The Beauty of Ancestors
Welcome to this week's Carnival of Beauty topic, The Beauty of Ancestors. There are only a few entries and I encourage you to read them all.

Everything has an ancestry and a history. Even our ideas have an ancestry and their development and propogation can be traced through philosophers and kings through centuries. Our faith has an ancestry we can trace as we think of key people who prepared us for accepting Christ. Wouldn't it be interesting to look at a family tree of our faith? To see who shared Christ with those who shared Him with us and trace that back generations as we do our biological geneologies? I am sure there are as many interesting turns of events and coincidences in our spiritual heritage as there is in our physical one.

Blair's Scribblings shares with us her "Legacy of Faith."
God tells us that future generations will be affected by how we behave today. I've seen it in my own family. I've seen how a tragedy can turn a man's heart toward bitterness. In his bitterness he withdraws from the Lord and the church and takes his family with him. Then, many years later he comes to realize he was wrong and begins to seek the Lord. The problem? His descendants are already on the path to godlessness and unless that cycle is broken, it will continue. He can pray but oh the regret that fills his heart.
Our upbringing has a decided influence on our faith as adults. But while our faithfulness is not an absolute guarantee that our children will walk with the Lord, neither do the failures of previous generations doom us to repeat the same sins once we recognize them as such. Continue reading Blair's Scribblings to find out the rest of her inspiring story.

When thinking of ancestry, most of us think of our physical geneology. We search old photos, wedding records and obituaries and old grave sites. Some people devote many long hours to study the history of their family. Most of us know a few tales passed down through generations about people we've never met. In college, I did a paper on my family history and in preparation for the assignment, the professor suggested asking aunts about the family first. They seem to be the greatest record keeper of family stories.

I don't know if Melissa is an aunt, but she shares with us some pages from her scrapbook and interesting bits of her family history.
I trust as we rear our son that we will weave these stories of his heritage into his life. I want him to know of the faithful men and women that came before him. I imagine that fruit being born in our lives is due to prayers of mothers and grandmothers generations past.
What greater reason is there to keep the histories of our families than to provide examples for our children?

Sherrin from Small Things has taken these examples to heart. Her family history is characterized by strong women who managed large families through trying times. She also desires a large family and looks at their accomplishment as encouragement that her desire is both godly and possible, despite what well-meaning friends and acquaintances may say.
One of the main ways their examples inspire me is in the area of motherhood. In today’s society women are taught that they should and can pursue any career goal. Yet being a mother to many children is considered too difficult. What our ancestors did suddenly becomes too hard, while newer and trendier goals are seen as attainable. It is trendy to be “liberated” from the demands of serving a husband and children, in order to pursue independence and personal fulfilment. The work that women did for generations is looked down upon. A woman can do it all, it seems, except be happy to serve her husband and raise his children.
Kim shares with us a walk down memory lane her husband took their family on. I think children appreciate hearing the tales their parents tell of childhood. My dad has told me so many of his memories so many times that I could describe his cat, his dog, the migrant workers with whom he played and the activities that entertained Indiana farmboys as he was growing up almost as if these memories were my own. Every so often, my grandmother's new husband begnins talking about his childhood. While there isn't as direct of a connection for me, who wouldn't want to hear about life growing up in the Applachian mountains? He didn't see an automobile until he was nine years old!

While I didn't include any stories about my dad growing up, you can take a peek at what I know of my family's ancestry in my post "Through Difficulties." It seems a fitting motto for the family name. There is only one person capable of carying us through all difficulties which seems to have been a common theme among the entries this week: our saviour, Jesus Christ.

I hope you enjoyed this week's carnival. Past carnivals can be found at a Gracious Home. Right now, her blog isn't coming up for me, but I think that is only an issue I am having with my computer at the moment. If I have missed anything, please let me know. I returned to over 200 emails, and I went through them three times to be sure I did not miss any carnival entries but I certainly am capable of such things.

Related Tags: , , ,