Camp Paron Blog 5 Ways to Nurture Your Family Tree

In the beginning, God created the tree. The family tree.Look in the Bible, and you'll see it didn't take long for God to proclaim His desire for the family unit. Immediately after creating man and woman in His own image, God commanded them to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth..." (Genesis 1:28a ESV). And a few chapters later, Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, becoming the first nuclear family.Families were important to God. They still are...even in their non-nuclear forms, made up today of a mom and dad, single moms, half-siblings, full siblings, adopted children, step-children, etc.God wants us to nurture and cultivate our family trees, and to cherish and love all the members hanging from each limb. He wants us to make time for one another, and to love one another in the same way He loved us.But, of course, it's not always easy because people aren't always easy. To build a strong family tree, it takes work and effort. And to create lasting memories, it takes planning. Here are five ways to make your next family get-together the most memorable it can be as you strive to nurture your family tree:1. Share Old PhotosAsk each family to bring old photos of their own family and from previous generations. Then, delegate someone to scan all the images-either at the reunion or shortly thereafter-and burn DVDs for each family to keep. You'll find yourself laughing and crying about memories you forgot about or never even knew existed. 2. Take New PhotosEach time you meet, be sure someone snaps new photos of the entire clan. You may also consider hiring a photographer or asking a family friend to take pictures at the next reunion so that everyone gets in the pictures. And be purposeful about capturing specific members of your family. Take photos of the youngest with the oldest, all the cousins together, just the women, etc. And afterwards, make sure that each family member receives digital copies of each image to keep. 3. Sketch Your Family TreeBring a laptop or a large piece of paper and layout your own family tree. To make it easy, start by listing out the family members alive today and work backwards, as far as everyone can remember. You might also consider asking some family members to do some research ahead of time. And here again, make sure everyone receives a copy of the finished family tree.4. Record Your Tall TalesEvery family has those stories passed down from one generation to the next, embellished a little more with each telling. And every family has that one person who loves to be the family storyteller. Set up a video recorder at your next get-together and capture each legendary tale so that they can go forward to future generations.5. Visit Key Family LandmarksInstead of meeting at the local park shelter for your next reunion, visit a site that means something to your family. Maybe it's a church where grandparents married or a farmhouse someone owned or a factory that employed several generations. Let your family members-young and old-experience firsthand a piece of their own family history.