As we labor to do the temple work of our dearly departed family members, we will preserve our family tree for eternity and gain blessings to help us in our daily lives.
You might think you as a young mother are too busy to do family history research and temple work. Do you spend time on Facebook? or reading web sites like this one? Then you have time to do temple work. It’s so easy now with new.familysearch.org and the other resources the LDS Church has provided on the Internet. You don’t have to leave your house and kids to do the research. As you do this work you will get help from the unseen world in getting the temporal tasks done that all mothers face of feeding and clothing their children.
I love the LDS Church’s emphasis to youth to do family history research and temple work. Here are some simple videos geared to youth on how to do it, but it applies to all of us: https://www.lds.org/youth/family-history/discover?lang=eng
Here’s a story of a young LDS mom who gave up time when her baby was napping to do temple work.It appeared in the August 2006 Ensign, pages 34 to 38. It’s by Kim Sorenson. See http://lds.org/ensign/2006/08/blessings-for-my-ancestors-blessings-…. Read it! It’s really good. I loved her descriptions of the blessings that flowed from doing this work. Because of her sacrifices to do family history research, she was blessed with HUGE blessings. Her family’s health was better, her appliances and cars broke less often, and she was able to attract clothes her son needed for his scout trip at a garage sale for a really cheap price.
I’ve taken her example as my inspiration. I can surely consecrate some of my baby’s napping time to do the work, or the alone time I get once a month on the third Sunday evening when everybody else but the nursing toddler goes to Grandma’s house (that was last night). In short, if you want mercy in your life and blessings, then consecrate some of your blessings of time, Internet connection, and brain power to family history work. As Kim concludes her article:
“The Spirit prompted me to work on family history. I was able to show mercy to my ancestors and bless their lives by doing for them something they could not do for themselves, and my family has been blessed abundantly. The Lord has promised each of us that if we are merciful we will also obtain mercy.
“Let us be more merciful. … Let us be more compassionate, gentler, filled with forbearance and patience and a greater measure of respect one for another. In so doing, our very example will cause others to be more merciful, and we shall have greater claim upon the mercy of God who in His love will be generous toward us.” President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Blessed Are the Merciful,” Ensign, May 1990, 70.
I love this quote from Elder John A. Widtsoe:
These are trying days, in which Satan rages, at home and abroad, hard days, evil and ugly days. We stand helpless as it seems before them. We need help. We need strength. We need guidance. Perhaps if we would do our work in behalf of those of the unseen world who hunger and pray for the work we can do for them, the unseen world would in return give us help in this day of our urgent need. There are more in the other world than there are here. There is more power and strength there than we have here upon this earth. We have but a trifle, and that trifle is taken from the immeasurable power of God. We shall make no mistake in becoming collaborators in the Lord’s mighty work for human redemption. (From Conference Report, Apr. 1943, 39).
Tree of Life Mothering 