7/1/2020 Self-Reliance - by Sister Winnie Whelan

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Self-Reliance - by Sister Winnie Whelan

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7/1/2020 Self-Reliance - by Sister Winnie Whelan

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The purposes of Church welfare are to help members “become self-reliant, to care
for the poor and needy, and to give service.” Notice that ‘self-reliant’ comes rst,
because it is only when we are self-reliant that we then have the ability to be God’s
hands to reach out to the poor and needy and to serve others.

What is Self-Reliance?

What is Self-Reliance?
“Self-reliance is the ability, commitment, and e ort to provide the spiritual and
temporal necessities of life for self and family”. It is interesting to note two things in
this de nition:

spiritual temporal
1. that self-reliance requires commitment and e ort on our part;

2. we often think of self-reliance as being synonymous with self-

independence/being nancially independent. Self-reliance is much more than
that. It has the spiritual element that we often overlook.

Church members are responsible for their own spiritual and temporal well-being.
Self-reliance is a principle given way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
President Marion G Romney explained: “The obligation to sustain one’s self was
divinely imposed upon the human race at its beginning when God said to Adam
and Eve, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the
ground.’ (Genesis 3:19)

Exercising Self-Reliance

Exercising Self-Reliance
The welfare handbook instructs, “We must earnestly teach and urge members to be
self-sustaining to the fullest extent of their power. No Latter-day Saint will…
voluntarily shift from himself the burden of his own support. So long as he can,
under the inspiration of the Almighty and with his own labours, he will supply
himself with the necessities of life.”

Blessed with the gift of agency, members have the privilege and duty to set their
own course such as planning their own future, education and career, solve their
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own problems, and strive to become self-reliant. Members do this under the
inspiration of the Lord and with the labour of their own hands.

“When Church members are doing all they can to provide for themselves but
cannot meet their basic needs, generally they should rst turn to their families for
help. When this is not su cient or feasible, the Church stands ready to help.”

That means we should always turn to our family rst when we need help, be it of
temporal or spiritual in nature.

Elder Boyd K Packer shared an interesting experience that illustrates this principle.
He had a student who came to his o ce to seek advice on whether he should or
should not marry. Elder Packer knew the student’s father who was a patriarch in
the church. This was the counsel he gave the student:

“Go home this weekend. Talk to your father, get him in a bedroom or some private
place, tell him your dilemma, ask him for his counsel, and do what he tells you to
do.”

Are we not sometimes guilty of taking an easy way out by hastily going to our
church leaders for advice instead of thinking through our problems rst? As a son
or daughter of our Heavenly Father, we have the light of Christ within us to help us
distinguish between right and wrong. Do not just go to the Lord or the church
leaders with a problem and expect him or them to solve it for us. Follow the
counsel that the Lord had given Oliver Cowdery about working it out in our mind.
Measure the problem against what we know to be right and wrong, then make the
decision and present it before God, and He will cause our bosom to burn within us
if it is right.

Church leaders are also counselled not to be “doling out counsel and advice
without rst requiring the member to call on every personal resource and every
family resource before seeking a solution of [their] problems from the Church.” “If
we are not careful, we can lose the power of individual revelation.” - Elder Packer

Elder Packer also shared another interesting experience that illustrates how
important it is for members to develop self-reliance. He had a phone call from a
bishop seeking his help. The bishop had a son who had been inducted into the
military service and was at an army basic-training centre. He was very worried that
the son had not been to church for three weeks. He described his son as a very
active and faithful LDS who had never missed a church meeting.

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Elder Packer related: “I made an investigation of the circumstances. Can you picture
the following: in the barracks a few from his bunk was a bulletin board with a
picture of the Salt Lake Temple on it and a listing of the meeting times at the base
chapel. He had been to an orientation for all new inductees…He had been told that
if he wanted to know about church services to talk to the sergeant on duty, or he
could contact any chaplain’s o ce and that information would readily be given to
him. He, however, had been told before he left home that the Church had a
wonderful program to help young men in military service. He was assured that the
Church was doing everything to take care of our men and that we would nd them
and look after them and bring the full Church program to them.”

So this young man simply just waited for the Church to do everything for him. He
waited for three weeks and was disappointed enough that he called his father, the
bishop, to say that the Church had failed him.

The Church has wonderful programs in di erent auxillaries to reach out to its
members and strengthen their testimonies. Auxillary Presidencies tried their best
to encourage and motivate members to attend the activities. We, on our part,
however cannot just sit and wait for the programmes to come to us. Self-reliance
requires commitment and e ort on our part to seek them out and to make
ourselves available.

The handbook outlines six areas to help members develop self-reliance:

1. Health  

They are to take care of their minds and bodies through obeying the Word of
Wisdom, eating nutritious food, exercising regularly, controlling their weight and
have adequate sleep. (Staying up late over the hand phone and internet is bad for
our health).

2. Education

Education is a very important tool to help lift people out of poverty and help them
develop self-reliance. They should obtain as much education as they can, including
formal or technical schooling to help them develop their talents and nd gainful
employment so that they can make a valuable contribution to their families, the
Church and the community.

I am a rm believer of the importance of education. My parents were poor. Growing

up, I witnessed much nancial struggles in my family. When I was in my early teen, I
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told myself that I want to study hard and use the education pathway to lift my
family out of poverty. The Lord opened the way for me and I eventually had the
opportunity to pursue a tertiary education, and landed myself in a stable job that
provided su ciently for myself and my family. As a teacher to young teenagers, I
often shared with them how important it is for them to treasure the opportunities
they had been given to study, and they must give their best in learning and do well
so that they can be self-reliant and provide for themselves and their future families
someday.

3. Employment

Members should prepare for and carefully select a suitable occupation or self-
employment that will provide for their own and their family’s needs. They should
become skilled at their work, be diligent and trustworthy, and give honest work for
the pay and bene ts they receive.

4. Home storage

To help care for themselves and their families, members should build a three-
month supply of food that is part of their normal diet. They should gradually build a
long-term supply of basic foods that will sustain life. They should also store drinking
water in case their water supply becomes polluted or disrupted. This counsel has
been given for years. Once I heard a friend laughed – “I have one year supply of
clothes and shoes, but not food!” When the time comes and we are tried, our
clothes and shoes and costume jewelleries would not save us and our family!

5. Finances

They should pay tithes and o erings, avoid unnecessary debt, use a budget and live
within a plan, and within their means. The Lord does not care what kind of house
we live in – HDB or condo or landed house. What He cares is that when we move in,
we live righteously in it.

Members should gradually build a nancial reserve by regularly saving a portion of

their income. Even a small 10% saving is better than no saving at all.

6. Spiritual strength

Spiritual strength is essential to a person’s temporal and eternal well-being. Church

members grow in spiritual strength as they develop their testimonies, exercise faith
in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, obey God’s commandments, pray daily, study
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the scriptures and the teachings of latter-day prophets, attend Church meetings,
and serve in Church callings and assignments.

In today’s technology, the Lord has made spiritual resources accessible to us

through the smart phones. At the click of our nger, the gospel library is opened
up, and we can read or listen to the scriptures, the conference talks, magazines or
manuals anywhere we go. No one can ever say they have no time for spiritual
matters. It is a matter of putting it as our top priority in our daily schedule.

Let us strive to follow the inspired counsels given in the handbook – to be self-
reliant spiritually and temporally, so that we can be more e ectively used by God to
serve his children.

I am very grateful to be a member of the church. The gospel teachings embrace all
aspects of our lives – spiritual and temporal. When we live the standards of the
Church, the Lord blesses us and helps us rise above our potential so that can
become the man or woman He sees in each of us.

I know the Church is true, that we have a living prophet on earth, and that Jesus
Christ is our Saviour and Redeemer.

by Winnie Whelan

by Winnie Whelan

Member Sharing Member Sharing 2015

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