On December 7th, 1941, my grandfathers were eleven and sixteen years old, respectively.

They both remembered the live reports of Japan’s attack and President Roosevelt’s address to Congress and the nation.

FDR began his address:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Nearly 2400 US soldiers, sailors, and marines, along with 68 civilians, were killed defending their country at Pearl Harbor, and over 400,000 Americans would eventually give their lives in the ensuing world war. Over 16 million Americans would serve. It remains one of the most influential world events, affecting the lives of almost every person living today.

To me, growing up, it was all a large event I heard about from the people who were there. A “grandfather tale” told in first person.

One of my grandfathers went to war just a year after Pearl Harbor, at the age of seventeen. The image of him wielding a tommy gun and wearing green fatigues and an M1 helmet is seared into my memory. Growing up, I was blessed to spend time with him and his experiences became important to me. I didn’t really recognize it, but I was connected to them somewhat naturally.

Until we understand how God has worked in history through the decisions and actions of past generations, we will never be equipped to make good decisions in our own lives.

Most people aren’t given this kind of historical connection. It’s often difficult to relate to people and events we did not experience, and especially for children.

Yet it’s hard to overstate the importance of knowing and connecting with at least the key points of our history.

Until we understand how God has worked in history through the decisions and actions of past generations, we will never be equipped to make good decisions in our own lives.

To my children, most of whom are school-aged, World War II is ancient history. Their knowledge of Pearl Harbor is the same as the rest of history — all third-hand accounts taught by people who were not there. And that can be pretty boring.

So how do we get our kids’ attention and hold it long enough to give them a love of history? It starts by giving them the connection they need. Become a person they want to hang out with, at least for short periods (it can be difficult, I know!).

Then spend some of that time telling them the amazing stories of what people did in the past. It’s not about dates and names. It’s about stories. And who doesn’t love a good story?

How do we get our kids’ attention and hold it long enough to give them a love of history? It starts by giving them the connection they need.

In our household, we strive to learn that history is driven by a series of decisions, some made by important people and many made by very ordinary people…people like us. Though many lived long ago in different times and places, all of these decisions have changed the way we live, down to this moment. In this context it’s a little easier to relate to the people who made these decisions even though they are no longer living. And we recognize that, much of the time, they did not know their decisions would be historically significant when they made them.

This is especially easy to see in the tales told by our grandfathers. If we are blessed with that relationship, we can imagine the situations and places they were in and the choices they made which impact our lives. The chain of events from their time to ours is forged, and we begin to see that chain is unbroken from history, through them, to this very day. And we realize, even when we don’t know it at the time, that our decisions may be part of that chain as we advance into the future one second at a time. 

This gives tremendous context to our lives. We begin to recognize that “history,” even the stuff that happened several generations ago, isn’t so very far off. Those people were not so very different from us.

So whether or not your grandfather told you the tales of his generation, you can bridge the gap and make history come alive for your children. Tell them the stories, focus on the interesting stuff, make it relatable.

Doing this is, quite literally, a huge part of your legacy.

Whether or not your grandfather told you the tales of his generation, you can bridge the gap and make history come alive for your children. Tell them the stories, focus on the interesting stuff, make it relatable.

Doing this is, quite literally, a huge part of your legacy.

Here’s an example.

The 75th anniversary of the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg was observed in 1938, just a few years before the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor.

Thousands of Civil War veterans, all advanced in age, gathered to sit ‘round the campfire and march the battlefield again. These men who had killed one another’s comrades in some of the bloodiest days in US history now embraced each other across the battle line. They were now all comrades in one great shared experience. This should give you goosebumps.

There to witness and help officiate the incredible events of the Gettysburg 75th were Boy Scouts who were roughly the same age as my grandfathers.

Yes, the young men who just three years later would begin leaving to fight World War II sat and listened to their grandfathers and great-grandfathers tell them of fighting in the Civil War.

This alone should give you goosebumps again. But it gets better.

If you go back another 75 years, you will be right in the midst of the Civil War. It’s 1863, and the boys and girls who were our grandparents' grandparents are hearing stories from THEIR grandfathers and great-grandfathers, telling them of fighting in the American Revolution!

This means America’s Founding is just three “grandfather tales” away from our children.

To our children, this can feel like ancient history from the dim past. But in reality, our grandfathers received firsthand accounts of the Civil war, and the people who gave those accounts received firsthand accounts of the Founding. 

This should blow your mind. And if you get excited about it and communicate that excitement (just tell the story!), your children will get excited as well.

Do you want to preserve our nation? Do you want to see the America you know and love last for generations to come?

Then show your children just how connected they are to its history, and how they are making the next chapter in that history right now.

All of American history, and even a large part of earth history before that, is incredibly close to our own experience. It is all one unbroken stream to this very day.

So if our children think history is boring, it’s probably because we’ve failed to connect the dots for them.

It is not an unending list of dry facts and figures. It’s the story of people, very much like us, inextricably connected to us, who made us what we are today.

Do you want to preserve our nation? Do you want to see the America you know and love last for generations to come?

Then show your children just how connected they are to its history, and how they are making the next chapter in that history right now.

And communicate just how valuable human action, in God’s providence, can be.

Times were VERY hard during the Revolution, during the Civil War and during WWII. In many ways, much more difficult than they are today, even though we all face struggles that sometimes seem overwhelming.

We got through the difficult times, and are living in America today, right now, because people - sometimes kids and often people not past highschool age - made tough decisions and followed through on them.

And God, in His providence, brings all those decisions together and they become the very context of our lives.

It’s inspiring! And it’s all at your fingertips.

Tell your children the story of Pearl Harbor today!

The number of killed has been corrected in this article.  It was incorrectly listed as 1177, the number of USS Arizona casualties.