Yes, YOU! You are someone’s ancestor – either through children or nieces and nephews or whatever future generations are linked to you. And that includes adoptive or step families.
But here is my main question to you – what will those future generations know about you?
As I am preparing for the next round of guiding people in doing their Life-Story, I realize my grandchildren only know me with gray hair and an older posture and movements.
They have no idea I was really slim once, was a darn good high school basketball player, ran a marathon in my 30’s, and somehow made it through 10 years as a single mom raising two boys and going to law school. Side jobs during law school when I was turning 40? – throwing a newspaper route at 4:30am every day and clerking for a firm 10 hours a week while studying every night until after midnight.
And during my practice of law, I learned about Christian peacemaking – it turned my perspective inside out making a huge difference in my life and work. I became certified in doing it and spent much of my life in that arena.
They know only my faith today – not the transition through multiple challenging times, hardships and miraculous rescues.
So, how will they know about these life-shaping times? They seem barely interested now – and I was the same when I was a teenager. And my own grown children? – they have heard some stories orally, but….I know they won’t really remember the details or the parts that were hugely important to me.
My big example of the problem is from my own great-great grandfather – W. D. McDonald. When my mother was about to turn 80, she put the whole dresser drawer of photos she had collected and inherited into “unsafe” albums. OUCH! Plus – there was little or no identification of the people, places or details. I sat with her to go through all 8 albums asking questions and writing furiously what she was saying. (Don’t say it – “you should have recorded it” – it was before cell phone recording times and I didn’t have a cassette recorder – so there!)
We came across the one and only photo she had of her great grandparents – they were stick figures in front of their last house in Merkel, Texas. Since she was a child at the time, she did not remember them personally but had one story from her mother she passed along. It was about him sitting on his porch soaking his feet and seeing a vehicle (tin lizzie type) go by ever so often (she estimated 15-20 min) – then he would say “where are they all going?”.
We laughed at the story thinking of the busy traffic of our time and how it would shock him. But really! Was that all that was important to know about him? Is that the type of story I would want my future generations to know about me? Seriously?
Yes, I did a full blog on this – From Stick Figures to Robust Life Stories – Candy McCune – but let me summarize: in my later genealogy work long after my mom was gone from this earth, I learned who my great-great grandfather really was – the big events of his life. Then I became starved for any insight into his thoughts, beliefs, reactions – any scrap of info from him personally. Not happening. I have not been able to find one piece of personal comment from him or his wife – no letters, journals, notes, etc.
The big events?
- He enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 19 and fought Indians, protected western frontier settlers, and was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, from 1855-1860.
- Next he married and quickly joined the Texas Cavalry, Confederate States of America serving from 1861-1865 – spending the last year in a Union army prison.
- Upon discharge, he returned to Texas, suffered through the dis-enfranchisement of Confederate soldiers and the carpet-bagger era while farming cotton and having 14 children, losing 4 in childhood.
- In 1875, he was one of 4 men who began a prayer meeting group faithfully meeting over the next 7 years until a church was organized.
The biggest insight (and spurring of my desire to know more) was his obituary:
“He was a charter member of the Bethel Baptist Church and served them for many years as a minister. A farmer by occupation, he found time to preach the Gospel, and in the pioneer days of this section went from place to place, preaching to the people. He was loved and honored by all who knew him and was a useful man to his community.”
Oh, you can imagine the questions I would pepper him with if I could jump in the time machine and get back to him when that one photo my mother had was taken. How did he go from the young Indian-fighting frontier soldier and Civil War soldier to the itinerant preacher? What were his character-building moments? What life lessons would he pass along to future generations?
OK, I can hear you – you have the same sort of reaction I do when I go through his story. I don’t have any big historical events in my life story – or….maybe Vietnam war, 9/11, or COVID, but…yeah, I guess just the perspective and thoughts and lessons I have from those might be of interest to those 3-4 generations down the line. But my personal life events have truly shaped me more than anything.
If you don’t agree with me, let me ask you this. Would you like to have a journal of thoughts and introspection from your great-great grandfather? Just about everyday life? About losing young children (which so many did during that era) or how they got into their profession, or how their faith grew/was tested and what was their sustaining belief system? What had the greatest impact on their life?
I know I have shared this before, but I think Delilah, author of “One Heart at a Time” says it best. Why do you need to tell your Life-Story? –
Have you ever considered that the hurts in your past are meant for something greater than you? God hurts with you. He didn’t, nor doesn’t, want bad things to happen to you. But here’s the really interesting fact: God can redeem anything, and anyone at anytime. Your pain and suffering of the past can be healed, and not only that, it can be used to heal others.
Have you ever stopped to consider how someone else may need your story? That’s exactly the point of this [her] book, in case you forgot. Changing the world one heart, one story at a time. That means you telling your story of redemption and offering hope to the next person going through some tough stuff.
My challenge to you: Complete your own unique Life-Story photobook capturing the spirit and essence of you in 3 easy steps….your story matters and in sharing it, you will inspire, encourage and give confidence to generations to come. Don’t leave those who come after you wondering who you were and what peaks & valleys shaped your character — let them benefit from your life lessons from your perspective.
Okay – even Henry Blackaby chimes in on this in my devotional from him. “God allows us to suffer difficulties and hardships for a purpose….” He reminds me of Deuteronomy 5:29 which has been a cornerstone for my Life-Story system – this verse comes right after God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments.
“Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!”
Your future generations may need your story. I’ve been making albums for many years and I know what keeps many well-meaning storytellers from FINISHING their projects. They know WHY they want to / WHAT they want to do …but they still get stuck.
This is why I created a SYSTEM to keep them going – it helps you pare down and polish a complete and precious life-story. You’ll be guided in outlining it…but even better you’ll learn how to tell the story with photos and journaling. And it can be done quickly and easily – at the pace you choose or following my pace. You can go from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed.
The next Life-Story Album Course will be opening up in a few weeks – click Heart – Candy McCune to be on the list to receive notification. Don’t miss it – the time is NOW!
