The Tale

Last night’s Ladies Meeting theme came from:

we spend our years as a tale that is told. (Psalms 90:9a KJV)

Everyone has a story. One of the more interesting ones I found doing genealogy is that of Blanche Blick, from a side of my husband’s family who shortened the name long before others thought of doing so. Blanche was born in 1862 in Iowa, but spent her life traveling the world, from Capetown, South Africa to the gold fields of Klondike, she followed her husband, Frederick R. Burnham. From a Wikipedia article, we know several people who told the tales of adventure based on his experiences.

Quoting some of an article from Miners News "The Arizona Miner and Indiana Jones", Wikipedia states:

"Rider Haggard's fictional Allan Quatermain character was heavily influenced by his close friendship Burnham. Quatermain and Burnham were both small and wiry Victorian adventurers in colonial Africa, both sought and discovered ancient treasures and civilizations, both battled large wild animals and native peoples, both were renowned for their ability to track, even at night, and both men had strikingly similar nicknames: Quatermain, "Watcher-by-Night"; Burnham, "He-who-sees-in-the-dark". But Burnham’s influence on fictional adventurers wasn’t to end there. In the 1970s, a young movie director, George Lucas, decided to write the ultimate adventure film. The template for his hero, Indiana Jones, was the hero of the H. Rider Haggard books, Allan Quatermain."

Do any of us expect that from our life story? A clear, resounding “No!” can be heard.

Last night the question was asked, what do you tell your grandchildren about your mother? What will your children tell their grandchildren about you? How does that balance against what you want them to tell?

What are the things in your life that you want to be passed down to following generations? Have you told your children they are important to you?

For me, the most important thing is what I’ve learned from the Bible. In many instances, it is a case of “Do as I say, not as I do” for I’ve failed to achieve so many of the goals laid out for us in His word.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48 KJV)

Blew that one early on – with decades behind me and fewer years ahead to continue trying.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:4 KJV)

There’s that perfection thing again, with patience thrown in!! What is one to do? David wrote of Him:

Be still, and know that I am God: (Psalms 46:10a KJV)

Christ taught us how to speak to God:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV)

These things I would have my children tell their grandchildren of me.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17 KJV)

Major Frederick Russell Burnham DSO 1904 (Wiki Commons)