When I was five years old our house burned down. Mother saved a piece of burned wood from that house. During the war (the Big one) we were on “rations.” My mother saved some of the ration books and “points.” She even saved a picture of me with long curls, and it has been on display in more places than I want to recall. She wanted me to remember the days of my youth, the way our family lived and the events that shaped our lives.
Recently I re-discovered some memorabilia that I had not seen in many years. It included pictures of me as a baby—even my birth announcement. There were pictures of me in the first through sixth grades, my freshman year in high school class picture, and many others. Again, she wanted me to remember where I came from and who I am.
There was a time when I resented her saving all those things; I wanted to grow up and be a “man,” forgetting my baby curls, those knickers and the other objects that reminded me of being a child. Now, years later, I am so grateful she kept those things, for I am now able to realize their value.
Mothers do things like that, partly because her children do not realize just how important their roots really are. The grown man is the product, at least partly, of those years in his youth. I need to be reminded of those ladies who taught me the Bible when I was eight, and the men who taught me when I was fourteen. Many things ought to be forgotten—but not our roots; not our youth. Living in the past? No, but not forgetting our past either.
Mothers, it may be up to you to maintain your children’s equilibrium as our society seeks to carry them into situations and activities that would take them far from where they should be and where you know God wants them to be. Fathers and mothers are so different in those ways. I have a picture of me as an infant being held by my father on the running board of a Model-A Ford. Do you think he is the one who kept that picture? No, we fathers don’t seem to be “bent” in that direction. By seeing that picture I am called away from today’s high-tech culture and reminded of what was important in the days of my youth. Solomon said it this way:
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them,” Ecclesiastes 12:1.
That word “remember” is also translated “record” or “recall” in other passages, telling us to make a record, to remember our Creator and respond to His love and goodness toward us. One way of doing that is to do what we see in the Bible. The “son” often addressed in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is cautioned, reminded and motivated to be what he should be, not what others want him to be.
Our children need to be given memories of their past, their ancestry, their roots. Such is plentiful in biblical texts. Even though centuries separated Jesus from David, He is still called the “son of David,” reminding us—and others—of the importance of our ancestry, our “growing up.” A genealogical search is not my objective, but encouraging parents to establish a foundation from which their children can launch out into the world with confidence and with direction. If ever this was needed it is in this 21st century, by a generation being separated from the ethics and morals of their parents—and the Bible.
I’ll be glad to show you my pictures, but my own grandchildren can’t believe that boy in the picture is their Paw Paw—too much has changed. Mothers and fathers, give your children memories of their youth. Even if you are gone before they can appreciate them, they will thank you for doing so, even as I do mine for her time and effort.
