Family Relations Make a Difference

This last week, I had the pleasure of going on a family vacation. When I was young, my dad promised my three older sisters and I that when we are all able to go to the LDS Temple together he would buy us all tickets for a cruise. Since I was the last to get married, he finally made good on this promise. It was a hard road getting there but we are all worthy adults that live as responsible citizens of our community. We don't have bad habits such as getting drunk or smoking, and we all make pretty great moms (we had an amazing mom to use as a model) and are generally happy hard working human beings. I feel that came from the constant  reminders and encouragement from my parents to be better and do the best we can.
When you look into my family history (or most likely anyone else's history too) it doesn't look like they had that family bond and cheer squad that I was fortunate enough to grow up with. In our church, family history is something that is strongly recommended to do on a regular basis. I always figured it was just so we know where we come from and can help the ancestors that need us. As I learn more about  it though, I see there is so much to learn from the family relations and patterns that molded the foundations we were born into.
My dad's mother used to tell a story about when she was younger, her little sister Betty and herself were in charge of making sure the milk cow was taken care of during the day. They would spend all day out in the field making sure the milk cow was getting enough food and water and didn't wander off. One day they were really thirsty so they took a small drink of milk each, just to get them by. As the day wore on they took more gulps and before they knew it, it was time to take the cow home. When they got home, their dad got ready to milk the cow and her bag was empty. They had accidentally drank all the milk. My grandma said, to be mild, her dad was not happy. This is one of the only stories I ever heard about my grandmother's father. He just wasn't around. All the other stories she would tell were about her hard life of having to figure things out by her self when she was just a teen and take care of her little sister because her mother had past away.
It was heartbreaking to hear her hard life and it made me realize more and more how great I had it. And no matter how horrible her life sounded to me, I knew that her mother's was harder and her grandmother's was harder still.
Being able to search our ancestors and see how times have changed and how family systems have changed is so beneficial as we mold and shape our families and build on the foundations that our children shape their families on. We can learn so much from family history that will forever bless our lives.
The more we know the more we can grow.