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Number 2: A Letter to the Grandkids On Baptism

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on January 3, 2014| 15 Comments »

kellansbaptismDear Grandkids,

Mimi and I really love you guys! I think you know that!  For the last thirteen years (since Cassie was born), we have watched you grow out of your diapers, learn to walk, to talk, to sing and play. We’ve watched you lose teeth, get braces, be in musicals, play sports—so many great times together! And don’t forget Grandkids Camp!!

Now some of you are old enough to make your decision to be a disciple of Jesus—to be a Christian.  Just last Sunday, two of you boys were baptized—and that followed a happy Wednesday when one of you girls was baptized!

It’s not the right time yet for all of you. Some are still thinking and some are too young to even know what baptism is about.

Grandad would just like to write this letter to all of you, those baptized already and those who will be.  These are just a few things I really want you to know about your baptism that I’ve been thinking about.

First, never forget your baptism. Some people forget they were baptized and act like they weren’t. It doesn’t make any sense—like playing in the mud, then taking a bath and getting all clean, then putting on your muddy clothes again!  Jesus’ disciple Peter wrote that it is like—this is really gross—a dog that eats its own . . . vomit (2Peter 2:22). Don’t forget how great it is to be clean!

Second, don’t worry about what you don’t know. Some people might think you are too young to be a disciple of Jesus. They might think you have to know more about God.  Don’t worry about them. People in Jesus’ day didn’t understand either how much Jesus loved children.

But what’s even stranger is that in 5-10 years when you are older, you yourself will start to think, “I was so young; I really didn’t know very much about Jesus or about how to be a disciple. Maybe I was too young and did not know enough to become a disciple! Maybe I should be baptized again.”

Let me tell you something you won’t know for 50 years! When you are a Grandad or a Mimi, you will look back and think, “I really haven’t ever known much about God” because we always continue to learn and grow and figure things out until the day we die.  God and Jesus are so awesome that no one can learn everything about them, even if they studied every day of their whole life.

So it is not really about what you know, nor is it about how much you feel love and devotion towards Jesus—because both knowledge and love should continue to grow in you every day of your life.  Your baptism marks the beginning—a wonderful beginning!

Third, remember Who did what!  Yes, you learned about Jesus and you decided to be baptized, BUT, this isn’t what makes you a Christian.  It’s a good thing you did to be baptized, but if God had not loved you first and sent Jesus to die for you, you would have gotten all wet for nothing!  Your baptism is a happy day for you! It feels like your birthday and everybody is happy for you!  That’s why it is easy to forget that God, not you, is the One doing the most important thing—something you could never do! He is washing away your sins, giving you the BEST GIFT, and adopting you into His Family—forever!

Fourth, don’t forget the Gift you received. When I was a young boy, the preachers would talk about the Holy GHOST, and that sounded spooky. Now we say the Holy Spirit.  I didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit when I was baptized.  In fact, I’m still learning a lot, but I’ve never forgotten that when I was baptized, God promised to give me a special gift, something that is His. He gave me—and He gives you—his very own Spirit—which is VERY holy—to live in you.  I don’t know how He does this—but I know it’s true!

It is His Spirit in us who helps us pray and who makes us grow. The results (fruit) of the Holy Spirit that God gives you when you are baptized are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.  You can have this beautiful fruit basket in your life because God’s Holy Spirit is His special gift to you at your baptism.

Fifth, don’t forget your Family. When you were baptized, God did some math on you! Yep, he “added” you.  The Bible says he “adds” everyone who is baptized to His family. On earth, this family we call the church. You may get the impression that people just join churches that they like, but that’s not really true with God’s church.  You can’t join God’s church without God’s writing your name down in His book.  This is what He does when He washes away your sins and He gives you His Spirit. Your name goes right into His family Book along with everyone else whom He adds to His family.

So don’t ever get the idea that Church is not that important! If it were not important, would He add you to it, would He give His life for it?  God’s family—and that is you when you are baptized and He writes your name down and adds you to all the other children of God, all of Jesus’ brothers and sisters–is very important!

Sixth, don’t stop talking about what God has done for you. When Mimi and I got home from our trip last week, the first thing you told us was that you were going to be baptized! I heard that some of you told your teachers at school and your friends as well. Of course you did! It’s such a happy time!

And when you were standing in the water, just before your baptism, I heard you say in front of lots and lots of people, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”   You’ve already started talking about Jesus! Don’t ever stop!

Last, remember that your baptism is a death, a burial, and a resurrection. Jesus died for you because He loved you. When you are baptized, you choose to let the part of you die that wants to be selfish and just do whatever you want to do. You let that part die.

Then someone buries you in the water just like Jesus was buried. If you had been left under the water, it would have been bad just like if Jesus had been left buried, it would have been bad for us.

When you come up out of the water, it is like the moment when Jesus came out of his grave! Wow! He was alive again! He was never going to die again. The same is true for you! It’s like being born again as a new person, one that will live forever with God.

The Very Last Thing: As you grow older, you’ll start shaving and then you’ll need glasses someday, and then a long time from now your hair turns gray and you might even be a Mimi or Grandad yourself.  Don’t ever forget your baptism—and don’t ever stop telling people what God did for you on that very special day!

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Tips For Taking Grandkids On Mission Trips

Posted in Christian Missions, Family and Marriage, Raising Children To Have A Heart For Missions, Traveling Thoughts, tagged , , , , on December 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

20131122_174550I wrote last week about the wonderful experience we had with our granddaughter Anna the last week we were in Europe for LST. Again, taking your grandkids with you when you do mission work is truly a formative memory for them. You can leave them no greater legacy than to show them what faithfully doing God’s work can be.

But there are some tips I can give you for making your trip more rewarding for both you and your grandchildren.  Let me just say that Sherrylee and I took our three children with us every summer of their lives until they were college-aged, we have sent many other families with children through LST, and now we have begun taking grandkids with us, so we have lots of experience to share with you.

Tip #1            –           Make sure they are old enough.  If they are your own children, you can take them at every age, but for grandkids, they need to be able to function for an extended time away from their parents. In my experience, 11 or 12-years-old is about as early as you want to start. In fact you have a window between 11 and 14 when it is probably ideal.

  • They may need to be old enough to fly by themselves.  Our two granddaughters both flew individually as unaccompanied minors across the Atlantic by themselves. Of course, a flight attendant always escorts them on and off the plane, but they still had to negotiate the nine-hour flight on their own.
  • At this age, they should be able to entertain themselves (reading, listening to music, video games, etc) when you are busy, but they can also visit with and relate to adults—especially at meals.
  • They also are old enough to try new foods—more or less—and when they don’t like what is served, they don’t make a big fuss, but wait until later to catch up.
  • They are old enough to understand and manage their own jetlag.
  • They are old enough to want to make their own memories, by taking pictures, keeping a journal, or collecting postcards.
  • They are old enough to carry their own luggage and keep up with their own things. (If you teach them to travel light, this shouldn’t be a problem.)

Tip #2            –           Make your plans early enough

  • Their Mom and Dad need to be fully on board with the plans, of course.
  • Determine early on who is going to pay for what.  With ours, the parents paid for the flights and the extra site-seeing costs. We provided ground transportation, lodging, and most meals. Since the kids slept in the room with us, that was rarely an extra expense. Since we almost always rent a car and drive ourselves, that too was no extra expense.  And until they are teens, they really don’t eat that much either.

Tip #3            –           Make sure everybody knows and understands that it is a mission trip             and that the work comes first! 

  • For our gkids, that means that they travel on our itinerary to places we must go and they see the people that we need to see. Our time with them is not built around showing them Europe.

Tip #4 –          Of course you try to squeeze into the schedule something especially                           interesting for the gkids.

  • For our first foray with a grandkid, we spent an hour in Ghent, walking the pedestrian zone before our meeting with the missionaries. Then we stopped at the Heidelberg castle for a walk on the grounds, not even a tour, on our way to the airport in Frankfurt the day before we flew back. The next year with her we planned one day out of eight for an outing in Paris.
  • This year we planned one day out of nine for sightseeing, so we drove to Amsterdam and saw Anne Frank’s house and museum and then went to Zaanse Schans (about 30 minutes further down the road) to a chocolate museum and an open air dutch village full of working windmills. The one other touristy thing we did with her was the Night watchman tour one afternoon in Rothenburg, where we were attending the Euro-American conference for three days.
  • You can sometimes get free layovers in London or other great sight-seeing places either going or coming home. We did that this year, which gave us half a day and an evening in London. We just saw the London Tower and Phantom—but she loved it.
  • Of course these were all fun and special for them, but I hope you can see that we made a balanced effort to do something special for the kids, while not really taking anything away from the work we were there to do.

Tip #5 –          Don’t be afraid to go one on one with your grandkid!

  • We are tempted sometimes to take two at a time, or to let them invite a friend—but I’d suggest you resist that and just take one!  Each one will have their own story then, and you will know that you have made an impact on that one child’s life.  If they are alone with you, then your experiences together will be yours. If they have another friend with them, you will lose many of those special moments you might have had.

Tip #6 –        Give them something meaningful to do!

  • Regardless of the kind of mission trip you are doing, find something meaningful that your grandchild can do. On LST projects, they often read the Gospel with other children. Or they entertain smaller children while the parents read. On our trip this year, we attended a missions conference, so Anna not only participated in the youth program, but she helped work with the younger children.  Meaningful is the key word here.  Even children know when they are just being given busy work or when they are just accessories.

Tip #7 –          Help them remember!

  • With our oldest grandchild, we talked a lot of history as we drove. We told her all about the Reformation and World War II.  Since we’ve returned, we’ve “reminded” her of some of those conversations, even occasionally giving her a little something to remind her of something we talked about.  Just keeping memories alive.
  • With our next grandchild that we took this year, our experience was completely different in that while we drove around, we played “Who Came First” with Bible characters, and we sang and sang and sang.  I’m thinking about making her a Playlist of “Songs We Sang in Germany” or something like that to help her remember.
  • In addition, for both of them, we have given them a photobook with our pictures of them and their activities with us—all the good times!  I’m pretty convinced that most of our childhood memories are directly from pictures that we have seen over and over again.  These photobooks are a very inexpensive way of capturing those memories and giving them to our grandkids in a more permanent and accessible medium than anything digital.

Just do it!  If you put God first, and just enjoy the grandkids, it will be a great experience for both of you!

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Take Your Grandkids With You On Mission Trips!

Posted in Christian Missions, Family and Marriage, Traveling Thoughts, tagged , , , , , on December 4, 2013| 2 Comments »

20131124_155115Sherrylee and I have just finished spending most of the month of November in Europe, visiting mission sites and talking to some of the most committed Christian people in the world about how to accomplish more for His Kingdom and how to talk to more people about Jesus.

I was able to stop and write a couple of posts during this trip (“Writing An Alternate Religious History for Spain” and “Cathedrals or Storefronts—Does It Matter In Europe?”), but for the most part, we were moving too quickly and too often to generalize our thinking into blog writing.  I apologize for that, but sometimes it is more important to do the work than to write about it.  I know you will understand.

So you don’t know, for instance, that our 11-year-old granddaughter Anna joined us for the last nine days of our trip in Europe. She flew all the way from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, changing planes at DFW by herself! What a girl!

For almost a year now, she has known that it was her turn!  Sherrylee and I have made a commitment to take one of our grandkids with us each year as they become old enough to travel with us.  Three years ago, we took our oldest grandchild Cassidy (also 11 at the time) and then took her again the next year when she was 12.  Kellan would have been the next because he is three weeks older than Anna, but his parents were already taking him to Germany, so he will be invited next year.

But this is not a “let-us-show-you-Europe” trip, oh no!  This is a Mimi and Grandad’s mission trip and the grandkids are invited to join us in the work we are doing. We tell them from the very beginning that we are visiting with missionaries and attending mission conferences; we are not going to Disneyworld in Paris.

On Tuesday morning at 8:30 am, we met Anna at the Frankfurt airport. The airlines are excellent about handling unaccompanied minors, so she was really never unattended during her 24 hours of travel!  The kids just have to be brave enough and independent enough to handle the emotional distance from their parents, not the physical distance.  And Anna was great!

By noon, we were in the car driving to the Netherlands to visit our friends Hans and Ans van Erp, who were the family who invited LST first to Eindhoven in 1987 to help them plant a new church there.  This church is now one of the strongest churches of Christ in Europe.

Anna was especially eager to meet Hans and Ans (yes, we all love it that their names rhyme!). She reportedly told her sister before she left, “I’m going to meet Hans and Ans van Erp. They knew Mommy when she was my age and now they are going to get to know me too! 

Within the first four days that she was with us, we had visited with the van Erps, then the Reinhardts in Wunstorf, Germany, as well as the Roehrkasses, Bratchers, and Smelsors in Hildesheim, Germany.  All of these visits involved long conversations about their local works and how LST was working or could work together with them.  Anna was there for all the conversations—of course.

On Saturday after her arrival, we drove five hours to Rothenburg ob der Taube, Germany, for the Euro-American Retreat.  This was the 50th anniversary of this retreat, which this year brought 230 people from all over Europe together for worship, prayer, Bible study, and lots of fellowship.

We were there a little early because I was speaking at the opening service. There was a children’s program, but Mimi went and got Anna because she wanted her to hear Grandad “preach.”  Well, it’s just one more little memory that may be meaningful to her in her own Christian life, knowing that she is from a family of preachers and teachers! I was glad she was there.

Over the next three days, Anna participated in worship, was part of the children’s classes, hung out with a few of the younger teens who were so kind to include the almost-teens, and she helped the small children prepare for their program on Tuesday night in front of the whole assembly.

Does that sound like a European vacation to you?  Does that sound like your grandkids dream trip?  Well, it could be if they know how much being with other Christians and encouraging them means to you!!

Of course, we planned some tourist things for Anna.  Of course!  We took one day and went to Anne Frank’s house and museum in Amsterdam, then drove a few minutes over to Zaanse Schans and toured a chocolate factory and working windmills.  It was a cold, blustery northern European November day, but she loved it.

And to cap off her experience, we planned a London layover on the way home, which gave us half a day there.  We drove by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, but got to tour the Tower of London.  The real treat for her was attending a performance of Phantom of the Opera because Anna herself is very musically gifted.

Take your grandkids with you when you plan your next mission trip!! Sure, you have to make a few adjustments, but you will plant seeds in them that may change them forever. If you haven’t read Cassidy’s recent post about her view of missions, you should stop and read that now!

If we left no other legacy than to have given our children——a vision of what they can do with their lives for God in gratitude for what He has done for them, that would be so much more of an inheritance than anything else we could leave behind.

Take your grandchildren with you when you do His work!  Don’t make it all about them; make it about Him!  Let them see what your greatest love is!

That’s the motivational part of this post.  Next, I’ll come back and share some tips with you on how to take your grandkids on a mission trip with you successfully.

It’s good to talk again!

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What About the Third Generation?

Posted in Other, tagged , , , on May 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

After visiting Oxford, MS three weeks ago, I began reading William Faulkner again, specifically the Snopes trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion). One of Faulkner’s recurrent themes is the legacy that one generation leaves to the next, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by a passage in The Town describing the Snopes, a pretty low-life clan that is gradually inserting itself into the well-bred society of post-Civil War Mississippi:

And then suppose, just suppose; suppose and tremble: one generation more removed from Eck Snopes and his innocence; one generation more until that innocent and outrageous belief that courage and honor are practical has had time to fade and cool so that merely the habit of courage and honor remain. . . .

“ . . . So that merely the habit of courage and honor remain!” Those are really frightening words.

The whole idea reminded me of something I came upon while studying about Puritans a number of years ago.  After fleeing from religious tyranny in Europe,  the early Puritans in America established theocracies in New England, that is, church membership and civil citizenship were the same. Both communion and voting privileges were denied the unbaptized and/or those not admitted to the church.

For the first generation of Puritans, the system worked well. Their children were baptized as infants and  full church membership was granted after their conversion experience, which all prospective church members were required to rehearse in front of the congregation.

Some slippage occurred between the first and second generations, but by the third generation of Puritans in New England, the lack of a personal conversation experience created an embarrassing and difficult situation both politically and religiously.  Because large numbers of these third generation Puritans had no personal conversion experience to relate, they could not be accepted into full church membership, so they could not vote as citizens of New England.

In 1662, only forty-two years after the Mayflower and the first pioneer Puritans landed in the New World, the colony leaders felt compelled to shore up both the church and the state.  Their solution was what was called The Half-Way Covenant, according to which the less-pious third generation could receive partial church membership if they simply agreed with the creed and accepted the covenant.  With this covenant established, the children of the Third Generation could be baptized in the church.

The hope of the Second and First Generation was that granting partial church membership would encourage participation by the Third Generation and keep them and their children from feeling excluded, resulting ultimately in their deciding to go for full church membership with a personal conversion.

Records from the time show the reduced requirements and the lesser call did not dramatically affect the personal piety of the Third Generation, a precedent from which we should learn.  In fact, the historical consensus seems to be that over sixty more years were needed for another generation of New Englanders to find personal faith.  Specifically, during The Great Awakening of 1730, these halfway measures were rejected out of hand and personal conversion became again a requirement for church membership.  The expectation of complete commitment was much more successful than meeting the hardly committed halfway.

Sherrylee and I are enjoying a few days in southern California with our daughter and her husband and three grandchildren—three generations of our family.  Can you see why I’m thinking about this third generation stuff?

The figures I hear are that half of our children who grow up in church with us will give up their faith within a few years of high school graduation.  If that doesn’t bother you, then you probably are a Third Generation and your children are a Fourth Generation group.  It really bothers me!

By the grace of God, our children not only have faith, but have married people of great faith as well.  I know they are teaching their children and taking them to church, but Sherrylee and I as First Generation of this family have committed to Second Generation to be an active part of Third Generation’s lives, so that they not only have every chance to choose Faith, but they have seen something in the lives of First and Second that they want as well.

They will not have seen us accumulate much; they will not see us with great fame or power; but they will see faithfulness—sincere faithfulness—that’s the best we Firsts can give to the Thirds that we love so much.

I do not want to appear in some long, future Faulknerian sentence that says,

And then suppose, just suppose; suppose and tremble: one generation more removed from Mark and his innocence; one generation more until that innocent and outrageous belief that faith and personal devotion to Christ are practical has had time to fade and cool so that merely the habit of faith and devotion remain. . . .

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Christmas Shorts: Christmas Playlist for Gkids!

Posted in Advent 2011, tagged , , on December 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A couple of years ago, I did a special Christmas CD for the grandchildren with quite a variety of music.  It was quite a hit, so I thought I’d share it with you! Our grandchildren range from one-year old to twelve, so I tried to make it a mix that the whole family would enjoy.

The Playlist is actually posted on ITunes, but I think all of this music is readily available from almost any source.  OK, here’s the mix.

  • For Unto Us A Child Is Born from “The Messiah” performed by Vienna Boys Choir
  • Carol of the Bells ( Straight No Chaser)
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (The Andrew Sisters with Bing Crosby)
  • Little St. Nick (The Beach Boys)
  • Mary’s Little Boy Child (John Denver)
  • Children, Go Where I Send Thee ( Mary Chapin Carpenter)
  • Go Tell It On The Mountain (James Taylor)
  • The 12 Days of Christmas (Straight No Chaser)
  • The Little Drummer Boy (Harry Simeone Chorale)
  • Mary, Did You Know (The Von Trapp Children)
  • Come Darkness, Come Light (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
  • Here Comes Santa Claus (The Andrew Sisters)
  • Candlelight Carol (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
  • Hallelujah, It’s Christmas (Roger Whitaker)
  • Sweet, Little Jesus Boy (Straight No Chaser)
  • Darcy the Dragon (Roger Whitaker)
  • Still, Still, Still (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
  • I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ For Christmas (Christmas All Stars)
  • Pat-A-Pan (David Archuleta)
  • O Holy Night (Andy Williams)
  • Highland Cathedral (Amy Grant album)

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A Great Mission: Grandkids Camp 2011

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 30, 2011| 2 Comments »

Sugar them up! Super-chlorinate them! Wear them out! Then send them home to their parents!! That’s what we tell our kids we are going to do at Grandkids Camp every year.  (I love the sign in the stores that say,  if you let your kids run wild, we are going to give them donuts and a free puppy!)

We borrowed the idea of Grandkids Camp from some friends of ours in Oklahoma who did it for many years, until all their grandkids grew up!!  We have nine gkids now–the oldest is 12 and the rest are all under 8 years old—so we have a few years to develop Gkids Camp before they outgrow it.

Our OK friends did camp for several days, but a 24-hour version seems to work better for us!  This year, our California gkids are coming in TONIGHT, but Aimee and her children are leaving Saturday for a three-week LST project in Natal, Brazil, so we literally only have twenty-four hours when all of the cousins will be here together!  It was important enough that Aimee has packed early, and Ben and Amber delayed their 4th of July trip one day, so that we could have Gkids Camp with all of the Gkids!

Here’s the rough outline for Gkids Camp 2011

Friday, 2:00         Arrive after naps and after lunch!

Decorate their official Gkids Camp pillowcase. When finished, play UNO

3:30        Leave for movie  (Cars 2)

6:30        Swim

7:30        Roast hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire by the pool, followed by smores!!

8:30        Sing  songs around the fire, tell scary stories,  close with devotional

9:30        Back in the house, pajamas on, spread out sleeping bags and put Camp pillowcases on, then pop popcorn,  talk, watch old movies until everyone is asleep!

Saturday, 7:00am             Wake up, put swimsuits on and go in backyard to play Steal the Flag while the sprinklers are running!

8:00        Make pancakes for themselves and parents. Everybody gets to pour and flip!!

9:00        Parents join us for breakfast and swimming

Cleanup and go home!  Pretty simple, but it will be lots of fun. We will take pictures and put them into a little photo book for all the kids as well.

Maybe you have read Josh Hamilton’s book Beyond Belief, the story of an extraordinary athlete, raised very religiously and with lots of parental guidance, but who went into such severe drug addiction that he lost everything.  He shows up one day on his grandmother’s porch, destitute and with literally nowhere else to go. He goes there because his grandmother’s house has always been a loving and safe place for him—and she takes him in and helps him get on the road to recovery as no one else had been able to do.

I hope we never have to do that with any of our grandchildren—but I pray every day that today, while everything is good and sweet, we will build relationships with our grandkids that help them know who God is and that He loves them and that if they need us, we will be there for them in a day of trouble!

Watch for pictures from Gkids Camp 2011—as soon as Mimi and Grandad recover!!

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How To Be A Good Ancestor!

Posted in Other, tagged , , , on March 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

Sherrylee and I are reading in 1 Peter right now. I was re-reading chapter one yesterday and got stuck on the phrase “empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.”

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Is Peter writing to Gentiles and talking about the empty life handed down by Greek philosophers to most of the Gentile world of the first century? Or did he intend to include the empty life the Jews had received from Jewish legalism and scholasticism that developed after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians?

Or was Peter actually talking to the grandparents of Cassie, Kellan, Canon, Carter, Caroline, Leighton, Anna, Olivia, and Norah?? Don’t we have to take his words personally?

If I am going to be an ancestor, then I really don’t want to hand down an empty way of life to the gkids—not a single one of them. So what do I do as a grandparent to avoid this?

According to Grandparents.com, there are more than 70 million of us grandparents in the United States today, and perhaps surprisingly, the average age is 48. If you live to be 80, you could be a grandparent for over thirty years!!  You need to make some plans and commitments if you don’t want to leave your grandkids an empty life.  Here’s what I’m thinking

  • Grandparents have money! We control 75% of the nation’s wealth and have the highest average income of any other age group.  So, do I pass on a life built around consuming, around accumulating, around toys, around entertainment? Or do I pass on a life focused on generosity, on unselfish giving, on modest living so that others may thrive?
  • Grandparents want to have fun! Grandparents spend 100 billion dollars a year on entertainment and another $77 billion on travel (www.grandparents.com). We’ve worked hard and now we want to play hard—what’s wrong with that?  Well, what the grandkids see is the playing hard, not the working hard, so they learn to play. What they see is me spending my time and money on myself, and that is what they learn to do for themselves as well.
  • Grandparents volunteer more! So take the grandkids with you! Now that’s the way to fill up a child’s life!
  • Grandparents contribute 45% of all cash donations to non-profits! So let your grandchildren help you select where you will give. Let them put the check in the envelope or go online and show them the website.
  • Grandparents have influence! Seventy-two percent of grandparents care for grandchildren regularly and almost six percent of households are multi-generational. I wonder what that number would look like if it included grandparents who live within five miles of their grandchildren!  How do you spend your time with the grandkids? Is it just random, is it only about fun? Do you ever talk? Do you ask them about important stuff—not just their little league batting average.

I can hear the moans now, “But I raised my kids and I’m finished thinking about others. Don’t I deserve to just do what I want?” Do you remember Solomon’s conclusion after he used his power, his wealth, and even his wisdom to research what life is like if you do what you want! He did just what you are feeling and the results were  . . . emptiness!  Is that really the inheritance you want to leave for your grandchildren?

I really love my children and my grandchildren. And you do too! So

  1. If I am going to be a good ancestor, then I can’t retire from being a person of active faith.
  2. If I am going to be a good ancestor, then I will never earn the right to be selfish!
  3. If I am going to be a good ancestor, then I must intentionally teach my grandchildren the way of God, by the way I live and directly in conversation with them.

. . . to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen (Eph. 3:21)

 

 

 

 

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