Sunday, February 12, 2017

Tip of the Week: Take a Break

This week's tip is to take a break!

The break I took from posting on the blog was WAY too long! But it did help me consider how important it is to take a break sometimes. Family History can be incredibly overwhelming at times. When you feel overwhelmed with anything, including family history, it doesn't help to continue to try to work on it and just get stressed out.


Family History is important work to not give up on. But take a break if you need to! Pray, breathe, and do something else. Don't get overwhelmed. There is a lot of work to do and there are a lot of people out there doing the same work as you. Take a break and then get back to work!


"Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy. We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us." ("It Is Better to Look Up" by Carl B. Cook).


"That assurance from the Master can help those of us feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances. In the hardest trials, as long as you have the power to pray, you can ask a loving God: “Please let me serve, this day. It doesn’t matter to me how few things I may be able to do. Just let me know what I can do. I will obey this day. I know that I can, with Thy help.” ("This Day" by Henry B. Eyring)


"Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies” and “When we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help.” Whether we are overwhelmed or underwhelmed, whether we are scared to death or bored to death, the Lord wants us to gear down, power up, and serve." ("Serve" by Carl B. Cook)


"This beautiful gospel is so simple a child can grasp it, yet so profound and complex that it will take a lifetime—even an eternity—of study and discovery to fully understand it. But sometimes we take the beautiful lily of God’s truth and gild it with layer upon layer of man-made good ideas, programs, and expectations. Each one, by itself, might be helpful and appropriate for a certain time and circumstance, but when they are laid on top of each other, they can create a mountain of sediment that becomes so thick and heavy that we risk losing sight of that precious flower we once loved so dearly." ("It Works Wonderfully" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

"Please understand that what you see and experience now is not what forever will be. You will not feel loneliness, sorrow, pain, or discouragement forever. We have the faithful promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their hearts to Him.21 Have hope and faith in that promise. Learn to love your Heavenly Father and become His disciple in word and in deed...He loves you with a perfect love. God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him." ("You Matter to Him" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf)



Tip of the Week: Do it Out of Love

Happy Valentine's Day! 

This week's tip is to do it out of love!

Doing anything because you feel you have to and not because you want to makes it less enjoyable. If your reason to do family history is because you have to then you probably won't enjoy it. Family history should be an uplifting experience, not a burdensome experience. Because it seems fitting for Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share that I do Family History out of LOVE! Love your ancestors and doing their work. Love your family here on earth and serve them with all your mind, might, and strength. Christ loves you and is grateful for the work you are doing. Your ancestors love you and are grateful for the work you are doing. Do all things with love!

"The Bible tells us that “God is love.” He is the perfect embodiment of love, and we rely heavily on the constancy and universal reach of that love. As President Thomas S. Monson has expressed: “God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there.” There are many ways to describe and speak of divine love. One of the terms we hear often today is that God’s love is “unconditional.” While in one sense that is true, the descriptor unconditional appears nowhere in scripture. Rather, His love is described in scripture as “great and wonderful love,” “perfect love,” “redeeming love,” and “everlasting love.” These are better terms because the word unconditional can convey mistaken impressions about divine love, such as, God tolerates and excuses anything we do because His love is unconditional, or God makes no demands upon us because His love is unconditional, or all are saved in the heavenly kingdom of God because His love is unconditional. God’s love is infinite and it will endure forever, but what it means for each of us depends on how we respond to His love." ("Abide in My Love" by D. Todd Christofferson)