Time Stealers - are they a thorn in your side as you labor to do your Family History?

John 10:10King James Version (KJV)

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I thought this was a great scripture to pare with family and family history.  

We start out in life with no guarantee of how long we will inhabit this earth.  We spend our early years learning as much as we can just to grow and survive.  Then we take all that knowledge and put it into our life blood, our work, what puts the bacon on the table.  At some point in time, we are stealing time, either away from family, or work, or our dreams; nevertheless, life becomes balancing act.  The stresses we absorb take their tolls on us and our loved ones and then suddenly, it's time to retire and start reflecting on if we used our time wisely over the span of so many years.  

Time stealers, can be as innocent as working on projects that don't have our best interest at heart, or watching something on television that will not enhance our lives.   It can be in not being organized so that we are recreating the wheel of time by repeating something which could have been done once.  I am sure you realize the Satan is the Father of all time stealing.  He delights to steal your time, destroy your spirit and kill your feelings towards your family.

Using our time wisely to investigate and learn more about our heritage is about as natural to me as eating dinner.  It should be like that to everyone and I'll explain why.  When we come to this world, we are part of an eternal family.  We've always been a part of a family and going forward, our grandchildren will someday get their faces out of video screens and realize that we, indeed belong to them; their true family.

I look back now and wonder, why didn't I ask more questions about my heritage?  Why didn't I ask my Grandmother to tell me more stories, instead of saying, "I know Grandma, you told me that one before".  There is a finite amount of time in which our Grandparents had their memories and stories.  If they don't print them down or use one of us to type them up for our posterity, they become lost forever.  

One of the reasons why I create a parallel reality of time lines and history of the towns and people where they lived, is because I want to create a bond of empathy for what they endured.  I want to know what life was like and this is my penitence for not asking more before my Grandmothers both passed in 1983 and 1986.  At that time in my life, I was in the thralls of trying to keep a dying marriage together, and take care of 5 kids, trying to make sure they had enough gospel knowledge along with common sense, to make it in this life.   There wasn't a lot of time for asking questions in my mind.  I did start working on family history in 1978 but without technology, it was laborious at best.

If there is a movie at the theater that you really want to see and it is only here for 2 weeks, you orchestrate your life to fit it in.  If there is a special event and you need a new outfit, purse and shoes, you bet you are going to make the time to go shopping!  My mother used to say, when she asked me to clean my room or do something that I clearly had no personal use of time for, "You always have time for the things you want to do".   That is so true.  Of course, to a 13 year old girl, it was just mere fodder for an opportunity to do some eye rolling, but I see it in my life today.

I hope if you have procrastinated working on increasing your knowledge of your family, you will set some time each day to become a life detective and find out what happened to them....did they realize their dreams?   You have the ability to make them feel like their time here was not wasted.  You have the ability to help them to feel that their life gave meaning to your life and you learned some life's lesson from their existence.

Here are some scriptures that have to do with Time Managment.  The thing I love about Mondays, is it is another fresh start day.  This is a day to make a change in your life of how you will spend your time.    You can pick up the phone and call an Aunt or Uncle and ask them each the exact same questions about what life was like, then compare and contrast the two.  If you have Grandparents, by all means, get them on the phone and record their story.  This is something you will never regret.

Colossians 4:5 - Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:   (Read More...)

John 17:4 - I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

Psalms 90:12 - So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom.

Romans 13:11 - And that, knowing the time, that now [it is] high time to awake out of sleep: for now [is] our salvation nearer than when we believed.

James 4:14 - Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Ephesians 5:16 - Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15 - See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Romans 12:1-21 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.   (Read More...)

1 Corinthians 7:29 - But this I say, brethren, the time [is] short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

Psalms 31:15 - My times [are] in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

Once when my daughter was 10, we came up with a list of questions that were identical in nature and called and recorded the answers to those questions with all four grandparents.  It was so enlightening.  We found out that one Grandfather lived on one side of the Bay and the other lived in San Francisco.  Both were 10 years old when they attended the World's Fair in Oakland at Treasure Island.  The lines were long, but both boys were eager to see the newest inventions and you may be surprised, but their favorite was the television.  

As the line wound around and through buildings, you would walk through one room and there would be a camera taking your picture.  By the time you made it to the other room, there you were on a screen in the middle of the next room.  This conversation brought light into the voices of these men as they told how utterly thrilling that experience was.    And to think, they were at the same location at the same time is even more amazing. 

 Doing this lesson in Service was a great use of my daughter's time.  She grew to love her grandparents for more than just the gifts they would send for special occasion.  Our parents were elated that someone from their posterity would take the time to stop and learn about what was real to them as children.

That was a great day!  What will your week be like?  Send me an email and let me know how you are doing with your family history and your use of your valuable time.  Would love to hear about it!

genealogymama1@gmail.com

Please click here for a Giveaway contest through Amazon for my LDS Book, Under Cover!

You can read more about it here:

http://genealogymama1.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-story-behind-under-cover-by-karen-s.html

Click here to try to win!  Amazon is doing some free giveaways of Under Cover

 My next book Quest for Peace comes out in June!  Keep Watching!

                                https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/ea8ae0832c570067