And
repeated to Joseph Smith: “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall
turn to their fathers. If
it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” (JS-Hist1:39).
“Smite
the earth with a curse”? “Utterly wasted”? This is serious business. As
Latter-day Saints, we believe that it is our duty to help our ancestors have the same blessings we have. “They
are waiting for us to find them,” we have been told. Latter-day Saint focus on
families is so strong that our belief is that we are saved with our families in
a long unbroken chain of covenants and promises between us and God—beginning
with the prophet Abraham and continuing to our day. It is the redemption provided
lovingly by our Savior Jesus Christ. We want to follow His example in dealing
with our family members.
LDS Salt Lake Temple Photo by Lindy Mathews Johnson |
So
how does this work? Those promises are made in temples and the Latter-day
Saints are certainly a temple-building people. Just last month another temple was dedicated in Brigham City and more are on the way all over the world. And
are members of the Church finding their forefathers and mothers and taking
their names to the temple? Not so much. Under 3 percent in fact. The Church has
redoubled their efforts to make the process easy, spending millions of dollars
on record preservation and websites that put those names in one of the finest genealogy libraries in the United States, in family history centers all over the world,
and on the internet with the capability of reaching inside every home. Training
staff for these facilities is state of the art. Yet in family history centers
outside Utah, more non-members avail themselves of the opportunities available
than do members.
What
is yet needed as motivation? Guilt obviously does not work. Talking about the
resources has not yielded much. There are a few enthused and excited
genealogists, but the vast majority of Church members love their ancestors
generally, but have a hard time with the specifics. Even the lay leaders are too
busy with helping the living members of their wards to worry about dead
ancestors. The dead have been waiting awhile and they aren’t going anywhere
soon. Many members of the Church are ardent temple-goers, but most settle for
whatever names are provided for them through extraction of old records through
Church headquarters.
So we
come to the concept of STORY. Family story. We are back to “turning hearts.”
How can we love someone we do not know? It is vital to know more than names and
dates about a person to truly love them. And often we do not care enough about
a person we do not love enough to give up our comfortable seat in front of the
TV or even our busy nurturing of those we do know and love.
The
Church is moving in the direction of tapping living memory of family to then
extract the vital information needed for the family tree making. We need our
members to be more than just clerks, said a FamilySearch speaker. A recent effort in India turned hearts to former generations. Their stories turned into a desire to take their beloved ancestors to receive temple blessings. African Saints who
believed that it was necessary to provide family names to return to the temple
searched out oral history and without the computer access we enjoy, traveled
many hours to take the people in those family stories to obtain the blessings
found in the temple.
So
what do I know about my family members, not just living, but now “dead”? Who
are they? What was their life like? What were their hopes and dreams? Can I
relate? Do I love them? Will I sacrifice my time and energy in their behalf?
Given this perspective the answer is YES. My heart is turned to my children and
to my grandchildren and when I know my ancestors, my heart is turned to my
family going in the other direction too.
This
weekend is the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Listen for specific reference to this topic—the topic of heart-turning.
The concept of story. I’ll be listening too.