Today we're packing up for a Foy Cousins family reunion and just yesterday we received the invitation to the Barker Cousins party - another word for reunion - held in the backyards of my aunts. While always a lot of work in planning and preparation, the rewards are worth it. Like childbirth, looking back one mostly just thinks of the blessings and not so much the hard work. A few years retrospective helps as well. Still, there is a lot of work involved so I wondered if the call to reunions was just a fun idea or has there been any instruction on the matter. Indeed, I found holding family reunions is an eternal principle.
One website dedicated to the principle has this to say:
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| Enjoying the rewards of an old fashioned cake walk. |
Don't take their word on it, however. Some leaders of great wisdom have given us their example and direction.An eternity of sons and daughters! Family reunion is an eternal concept in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the blessings of being together forever are based on what we do here and now. One of the greatest aspirations of the family reunion is to cement that sacred sense of eternal family, which seems so lost to the fractured world. (http://ldsfamilyreunion.blogspot.com/)
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| Gotta have a jet pack if you're going to be a superhero! |
Anticipating
his 70th birthday, Lorenzo Snow invited all his children and their families to
gather in Brigham City, Utah, for a “grand re-union and anniversary
celebration.” He arranged for their lodging and food and for programs that all,
including the young children, would enjoy. “The more I reflect upon this
subject [of a family reunion],” he wrote, “the greater are my anxieties and
desires for a family gathering, that I may see you all once in my life, and
give you a father’s blessing.” He urged them to let nothing prevent their
attendance “except the most serious and insurmountable obstacles. The Snow
family gathered from May 7 to 9, 1884, and enjoyed music, theatrical
productions, speeches, poetry, games, food, and friendly conversation. (“Sacred Family Relationships.”Teachings
of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow)
Grandfather of Joseph Smith
"Wherefore,
my dear children, I pray, beseech, and adjure you by all the relations and
dearness that hath ever been betwixt us and by the heartrending pangs of dying father
whose soul hath been ever bound in the bundle of life with yours, that you know
one another. Visit as you may each one another... if possible, once every year...or
if you cannot meet, send to and hear from each other yearly and oftener if you
can; and when you have neither father nor mother left be so many fathers and mothers
to each other, so you shall understand the blessings mentioned in the 133 Psalms." - Asael Smith
President Benson
Again, I emphasize that every family in
the Church should belong to an immediate and, insofar as possible, a
grandparent family organization. ( Ezra Taft Benson, “Worthy
of All Acceptation”, November 1978. Ensign.)
Boyd K.
Packer
There are several basic component
parts to family history and temple work. Over the years, they may be rearranged
somewhat in emphasis, or the approach in programming Church participation may
change somewhat. But the responsibilities stay about the same.
1.
Each of us is to compile his or her own life history.
2.
Each of us is to keep a book of remembrance.
3.
As individuals and families we are each to seek out our kindred dead, beginning
first with the four most recent generations on each line, and then going back
as far as we can.
4.
We are each to participate in other programs such as name extraction [indexing]
when asked to do so.
5.
We are to organize our families and hold meetings and reunions.
5.
If we have access to a temple, each of us should go to the temple as often as
possible to do ordinance work—first for ourselves, then for our progenitors,
then for all the names that have been gathered by means other than our own. (Boyd.
K. Packer. “Your Family History: Getting Started,” August 2003 Ensign.)
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