I am re-posting this once posted post... (sorry to keep repeating the word) I posted this on my family's web site... i want these ideas here for myself... also... i was running these principles/idea past some friends and a certain Georgia added so much sacred depth to what i am only begining to understand... if you have any thoughts on the subject please share... if you are too shy to comment i would love to have a conversation on this subject some time...thanks.So on Father’s day I was asking my dad about the Ellis peoples that I have never known. You know… his grandmas and grandpas. I am really interested in their stories.
I have some pretty far out ideas about family that has passed on… like that they really are around us helping us become better. Part of the reason I think this is that we are born perfect, but by nature of being human we take on the really beautifully developed talents and gifts of our ancestors as well as their shortcomings. I am sure we have all heard things like… “Oh he has his fathers temper”… right?
So I kind of have this little idea that they are helping us from the other side to overcome any short comings bestowed upon us simply for being born. So this little idea of mine I think can be backed by the idea of the spirit of Elias turning “the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:6, Luke 1:17, 3 Ne. 25:6, D&C 2:2, D&C 27:9, D&C 110:15) I know these scriptures are talking about temple work specifically, but I also think there is room for another level of interpretation.
I was thinking about Alma chapter 8 when he talks about how it will be better for the Lamanites than for the Nephites. One of the reasons he gives is that the Lamanite seed will remain, whereas the Nephites will be wiped out. Not only do the Lamanites get the gospel in the last days, but the Lamanite fathers have more time to help their sons over come the “wicked traditions of the fathers”.
With this all said I hope some of you are still with me… I really really want to know more about the grandparents’ aunts and uncles that I have never known.
I asked Grandpa (Merthan) about his mother… He told me that she had a sharp tongue… You know, my siblings can testify of my feisty temper and sharp tongue. Does it come from this grandma I don’t remember meeting? I can’t say, but my hair probably does. From asking my siblings that remember Grandma Elision, I know that she really loved flowers… Is that where my love for beauty comes from?… Again, I can’t really say… But I do trust that they are around us and helping us…
I remember once My Grandma Betty showing me black and white photos from the 30s. She told me several stories about relatives I have never met... and she said, "Supposedly they think about us a lot more than we think about them"... when she said that I felt all of the power of truth confirming her words... To her they were just words, but I understood more than she probably intended. I understood and even now understand that they do think about us.
On fathers day my dad told me a story or two about his grandparents. In fact once I got him started he couldn’t stop. So, I invite you all that knew the Ellis grandparents that the rest of us didn’t to share both their strengths and their weaknesses... Help me help Elias...
4 comments:
My mom had me read the book The Message a few months ago. It's non-fiction about a member of the church that was in a coma. He says basically those same things (about our ancestors being around us, helping us). Some of it is kinda cheesy, but you should give it a read.
i knew i was on to something!
and for some reason beyond the veil type books usually make me say... ha! see... :)
I've been having this impression lately and in recent years about my ancestors. Every time I try to voice the impression it seems to come out WRONG like I'm proud or something which isn't the feeling I have. It's like - um forgive me if I get it wrong again - a deep awe and respect? for my heritage and the feeling of obligation to live up to what has gone before. Despite poverty, adversity, persecution, immigration, loss, etc. my ancestors have done a remarkable job doing the right thing or at least overcoming stuff and then doing the right thing. I don't want to let them down on one plane and in another sense it gives me confidence that perhaps this insignificant self may have more value than I have given myself credit for merely by belonging to this long line of noble people and then I feel stronger that obligation to live up to that nobility. Am I making sense without seeming conceited? Because when I think back on how I've tried to explain this I sense that perhaps I'm coming off conceited and that's not my point. Conceit would only nolify all that I'm impressed with. And in sharing this impression I only hope that others might also open their eyes to their own sense of nobility and feel that similar conviction to live up to it.
i totally agree with you chalice... i am constantly impressed by the person that i am... totally separate from anything i have done... like i feel really lucky to have been born... and i tell people i am some sort of strange mutation of my parents and ancestors jeans... :) i mean genes.. i think it is really amazing how two people can come together and create a new little human that is nothing like them and everything like them at the same time... and then this soul/spirit jumps inside to add to the entire equation... really... i am totally in awe of the whole life process... and how interconnected we all really are... so... i say be in awe of who you are... it is pretty remarkable the people who have survived wars, famine, disease and what not to bring us here...
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