Day 12: Today is our last day of Temple lessons in celebration of the Open House of the Gilbert Temple that opened its doors to the public today! If you would like to take a tour of the temple, reserve your tickets here. 12 to 1 – Temple Count Down's Begun series has been an awesome experience for my family. If you have been able to use any of these ideas, please comment on your favorites or how you used it in your own family.
We are excited to go see the Gilbert Temple next Thursday as a family. For our last lesson from today, I am going to kick-off another series about Family History since Temples and Family History go hand-in-hand. Tonight we watched this fun video about "Gracie" as she discovers her family's story. There are a few more videos in this series that I will post in the next few weeks.
After we watched the video, I talked with my kids about what family history and temples had in common. We believe that our families will be forever and that after this life we will reunite with our loved ones that have passed on before us. It will be like a great family reunion where we will never be separated again. In the Old Testament, Malachi said, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:6) As our hearts turn to our fathers we begin to understand who we are and the great heritage that is ours. One of the things that I want my children to learn about is about their ancestors. I want them to understand their stories, trials, triumphs and joys so that they can feel part of something greater than themselves. I also want them to cultivate a close relationship with their living family members such as grandparents, cousins, aunties and uncles. I believe that we can find great joy in building relationships of love, understanding and friendship within our families that will bless not only our own life, but our children's lives as well. To help my kids catch the vision of the importance of their heritage and to get to know their family members more, we came up with "F.T.I. Family Tree Investigator." My son actually came up with the name. We were brainstorming at dinner tonight about something fun to call our investigating project using F.B.I. but we were drawing a blank until my son said, "How about Family Tree Investigator?" it was perfect! I drew this little detective tonight and put together a report that you can print out. Clip it onto a clipboard and give it to your child next time you visit the grandparents or cousins' house. Have them act out the role of an FTI agent and fire these questions at their relatives. My kids love to dress up like spy guys and so I knew that this would be something that they would love to do. I hope that this simple project sparks some excitement in learning more about your living relatives! Look out for our Family History series to kick-off next week as we get ready for the dedication of the Gilbert Temple. I will shoot for a weekly Family History lesson to help teach and motivate your family in turning their hearts to their ancestors.
I know that our Heavenly Father lives and that he loves us so much. He understands who we are better than anyone else on earth. He wants us to be happy and find the peace and joy we all are searching for. It can be found through His Son, Jesus Christ and through His gospel. I invite you to check out Mormon.org and find out more about temples, family history and how your family can find happiness in this life.
Click on the image below to download the pdf file.