Family Memorials

We just had Memorial Day weekend when we remembered the sacrifice of those who gave their lives and time to protect our freedom.   So it just seems fitting that I should speak of memorials today.

The dictionary defines a memorial  as "something designed to preserve the memory of a person, event, etc. " I can remember (as I have said before) going with Mom and Grandma to the cemeteries and placing flowers on our relatives graves.  I always loved this time, because I got to hear the stories about the people who were buried there and the influence they had on my grandmother and mother.  As we were riding in the car, the stories would always begin..."remember the time."

The bible also has some things to say about memorials.  When the Israelites were led out of Egypt by Moses, God told them in Exodus 12:24-27:  "Obey these instructions (for the passover) as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.  When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, What does this ceremony mean to you? then tell them, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians."

Also in Deuteronomy 11:19,20 God instructs the parents to teach the things they remember when they sit at home, when they walk along the road, when they lie down and when they get up.  He even told them to write them on the door frames of their houses and on their gates.  In calligraphy no doubt and they didn't even have Pinterest to instruct them on how to do it!   Whenever those kids walked outside or came in their front gate they had a constant reminder (memorial) of how God had helped their family in the past.  How about in the New Testament when Christ is observing the last supper with his disciples, he says in I Corinthians 11:24 ...whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me."   And it still reminds us today, a lasting memorial to be sure!

My mentoring question of the day....are we sharing our memorial stories with our kids and grandchildren?  I remember my own children rolling their eyes when I told them for the umpteenth time, the stories about staying with my grandparents and how we are long distant cousins to Abraham Lincoln (by marriage) and Mary, Queen of Scots.  It is my one claim to fame for royal blood!

I think this is one of the  reasons I enjoy scrap booking so much.  It is a great way to build memorials (a preservation) of how God has worked in our family.    It also gives the grandchildren a great visual on how we came to be from Missouri and now in Indiana.  I have included some pictures from one of my heritage scrapbooks.  In this album I also used pressed flowers (picture above) from my garden over 20 years ago and they are still the same color!  Hard to believe! My grandmother's brother was in WWI so I wanted to include some of the things pertaining to his time in France.  It includes a letter of him describing the cold conditions over there and marching in a parade before Woodrow Wilson.  So let the memorial's continue!