Our Only Requirement….

I had an amazing moment this morning, I opened up my homework to start ahead of the week, and started reading. I have felt like I was living under a large gray cloud, between God and myself. I just didn’t feel like I was filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

I started reading, and you know with all these responsibilities and requirements of things we have to get done, the stresses of trying to get through each problem of the day. You know life.

I realized, that God does not require us to solve the world’s problems,

 ~~~~~~~~HE requires only that you give yourself 100 per cent to God, and love him more than anything or anyone else.~~~~~~

That means you put HIM above anything, every person, every burden, every stressor etc TRUSTING him to finish the end result.

He is so amazing, He requires that We just make the commitment to love Him and Put HIM First. Repentance gives you the reset button to be able to do that.

Once you have Hit the reset button, (repent) it’s all Good… you are only responsible to do what HE requires of you.

The proof of our love for him will show up when we are obedient to His Commandments.

The second part of this, remembering and compliance to HIS Words. He is so awesome, he even gives us help right then and there, with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to remember what HIS Words are.  (John 14;26) cause He knows we wont remember all of what His Words are in the time that we will need them, so He is there.

So hoping I have not rambled, I (we) have been given another shot to get it right, another day, another blessing, to DO in your day WHAT REALLY MATTERS…..

NOT, the problems of work, bills to be paid, what clothes the kids will wear to school, distractions, distractions etc.

But people, did I take this day to teach Alexis and Elijah and others when given the right opportunity How to pull to God so they can have the same thing that I am describing, so that they know what His Truths are, so they don’t get snagged up in the devil, or temptation, when they are alone in a stressful situation and don’t know where or who to get help from,

Real life stuff……..

This has been an eye opening for me… and a renewed sense of what we are truly here for. I love you.

Its been amazing to me as I study these “textbooks” that its not how I apply them to pass the test at liberty, but how I pass the test of life!

Getting To Know Your Family

Call me a genealogy nerd, but research to me is so much more complex than just a simple vital search on an ancestor. Far beyond the birth, marriage, and death dates remains a person, a family member, that once lived a few years back. This person held the key to so much of your families being; genes, characteristics, personality, traits, and so much more that just your DNA. With them, a host of answer’s to the questions that you have today, both good and bad. Why do I look the way I do? What family gene’s do I have that could cause life debilitating diseases? Where did my temperament come from? What doors has this person opened for my family? All these simple questions, and so much more!

When I first started my research on my paternal side, I was looking for names and dates of great grandparents, and their surrounding family. I was literally shocked to realize how far I was able to trace back my lineage, and even more surprised as to the locations in which my family had arrived from. I never thought in a million years, that I would discover and find so many answers to the questions about my paternal side. From the smallest question as to Where did I get these ears from?  There were much more significant answers that I received, such as, Why did my paternal side of the male family drink so much? I even received an answer to a surprising question, as to why am I slowly losing some of my hearing now? Well, come to find out, my paternal side had known Hearing defects in our generations past. A few family members even opened up world renowned Schools for the Hearing Impaired.

Researching my family members has created a sense of loyalty, and established in some sense a relationship or connection with them. There have been surprises, interesting facts, and disappointments along the way. I have discovered that sometimes you create a person in the image that you expect them to be, and often times, with further research back, you discover facts about them that can be somewhat disappointing. For example, while doing research I discovered that my great, great, great grandparents were married a very long time, and had many children together. I discovered that although they were together, the ggg grandfather also had a whole separate family in the same town! The perception that I had created in my mind, was not based on the genealogical facts that I discovered.

To take my research to another level, I like to analyze the socio-economics of the area that they lived in. What was the time frame in regards to world historical events? Was there something sufficient going on that would effect their standards of living? The  Depression era, disease epidemics, local and federal politics? All surrounding facts that could help create the culture of that particular time.

One last thing, take the time to study and analyze the vital records of your ancestor. You will be able to determine a lot about the person they were by studying birth, marriage, and especially death certificates. Census records hold so many unknown facts about the family as a whole: location of where they lived, their profession, education, social status, people they associated with and so much more!

I encourage you to get to know your family members better, research with open eyes, an open heart, and you will be surprised at all the interesting facts that you discover.

Alexis Medical Explorers Camp

I feel differently now……

You know God has a way of really working out things if you take a minute to put it all in perspective, and really listen to what He is saying to you. It is amazing that we all live in this fast-paced, evil, world that the enemy is very good at keeping us so  busy, distracted, and preoccupied with things that we don’t see the big picture! In a material world, where money, greed, and the constant reach for more, more, more….. I have wondered, do we really even know what we are reaching for? Does time go by so fast and we are in such a rush, that when we do take the time to slow down, we don’t even remember what we were reaching for to begin with?

We look around the people we love are aging, the new material things we purchased are old, our children are no longer babies, yesterday is the past, and today is a rush for things we are hoping will happen tomorrow. We surround ourselves with people we have no close relationships with, often due to a career, or an opportunity that we think we may have, while the people we love are often waiting for the opportunity to spend the precious time with us that we so busily push away.

I learned a powerful lesson today, our Bishop was talking about a person’s significance. The questions that we spend a lifetime asking ourselves, do I matter? What am I here for? We develop such a longing for a positive answer that we will often seek it anywhere, from anyone…… The answer to that is yes, we matter to God first, We are significant to him, and the happiness to life is knowing and stopping here in our search for the answer to our “significance” issues.

Yes, we matter to the family and friends that we have relationships with. The problem starts when we forget that even those that are close to us love us, we are dealing with people with just as much issue with their  own insignificance  issues, as well as their own imperfections.  We often make the mistake in building and relying on others to show to us that we are important and matter, and when they fail to do that, we begin to internalize that how they make us feel, must be true. Until we realize, that we are are internalizing unhealthy thoughts that should not have even been materialized as our feelings, can we begin to realize the true source of our strength, is only found in God.

Sometimes, I have to look around and realize that it is not the responsibility of another person to provide  your own self-worth, and when you can put all this in to perspective, you can get back to the importance that God has placed in your life, by having relationships with other people. This is the distraction that the enemy creates, confusion, to who and what roles people should play in our lives, and what part we will play in theirs.  The problem is created when the value of the relationship, or the role in which it will play in our lives becomes twisted,  and the desire to please them is more than it is to please God. We must realize that the people in our lives, and the relationships we have with them is a gift from God and it should not be a source of pain in our lives. Take the time today to thank God for His love for you, and the people that he has placed in your life, while they are here. There is always a time and season for that relationship, treasure it, and treasure Him.

The Bowling Name in History (Facts about our name.)

Facts, Facts, and more Facts.

1840- 110 Bowling families with most living in Kentucky.

97 Bowling land patents, were issued from the federal government between 1832 and 1904.

Civil War 1861-1865: 163 Bowling Union Solders and 358 Confederate Soldiers.

1880- Top Bowling US Occupations: keeping house, farmer, laborer, at home, farm laborer.

1881 England: Most Bowling residents lived in Lancashire and Yorkshire counties

1900: 1,700 Bowling Families with most living in Kentucky and an average household size of 5.34

World War I: 1914-1918, 1565 Bowling draft registrants, with most registering from Kentucky

1920: 1,844 Bowling household of which 44% owned a home, 70% of the individuals were literate.

World War II: 1939-1945, 895 Bowling soldiers jointed the US Army.

Today: Most Bowling families live in Kentucky and Ohio.

From 1821 to 1948 most Bowling immigrants to the US came from England, Ireland, and Canada.

Most Bowling Veterans are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Most Bowling Immigrants to the US arrived in 1945. 

The Queen Mary is the most common ship that Bowling Immigrants sailed on.

The largest port that Bowling’s left from was located in Liverpool, England with 141 total.

Life Expectancy and Causes of Death

Most common causes of Bowling deaths from 1850 to 1880: Consumption 15.8%, Meningitis 7.9%, Croup 5.3%, Measles 5.3%. In 1900 the life expectancy for white males 46.6, white females 48.7.

All Facts taken from the Bowling Name in History by Ancestry.

Just Plain Fun…..