Digging for Roots
Feb
20
Written by:
2/20/2012 3:54 PM
Years ago when I was working with MOPS, we had a speaker on genealogy. She did not lack enthusiasm for her topic, but somehow her enthusiasm was not contagious. Eyes glazed over, heads drooped; thankfully no one snored. While much of this type of research can be done on-line today, our speaker definitely lost her audience in old cemeteries and dusty courthouse record rooms.
Young moms generally do not have the time and energy for such digging. But I told the group that at some stage their children would be likely to show a surprising amount of interest in their roots. Our daughters would spend hours in old family photo albums when they visited their grandparents.
Children also like early photos of themselves. Our younger daughter was sad because she thought we had never taken photos of her. We did, but on slide film, and we never got around to ordering prints and putting them in an album. One day, we pulled out an old forgotten suitcase full of slides. Both our girls were very happy.
I encourage you to do better than we did. Try to save prints for each child. Keep them in some kind of order. If they don’t have dates on the back, record these, too.
Collect any old family photos that you can. If a sibling has some that you don’t, ask if you can make copies. Quiz older family members about those in the photos, and about their lives. Don’t reject family heirlooms that you are offered. Well yes, reject the moose head, but be sure you keep some things for your children.
Our younger daughter is quite artsy. She enjoys knowing that one of her ancestors was in the Royal Academy of Art in England. She has three of his paintings.
Keep some record of your immediate family events. I keep old datebooks and prayer journals. I hope to write our family history using them someday.
If your family history is sketchy or dicey, don’t be dismayed. Every family has some skeletons. We have plenty without digging in the past for more. Somehow, though, it seems to be important to most people to know something of their roots. If they know little or nothing, they are troubled by this. We need to tell them that they can find their identity in Christ.
When we come to our Creator who made us in His own image, we find out how much He loves us, enough to send His only begotten Son to die for our sins. He has a plan for us. When we accept Christ’s death for us by faith, God adopts us as His children. As we grow in our knowledge of Him, we learn more and more about who we are meant to be. We put on a “new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:10)
Tips:
If possible, provide your children with some photos and items from ancestors.
If you don’t like your family history, break the mold! Start a new one.
Keep records and photos of your own family history.
Know that your identity as God’s child is much more significant than any earthly heritage.
Be sure your children know this. Bring them to Jesus.
Read Romans 6 and Colossians 3.
Keep growing in your knowledge of your heavenly Father. He will show you who He created you to be.
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.” (I John 3:1)