Families are Forever (4)

I read this article about families called "The Stories that Bind Us." Ok, I may be a sucker for articles, especially short technical articles, so this one was enjoyable to read and actually interesting. The article talked about what keeps families together, like what is the secret reciepe for strong families? In the article, Bruce Feiler said,"After a while, a surprising theme emerged. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative." Isn't that so interesting?! Just knowing stories from your grandparents or how your parents meet can create strong family ties and bonds? I knew that this was true though. 

While I was on my mission in Germany, my mission President made a HUGE push to do family history. Yes, I was one of those typical teenagers that passed the "family history burden" to my grandparents. Well, as soon as my mission president made a push for family history, I started emailing my grandparents and parents for stories. It was ridiculous how much fun it was to read about my great great grandfather and how he was a professional wrestler that converted people during matches or how my great- grandmother possibly raised 17 children by herself while her husband was a POW in WW II. I gathered many of these stories on my mission. While I was traveling from place to place on the bus or the train, I would talk to people about their family and my family and the stories we knew. I couldn't believe how the people reacted. When I started with a Book of Mormon approach, the people were pretty stand offish, but when I started my initial contact with family history, the people opened right up. People want to share stories and be part of something larger than just them. 

But seriously, I was thinking back to my 3rd and 4th grade years. Seriously, most of the conversations I had with my friends were about how cool my mom and dad were going on a trip to Hawaii or how I have relatives that literally traveled the world for a year. I always tried to find something, even if it wasn't directly about me, that would make me stand out or unique. 

Today in class, we discussed our family and what types of themes or traditions we have. Sister Steadman told us about a theme that she had in her family growing up. It was a scripture in Joshua- how their house would serve the Lord. As she was talking, I thought to myself,

"Well shoot, does my family have a theme?"

Me and my crazy family (from left to right: Quinton, Kyndal, Blake, Annie, Courtney, Jace, Sydney, Melody, Carl, and Brynn)

The first image that popped into my head was me and my family sitting around the dinner table and my mom walking over with a HUGE round blue bowl with a green salad in it. All of the kids would groan in unison and my mom would say," We are a salad eating family." This happened almost every night at dinner for at least the past 10 years. I remember weeding the garden in the morning in the summer and me and my brothers purposely trying to kill the lettuce plants, but man, those things are unstoppable! So, there you have it, we are a " Salad Eating Family". That phrase is now used as a big joke in our family, but it is something that connected us. Our theme is that we do things together. We all eat salad, we all work hard in the yard, we all go to church together, etc. Our family is connected and united on many different levels and whatever we do, we do it together.

To read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?_r=0