"Behold, thou art Oliver..."

A little over a week ago, my ward began a 90-Day Book of Mormon Reading Challenge. It's been a wonderful experience, for me at least, thus far. We're reading based on Book of Mormon Central's Reading Challenge, which follows the order in which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, accompanied by the sections of Doctrine and Covenants he received during the said translation.

To open up, we read Doctrine and Covenants 6. This section is an appropriate one - both thematically and chronologically - to begin.

There is much knowledge to be gained here, but I'll only mention two particulars that struck me. One in this post, and another in a second post, because the second half has gone out of control and deserves its own post.

To begin.

During our scripture study, we are encouraged to take a page out of the prophet Nephi's book and "liken the scriptures" unto ourselves. This can be taken too far occasionally. In this case though, I believe it is appropriate.

20 Behold, thou art Oliver, and I have spoken unto thee because of the desires; therefore treasure up these words in the heart. Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love. (D&C 6:20)

The Lord's statement to Oliver Cowdery here is powerful enough on its own grounds. I'll admit to feeling a few goosebumps when I read it. I can only imagine how Oliver felt reading and hearing them from Joseph. This was personal counsel from the Lord for him.

However, this verse expands beyond a personal application for Oliver to provides modern readers with an equally influential lesson.

One thing I love to do with the scriptures is to occasionally insert my own name. It has the potential to provide a powerful personal impact. In this case, it serves as a reminder from the Lord to treasure up the blessings, promptings, and personal revelation which I have received.

In times of trial, we can easily forget all with which we have been blessed. It's pretty easy to forget the positives when all you can see is the negatives. I'm certainly guilty of this occasionally. However, it's during trials that we should seek for solace in sacred moments. A journal (another thing I've neglected) certainly helps in this effort.

Hold on to those moments. Treasure them up in your heart. Be faithful and diligent. And, as the Lord has said:

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.
35 Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.
36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

This post isn't what I intended it to be when I started. I certainly don't intend to sermonize, but as Daniel Day-Lewis jokingly relates in the movie Lincoln, "I could write shorter sermons, but once I start, I'm too lazy to stop."

The moral of the story. Don't be discouraged. Don't fear what man can do. And always remember who stands with you.

"... the greatest of these is charity..."

Whenever I find myself in a foul mood, perhaps after an argument with a roommate, co-worker, or after a frustrating exchange on Twitter (which shall not be linked to), I find myself going back to 1 Corinthians 13.

I've done so since my mission, when a zone leader recommended it while I was dealing with a particularly difficult transfer and companion.

It's never failed to move me emotionally, but more importantly, it's always inspired me to repent and try to be better.

There's much to be gained in counsel from this short chapter, but I'll only quote the final two verses in my entry today.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

There are more eloquent analyses than the one I'll give here.

We don't know everything now. We don't understand all woes. We can't understand why all people act as they do. And that's frustrating.

But have charity towards them. Assume the best. And try not to respond in hostility and anger. I'm not particularly good at this. Many of us aren't. But that doesn't mean we should try our best. And the Savior will pick us up as we fail and falter along the way.

Visiting Graves - Help from the Other Side of the Veil

A few weeks ago, I passed through Elizabeth City, North Carolina with my grandparents. We made our annual visit to the graves of a few family members and talked about them, which is always a tender, yet bittersweet time.

This year, we made a change to our schedule. I've wanted for a while to go and visit some graves of my Riddick ancestors. Other than one of my dad's first cousins and her family, we've never been quite close to the Riddick side of the family. I didn't pay much mind to this until my grandpa's unexpected passing in 2013. Since then, I've made a point to try and discover more about that side of the family.

I knew that several of my ancestors, including my second great-grandparents and third great-grandfathers on the Riddick line, were buried at Corinth Baptist Church in Elizabeth City, and I wanted to go and pay my respects.

To my surprise, there was an actual Riddick family plot in the cemetery. 

Marker for the Riddick Family Plot

I was able to find my second great-grandparents in relatively short order. I sat and looked at these graves for a while, wondering what they were like. They both passed away before my grandfather was born, and he never had any stories to share about them. I don't even know what they looked like. Despite the fact that they lived decently well into the twentieth-century - we have no photographs of either of them. 

As a matter of fact, out of my great-grandfather's nine siblings, I've only ever been able to find a picture of one of them, Lillian (I'll come back to her in a moment). Hopefully my efforts in that area will bear fruit someday soon. 

Second-Great Grandparents, Mattie Lillian Riddick and Benjamin Elisha Riddick.

After some effort - the marker wasn't in the plot, but in an older section of the cemetery - I was able to find my third great-grandfather's grave. Elisha Riddick (spelled Redick on the stone). 

I sat down and had a talk with him for a few minutes. I thanked him for the research skills I'd gained while searching for records of his family. I promised that I'd do my best to continue working to discover things about the family, and said a prayer there asking for help in doing it (More on the many issues of investigating the Riddick line in later posts). 

The marker has been damaged and is in bad need of a cleaning. It reads:
ELISHA REDICK
Born March 30th, 1834.
Died June 19th 1899.
Age 65 Years
At Sleep In Jesus 

While leaving the cemetery, I felt prompted to return to the graves of my second great-grandparents. I took a look around and noticed a small marker at the corner of the family plot that I had missed before. 

It was the grave of an unnamed son of my great-great-aunt Lillian Riddick and her husband Richard Perry. Intrigued, I took a picture of the marker. While walking back to the car, I opened up the FamilySearch app on my phone, and checked her entry. There was no son wasn't listed there. As we drove away (I should make the point that I was a passenger doing this, and not driving), I started doing some work on Ancestry.com, and was able to find the child's death certificate fairly quickly.  

Infant son of Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Perry. Born & Died March 13, 1942.

Aunt Lillian and Uncle Bill would have only one more child, a daughter named Billie Maxine. Unfortunately, she fell off the back of a car as a young girl and hit her head. As a result, she was badly brain-damaged and bedridden for the rest of her life, passing away in 1965. 

Baby Boy Perry, as he was listed on the death certificate, was born prematurely on 13 March 1942. He died later the same day. Although he only lived a very short time, not even long enough to be named, they clearly cared for him a great deal.

After seeking permission and going through the proper channels on FamilySearch, I was able to get permission to have him sealed to his parents, which I will be doing very soon.

I know that I didn't encounter this grave by chance. Sometimes the veil is very thin, and members of our family are there to guide us to the information that we need so that their work can be done. Although my passion for genealogy has by no means flagged, I had become discouraged about ever finding out information for certain family lines. This experience has been a breath of fresh air for me, and I find myself filled with new purpose. 

To those reading. Never give up on your genealogy. Do your best to do all you can do. And prepare yourself to be able to follow promptings when they do come. Because they will come.

The Historian's Prayer: Thoughts from John Fea #1

The title of this post will make more sense by the end.

About a month ago, I read John Fea's Why Study History?, and a number of things - which I'll discuss more in future blog posts - impacted me. I'll try and do justice to two of them in this post.

Chapter Five - "Christian Resources for the Study of the Past" has a great deal of valuable counsel. What I want to make mention of is the section labelled "The Imago Dei." For some Latter-day Saints, this phrase may be unfamiliar. It is Latin for "the image of God."

Fea begins the section by reminding his readers that "historians are not in the business of studying God; they are in the business of studying humans."[1] As Christians, however, he reminds us that humanity was created in the image of God, citing Genesis 1:26-27 to that effect: 

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Emphasis mine)

He moves on from this scripture to issue his readers with - in my opinion - a stern reminder of what that verse should mean to historians as they practice their craft:

That God created us in his image, that we are the highest form of his creation, implies that all human beings have inherent dignity and worth independent of their actions and behavior. Because we are made in the likeness of our creator and thus share, in some fashion, the divine image, human life is precious and sacred. There are no villains in history. While people have been created with freedom, and are thus capable of performing villainous or sinful acts, even the most despicable human subject bears the image of God and thus has inherent value in God’s eyes.[2]

This knocked me back, and it shouldn't have. 

I know that. 

But in the heat of the moment, I too often forget it. 

...[T]he imago Dei should also inform the way a Christian does history. This doctrine should guide us in the kinds of stories we tell about the people whom we come across when visiting the “foreign country” that is the past. It should shape the way we teach the past, write about the past, and interpret the past.

We are under an obligation - a solemn one, in my opinion - to represent the past accurately. That applies to both the "heroes" and the "villains." And, as Fea said above, "There are no villains in history."

This is a daunting task; a complete unbiased history is impossible. But we should strive toward it. Present people - and they were people - in their entirety. 

Their shining moments. 

Their foibles and their ornerinesses. 

Where they succeeded and where they failed.

In these polarizing days, it's too easy to deify or demonize at a moment's glance. In Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 the Lord exhorts us to "[r]emember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." Then, a section later, the Lord reminds us that He "suffered these things for all" (emphasis mine). 

The Savior suffered for all whom we will ever study. 

We owe Him everything, and we certainly owe Him to not dishonor his sacrifice by a historical hatchet job on someone He suffered and died for. This doesn't mean we condone their deeds, far from it. Or, as the apostle Paul would say, "God forbid!"

Finding that balance? Ay, that's the rub! And it brings me to something Fea asks later in the book:

How often do we pray over our scholarly historical work? And I don’t mean a prayer for help in getting the paper done on time or a prayer that we keep our sanity amid the heavy workload. I mean a prayer that the Lord would use our study of the past in all its fullness to change us.[3]

Prayer to better our academic research? It may seem like a contradiction in terms to some, but I firmly believe that it's one of the best ways that we can better our research and writing.

Not a prayer to confirm our preconceived notions, but a prayer like Fea's above. That the Lord will use our study of the past to change us for the better.

I don't have anything to say beyond that. This is something I'm struggling to work out myself, and this blog post has been helpful in organizing my thoughts a bit. 

Fea does provide a lovely prayer though, from St. Thomas Aquinas, that he hangs above his desk. I enjoyed it, and I think I'll take to doing the same thing myself.

Thomas Aquinas, “A Prayer before Study” 

Ineffable Creator, 

Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, 

has established three hierarchies of angels, 

has arrayed them in marvelous order 

above the fiery heavens, 

and has marshaled the regions 

of the universe with such artful skill, 

You are proclaimed 

the true font of light and wisdom, 

and the primal origin raised high beyond all things. 

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness 

into the darkened places of my mind; 

disperse from my soul 

the twofold darkness

into which I was born: 

sin and ignorance. 

You make eloquent the tongues of infants. 

Refine my speech 

and pour forth upon my lips 

the goodness of Your blessing. 

Grant to me

keenness of mind, 

capacity to remember, 

skill in learning, 

subtlety to interpret, 

and eloquence in speech. 

May You

Guide the beginning of my work, 

direct its progress, 

and bring it to completion. 

You Who are true God and true Man, 

Who live and reign, world without end. 

Amen.[4]

Footnotes
[1] Fea, John. Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past (p. 85). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[2] Ibid., 85-86.
[3] Ibid., p. 134.
[4] Ibid., pp. 134-135.

The Crossroads of Our Being

I've thought about this statement often over the last year. The average citizen seems to know very little about the Civil War. Not surprising. History hasn't ever been a popular subject for the American student, unless it provides them a bit of trivia to look good at parties. And historical thinking seems to be a tad anathema.

Shelby Foote's words are just as appropriate now, as when he first uttered them.

"Any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that firmly. It defined us. The Revolution did what it did. Our involvement in European wars, beginning with the First World War, did what it did. But the Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things. And it is very necessary, if you're going to understand the American character in the twentieth century, to learn about this enormous catastrophe of the mid-nineteenth century. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads."[1]

Footnotes

[1] Shelby Foote, Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863, [the Modern Library of the World's Best Books] (New York: Modern Library, 1994), viii.