Make the Past Your Reality
The Secret was a study performed in an effort to prove the theory that positive thinking leads to success. Many live the Secret and swear by its results. Although uplifting thoughts are powerful, action is essential to the counsel given concerning family history--without it, nothing gets done.
Incentive: You guys are all able to put out this candle. The power of positive thinking will be on our side here. What you need to do is work together, all of you have to countdown and think as hard as you can that the candle will go out and if you plan it out well enough, you'll have a chance to put out the flame. After lighting the candle, convince everyone to be absolutely silent and, on the count of three, to speak in their minds the words "flame, go out." The trick is to emphasize the power of positive thinking. After about 10 seconds of the fire still burning, pinch it out and deliver the following thought: no amount of positive thinking was EVER going to extinguish that candle. What was required to put out the candle was work, the action of pinching out the flame. When we receive instruction and counsel for us to learn something, we have to act. No amount of positive thinking is EVER going to effect a change on the physical world around us if we don't act on those thoughts.
We are told regularly how important family history work is, and many times this topic has been discussed in this class. A lot of times we hear what people are saying, but we don’t listen. It’s easy to avoid the monotonous repetition of the counsel to “do family history work!” and justify why we aren't involved in it. The most beneficial thing we can do for ourselves is to do something, regardless of how in-depth it is.
After class one day, I had the strongest impression to record my family’s stories. I called my grandparents and set up a time to meet with them and write their stories into the FamilySearch website. While it was a bit more difficult than anticipated, the time I was able to spend with them and the memories that are recorded for generations to come are well worth it.
One of the largest mantras in this class was the theme of stories. We have the resources necessary to complete family history, and the history of our families begins with stories.
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