Pass It On

By: Donna Martin

Hopefully during this Memorial Day season you will take the time to remember someone in your life who has given their all to preserve the freedoms that our great country still has today and hopefully will have in the days to come. 

Being a baby boomer I was brought up in the years soon after World War II.  Our country still had many living veterans of the war and it was in vogue to be patriotic.  We were proud of our soldiers and the freedoms that we enjoyed because of them.  We sang loudly together as a crowd as the National Anthem was played at ballgames and holiday gatherings.  No one worried that it was too high and no one distorted the style making it difficult for us to sing along.

It is not good to live in the past, but it is good to remember good things about the past and it is especially good to remember your family heritage and to pass it along to your children.

Do you know the name of your great-grandmother or great-grandfather?  You may not want to think about it, but in only a few years, you may only be a distant memory or even sadder, you may be forgotten completely, only a name on a tombstone that no one visits.

How can you prevent this?????  You can’t but you CAN have more of a chance of being remembered if only a few years longer by teaching your own children about their grandparents and great-grandparents and crazy aunts and uncles.  What better way to bring a family together than to tell stories about your family heritage.  Before technology people actually did sit around and tell stories about their relatives.  Can you imagine that - a room full of people actually talking to each other and not playing on their phones? 

Why not take the time to ask your existing relatives to tell you stories about your ancestors.  Learn the names of your great-great- grandparents and tell their stories to your children and grandchildren.  You may find out that your great-grandmother danced the Jitter Bug in front of the Christmas tree or your great-grandparents fell in love in a peach orchard.  Take your children to see their living relatives so that they can hear the stories first hand.  Write down the stories and make a book to share with your children and grandchildren.  But more importantly, share the values that you have learned from your ancestors and pass those down to your children.  Did your grandfather always pray at meals?  Are you passing that legacy to your children?  If you don’t pass it on chances are that will be something that is lost for generations to come.  Did your mother and father read the Bible to you?  Are you reading the Bible to your family?  Was Sunday a day of worship for your grandparents, your parents, for your family?  Some things are worth passing on.  Pass on the good legacy to your children.  And if you don’t have a good legacy, then begin one today.  It is never too late to make lasting memories.

The Martins currently present “Happy Together” marriages seminars for churches and organizations.  To schedule a seminar call Michael at 940-735-1515. They also publish a weekly “Happy Together” Blog about family and marriage issues.  You can order copies of their new books Dancing With Death and 366 Tidbits We Have Learned in 14,610 Days of Marriage, read, and subscribe to their “Happy Together” Blog by logging onto the Martin’s website at www.happytogethermarriage.com.