jump here. John talks about Jesus being the light of the world in John chater 8 verse 12. Imagine that kind of light shining in a situation where people are troubled or sorrowful or are deprived of what they need. Or imagine what would happen when there is darkness because of fear, doubt or distrust and a light is switched on.

What does perfection mean for us?

The Proverbs 31 woman just keeps on going and finds a way to overcome the challenges. No wonder her attitude is such that we struggle to reach her standards, or at least to appear to reach her standards. The truth is we don’t need to reach the standards set for her. We need to reach the standards set for us!

I am not her. I can knit and crochet but I have never tried to spin yarn. I have a set of skills I can use to achieve what I am designed to achieve but I am not her. I cannot achieve what she is designed to achieve. Do you know why she is so perfect? She is doing what God wants her to do.

Perfection does not mean doing everything right. I cannot play the cello and I have no memory of ever even touching the sort of bow that is needed to play one. I am perfect despite not being able to play the cello. The same is true for you. You may not have been designed to start or run a business. God might have designed you to do something completely different.

If reading this book has filled you with dread as you think I can never be like the virtuous woman described in this passage because I cannot do what she did then stop and think a moment. Yes, she did run a home-based business and there are people reading this book who could also run a home-based business. But despite what some so-called experts tell you not everyone can.

I must admit I fall in the camp that everyone at least needs to have a go starting and running a business. Even if it is just a tiny prototype to prove to themselves that it is something that does not suit them.