Our older son and his wife are about to deliver our first grandchild. Although this grandbaby won’t be able to read for several years, we would like to compile a moral history of our family. What are your suggestions?
I love that you are thinking ahead and anticipating that your grandchild someday will want to read your family’s stories, to learn about the values family members have upheld, and to know your family’s attention to moral development. Several ideas come to mind.
If you want an accessible history that you can share with this child before he/she even learns to read, you might consider gathering photos and putting together a short book featuring pictures of your grandparents, parents and children. Add in brief sentences describing the faith journey of each generation. Include photos of baptisms, church involvement and family celebrations. Identify the people in the photos with short explanations about the events depicted such as, “Your grandfather was baptized when he was 10 years old after he decided to be a follower of Jesus.” You also might include statements such as, “Your great-grandparents shared food with people in their neighborhood who didn’t have much to eat.” Simple statements accompanied by photos can be a great way to introduce young children to your family’s faith commitments and concerns.
Another idea is to produce a short video featuring members of your family describing their own faith journey, explaining their beliefs and values, and sharing words of wisdom and insight. With all the technology available today, recording a family oral history would be fairly simple. Compact video cameras allow for good-quality video and audio recordings, and some member of your family or a teenager in your neighborhood will know how to splice this video and create a lasting family treasure. Your grandchild someday will enjoy watching a video of his grandmother telling a story from her childhood and how she learned hard work pays off, or his grandfather talking about his teenage years when he learned the importance of telling the truth.
You also will want to write down your family’s faith history. Someday, as an older teenager or young adult, your grandchild will be ready to sit down and read about her family. So, even if you create photo albums or video recordings, be sure to write. Include specific details about your faith journey, your baptism, your family’s understanding of how faith is to be lived every day, and your thoughts about the people, events and churches that have shaped your life.
Two final suggestions: First, preserve materials you gather. Make extra copies of the digital recordings. Store photos in a safe place. Second, share what you create with others—with your family members, friends, neighbors and fellow church members. Your work will inspire others to follow your example.
Pam Durso is executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry in Atlanta. Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Contributors include writers in Virginia, Texas, Missouri and other states. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to [email protected].