BenCrowder.net

In our stake council meeting on Tuesday, one of the high councilmen shared an experience he’d had in driving out to Virginia with his wife on a whim. They ended up finding hundreds of their ancestors’ names, a box full of pictures (including one of him and his parents!) which was with some fourth cousin he’d never known existed, and the gravesites for many of those ancestors. The part that really got to me, though, was this Joseph Smith quote:

“The greatest responsibility in this world, that God has laid upon us, is to seek after our dead. This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it, in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.” (History of the Church 4:426)

Now, I was a family history major back when I first got home from my mission, and I was good at doing my genealogy back then. But since then I’ve slacked off. Sure, I’ve put in a little bit here, a little there, but if family history work is the Saints’ “greatest responsibility in this world,” then I’m far, far below water level.

Incidentally, the site where I found that Joseph Smith quote was the Winslow Farr Sr. Organization, which is delightful because for the past month I’ve been typesetting a biography of Winslow’s son Lorin. In fact, yesterday I put in a few hours copyfitting the text (we’re almost ready to go to press), and I ran across a tidbit from one of Lorin’s descendants. The man’s name was Ben (Farr, probably), and in a dream he saw his deceased grandfather Marcus, who said to him, “Ben, do your genealogy, I almost lost my salvation because I didn’t.” Fitting, no?

A few more quotes from Boyd K. Packer’s The Holy Temple to wrap things up:

“Temples are the very center of the spiritual strength of the Church.”

“No work is more of a protection to this Church than temple work and the family history research that supports it. No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness. Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people.”

I haven’t given high enough priority to the things of God. It’s not like I don’t have time for genealogy, after all — I certainly seem to find time for all my little projects, at any rate, and when it comes down to it, I’d rather secure my salvation than engage in other enterprises. A small sacrifice for one’s salvation, don’t you think? :)

[tags]LDS, Mormon, genealogy, family history[/tags]