My family was having fun with an email thread about keeping a journal and the different ways to do it. My sister, Becky, has a lesson on Sunday and was asking for input. Another sister, Emily, sent us some journal entries from our Grandfather. It is really great to read the journal entries from him. They are a log of costs of things and actual events. Everyone keeps journals or family histories a little differently.
Some ideas from our emails:
Keep a steno pad by your bed for each child so that you can write down the events for them or your thoughts about them.
Keep photo albums and add some comments about the pictures and events.
Keep a family blog.
Take your pictures and entries from your blog and publish them in a family book.
Make videos of events and then put them on disks or keep them for the family.
Keep your own journal and record things in there about family events and your feelings and thoughts about the people in your life.
Make mini photo albums for children to see their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. You can take that in the car or to church or wherever and you have a great memory maker for them early on.
Keep a journal next to your scriptures and books you're reading so that you can record your thoughts as you read certain things that influence your life and impress you.
Our brother, Jonathan, got into the terms "journaling" and "scrapbooking" and stuff so we had some fun with the words. I loved the play on Journaling that they did in the emails. It made the word "Journey" come to my mind. Now I think I have a whole new perspective. I think that the word must come from keeping track of journeys. So that being the case or at least for me, I can see that keeping a record of my journey (including events and opinions, feelings and inspirations) and the early journeys of my kids is worth a lot to someone, even if it's my children and their children and not me. I really find a huge amount of value in the journal entries that my Mom and Grandparents had. It shows their style of writing and their thoughts and exposes their character traits. I'd do that for my children and theirs out of love and respect for them and their need for an understanding of where they came from and who they are. I know it's a priceless gift because these things are priceless to me.
New saying:
Record the journey. . . the treasure of time.
And when we are asked why we are such a happy people, our answer is: “Because we have everything—life with all its opportunities, death without fear, eternal life with endless growth and development.” (President Spencer W. Kimball)
Some Helpful Blogs
Storms
"Sometimes the Lord Calms the storm.
Sometime the Lord lets the storm rage and calms His children"
Author Unknown
Sometime the Lord lets the storm rage and calms His children"
Author Unknown
Father
Father, Help me to Remember
That Nothing is Going to Happen
To me Today
That You and I
Together
Can't Handle
That Nothing is Going to Happen
To me Today
That You and I
Together
Can't Handle
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather loved in spite of ourselves.– Victor Hugo, French poet (1802-1885)
Worthwhile Movies
- Pay it Forward
- The Making of Jane
- The Singing Revolution
- Serendipity
- Pride and Prejudice
- Amazing Grace
- The Other Side of Heaven
- The Rookie
- The Great Debaters
- A River Runs Through It
Love Thy Neighbor
"Do we really comprehend, do we understand the tremendous significance of that which we have? This is the summation of the generations of man, the concluding chapter in the entire panorama of the human experience. "But this does not put us in a position of superiority. Rather, it should humble us. It places upon us an unforgiving responsibility to reach out with concern for all others in the spirit of the Master, who taught, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' (Matthew 19:19). We must cast out self-righteousness and rise above petty self-interest."
--Gordon B. Hinkley, "The Dawning of a Brighter Day," Ensign, May 2004, 83-84
--Gordon B. Hinkley, "The Dawning of a Brighter Day," Ensign, May 2004, 83-84
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't help the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And, as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson
Close to the Heart
"It is a rare person who can take care of hearts
while taking care of business"
while taking care of business"
1 comment:
My Sister just sent this story in the same thread. Just another important example of the imortance and how we just never know the impact: "Another friend dropped in this a.m. and told how a friend of the family, a young mom, died at 32 from cancer and she had been really good about journaling. After she passed away, her oldest son was really struggling and shut out his father and loved ones around him. One day he seemed to snap out of his depression and when his dad noted the apparent change, his son said, "I'm all right now. I was reading mom's journal and she knew how I felt and her words helped me know what I should do."
How many times when we are trying to empathize or teach something do we draw on past experience? I think journals from our loved ones possibly offer examples of what they would share with us if they were living and we were having a conversation."
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