Jacob Bushman Family
Last week in one of my Family History classes I mentioned the feeling I have that it is when I make an effort to know my ancestors and make a connection with them by understanding who they are and how they lived, that they are given or granted permission or access to me. I often sense the presence or influence of loved ones who have gone before. In most cases, I never knew them here, but have learned to love them since. Some I feel especially close to and I feel them particularly near. Perhaps these few are my guardian or ministering angels. Perhaps because I love and care for them, they return love and care for me. I believe in these ministering angels. Elder Holland speaks of the “heavenly help of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need.”(Ensign, Nov. 2008.)
Today it occurred to me that the reverse might also be true. If they are granted permission to be near us because we know them, then might not it follow that if we “leave ourselves behind” in as many ways as we can (words, thoughts, records, journals, photos, etc.) so that our posterity might know us and love us, we will have greater access to them?
One more reason to write my fingers to the bone.
OH my goodness Ann!!! I never saw your comment on my post on Mormon Mommy Blogs! Luckily, I happened to be looking for something and went back to that post just today and saw your comment and the link you sent me to this post. When I read your first sentence about them being granted more permission to access you as you work to know them, chills sprang over my whole body and I started to cry! YES! That is what I have been feeling. These little thoughts — coming to more minds than simply my own — these gentle nudges that there is something more to all of this than simply “It’s nice to know who your ancestors are” make me feel all the more certain that it is real — that it is the Holy Ghost whispering knowledge to us so that both we and they might be more blessed.
So incredible to read this and see how it echoed my own wonderings! I am sorry I didn’t see it earlier! (But kind of glad, because things fade a bit, and this re-ignited that feeling).
Thank you for sharing this with me!
And I just re-read your second paragraph! I LOVE that and that aspect hadn’t even occurred to me. It’s really beautiful. So beautiful that I am crying again. To think of giving our grandchildren, etc. an easier way to access our help — which of course we’d be desperate to give. I love that!
Hi Nancy. See my Nov 20, 2013 post. You might enjoy the thoughts I’ve been stewing on lately.
Thanks for your reply. I can see we are thinking about the same kinds of things! Ann