...A lesson on Friday to teach on Monday...
{My Grandma, Peggy K Butler}
On of our kids favorite things to do is watch old family videos and look through our scrapbooks & photos. They love seeing the funny things they did, how much they have grown up, and how things have changed. We took the opportunity to talk to the kids about the importance of keeping our personal histories this past Monday, and then as a fun activity we watched some of our home videos. We had a lot of fun, I hope you will too...
You will need:
- A computer ready to go to Family Search {if you haven't set up an account, do so before your lesson}
- Family videos, scrapbooks or pictures
- A copy of the Old Testament
- I took inspiration from this article from the Friend magazine, you may want to read it too...It also has a fun craft you may want to consider making.
- A journal for each family member, can be as simple as a composition book or notebook (optional)
Song Suggestions:
- Families Can Be Together Forever (cs. 188)
- I Have A Family Tree (cs. 199)
- The Hearts of the Children (cs. 92)
- Truth From Elijah (cs. 90)
Lesson:
Tonight we are going to talk about our personal history.
Ask: Do you know what a personal history is? {A record of things we do, think, and/or experience saved for future generations.}
President Spencer W. Kimball said this about family & personal history: "I urge all the people of the church to give serious attention to their family histories....and let no family go into eternity without having left their memoirs (an account of their family) for their children, their grandchildren, and their posterity....I urge every person to start the children out writing a personal history and journal." {Ensign, May 1978, page 4}
Ask: What are some ways we can keep a personal history? {journals, scrapbooks, family blogs, photo albums, videos, family newsletters, letter writing, even Facebook, Twitter and Instagram...}
Have a family member read: Malachi 4:6
Ask: Why is important to keep a family history? {It helps do exactly what Malachi says, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.}
Keeping a personal history leaves clues about our lives for our future generations. It gives important information, like birth dates, marriage dates, spouses, siblings and parents, which are needed when we work on genealogy and prepare names for temple work.
President Gordon B. Hinkley has taught us that "All of our vast family history endeavor is directed to temple work. There is no other purpose for it. The temple ordinances become the crowning blessings the Church has to offer."
When we go the extra mile and keep other records, like journals, of what we did that day or what is important to us, our future generations will get an extra glimpse of what our life was really like. It helps us to emotionally connect and form a bond across the generations. Even the smallest detail may be interesting to your children and grandchildren. It is also important that we take good care of our pictures, documents and letters, so that they will be around for many years.
I want to show you an example of how this works. Family Search now lets us post pictures, stories and documents so that we can see what our ancestors' lives were like. {open Family Search, hover over "memories" on the menu bar at the top of the page. From there you can explore pictures and stories about your ancestors that have been uploaded, or you can upload some of your own. Take a little time to explore and talk about what you find}
Bear your testimony of the importance of personal and family history. You may want to provide each family member with a journal and challenge them to keep their own personal history.
Activities:
- Watch family videos, look through scrapbooks or pictures. Have fun reminiscing.
- Create the heart mobile found here.
Treat ideas:
- Make a special dessert you (or another family member) enjoyed while growing up.
- Find and use a family heirloom recipe. Make sure you tell everyone where it came from!
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