As a teen, I worked at a Christian bookstore. Occasionally, a few of us would get a bit lazy with the dress code, and would need a reminder from the manager. Since I usually worked at the end of the week, my friends would get spoken to on Monday, and then the manager would call me to the office when I came in on Wednesday. The conversation would always go like this. “Paul, I want to talk to you about . . . oh . . . never mind.”

After several years of this, my manager one day said, “You always do this to me. I plan to talk to you about the dress code and you come to work practically dressed in a suit.” I confessed that after she spoke to the other employees on Monday, one of my friends usually called, and informed me they had received a lecture on getting back up to the standard. I had simply heeded the warning.

The Bible warns us not to take the words of the prophets like so many often do with warnings from the Red Crossor U.S. Weather Service. How many of us actually have an adequate emergency preparedness kit for earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, or whatever natural disaster is common in our geography? In the season of Advent, we take to heart the words of the prophets so that we will be prepared for the Savior’s coming.