Does Your Journal Sit Unused In A Drawer?

By Alan on Dec 25 in Blog tagged Family History, first Christmas, George and Olive Osmond, journals, record keeping, The Family | 1 Comment

Does your journal sit unused in a drawer?

We are a journal-writing family, and it seemed a shame not to use them in a productive way. So every Monday evening, one of our goals is to read from a family member’s journal. When each of our children was born, we started baby journals, recording our thoughts and aspirations for them. When they were old enough to participate, they kept their own journals. With everyone’s contributions over the years, we have a lot of journal entries to choose from. Each week we share excerpts from a different family member’s journal. Sometimes we share recent entries; others are from years past. We are always careful to not share sensitive information. Each family member may choose what to share.

If your family hasn’t kept journals, you might see if other relatives, such as grandparents, will let you read selections from theirs. Hopefully you can encourage your family to begin keeping journals. Our children enjoy hearing about the funny things they said when they were younger and the lessons they have learned along the way. Writing in our journals is a much anticipated activity in our family. We know we’re not just writing for our future posterity. We are recording our thoughts and life experiences to benefit our family now.

My parents, George Virl Osmond Sr. and Olive May Davis Osmond were married on December 1, 1944.  This is a note from Olive’s journal about their first Christmas.

GEORGE WROTE ON DRESSER SCARF

“I had a lace-trimmed beige dresser scarf on the dresser and one morning I noticed George had written on it with a pencil, “I love you, honey!”  I immediately embroidered it with red floss.

For our first Christmas we bought a small little tree and made the decorations ourselves.  Because of the war there were no electric lights available.  For trimming, we cut cellophane strips, twisted them in the middle to make bows, crushed some old broken ornaments to make our own “glitter” and glued it to each end of the bows.  The tree was really cute and we had fun being creative – - and practical.”

Olive Davis Osmond

(From the journal of my Mother, Olive Davis Osmond)

As we start out another new year, lets make a new year’s resolution to write our feelings and experiences in a journal so that we have a history of where we have been and where we wish to go.  Your grandkids will love you for it!

Learn more about our Family History Here!

“The Bible is a history of families.  The history of Israel begins with the family of Abraham. He is highly esteemed of the Lord as a father and teaches his children properly.” Gen. 18: 17-19

Alan Osmond
Strengthening The Family