"It's Family history, Mom!"

I need to quote my youngest daughter today. I learn so much from her.

I was struggling to sew a Mermaid outfit for the doll today. The fabric was beautifully shiny and silky and that made it slippery and it kept bunching under the sewing machine needle. The fabric was hard to trace onto, cut out and sew together. I was frustrated and said out loud that I just couldn't do it. The tutorial we saw was done on felt fabric and it looked so easy.
Elizabeth said,"I can do it! It's like our family history mom! Remember, I'm related to that ancestor (Her 4th great grandfather, Pardon Webb) who made a couple (5!) wagons for that famous guy (Brigham Young!). I think I can sew something easy like a mermaid tail for a doll. Actually, if I were a pioneer today I would have the best sewn clothes. I can do hard things, Mom. Let me try. Let's wrap the fabric around and measure again." 
I love the confidence she gets from knowing her family history! Her strength and power from knowing her ancestors were great and amazing people. I love how she is proud of who she is.

Just two weeks ago we had Stake Conference and our visiting General Authority, Elder Bradley D. Foster, explained this very thing! He shared a question from a survey that asked something like
Which gave children the most confidence and power when they struggled.?
A. Eating breakfast together as a family each morning. (Tom nudged me, we know this is important!)
B. Knowing their stories from family history.
C. Engaging in weekly regular religious activities
D. Another great thing we should do
The answer was B. Knowing their family history stories, they understand a bigger picture of who they are and who their family is! I love it! And here today Elizabeth proved it right.

We don't have to have church history in our backgrounds to be proud of who we are. We just have to know our stories. I grew up with a great story that my parents had 6 kids in our family. It always amazed people when I told them and to even add in that I was a twin. Yes, a special sister came with me from heaven at the same time on the same day. It was pretty cool and I was proud of it.
Today our story continues.
Elizabeth and I used a softer fabric and we were able to complete the outfit pretty quick. She was so happy with it. It was finished! Her confidence helped me continue and with the softer fabric it was easy, a lot easier than building wagons and packing up and trekking west to a new home.
A few minutes later she saw out our front window that some kids were knocking down our snowmen. She cried and was so sad. I reminded her, "Hey, it's like family history! Remember, our ancestors had their cherry tree cut down in their yard because they got baptized. They had to leave their homes and come across the sea to a new place to live. This happened to them too and they kept on singing and being nice." She felt better and she thanked me but really I was the one so thankful for her. She is always teaching me like that.