SEASONED SAINTS

SEASONED SAINTS

"Being Great Grandparents to Great Grandkids"

INTRO Quote slides

“Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.” » Lois Wyse

Proverbs 17:6 (NLT) Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged; parents are the pride of their children.

STAGES OF GRAND-PARENTING

1.     Parenting

2.     Empty Nesting

3.     Waiting

Psalms 128:5-6 (NKJV) The LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!

4.     Expectation

5.     Arrival

6.     Reward

Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

To Grandparents

An except from “Bringing Up Boys” Dr. James Dobson

Let me turn now to the people who are most likely to give you the help you need. I’m referring to maternal and paternal grandparents. They have a God-given responsibility to influence their grandkids, and most of them are more than willing to fit the bill. There is a very helpful book that may stimulate some ideas. It is called The Gift of Grand-parenting, by Eric Wiggen. Here are some excerpts from it that will, I hope, not only motivate parents to look to their parents but will inspire grandparents to get more involved with grandkids. These are the considered words of Eric Wiggen:

A sage once remarked that the elderly slow down and stoop over so that they can see things as children once again, so that they can hold the hands of children who toddle along on inexperienced feet. That bug on the sidewalk, the snail under the cabbage leaf, the robin pulling the worm from the rain-moistened earth—these are the things small children and their grandparents notice.

Our grandchildren live in imperfect homes, reared by imperfect parents: our sons and daughters who are married to our sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, all of them imperfect. Although we all made mistakes raising our children, the good news is that as godly grandparents, walking with the Lord, we can expect the Lord to use us. Because of our own immaturity when our children—now parents—were growing up, we may have disappointed them. But by keeping us alive to enjoy our grandchildren, the Lord is giving us a ministry to help fill in these gaps in our imperfect child-rearing.

Writing to grandparents, columnist Evelyn Sullivan summarized a study of more than seven hundred students at Central Missouri State University.

Sullivan cited Central Missouri professor of family studies Dr. Gregory E. Kennedy, who found that these students felt the role of grandparents to be “even more important”in their lives. Most grandparents do have regular interaction with their grandchildren, Dr. Kennedy’s study found.

As grandparents, we desire to help usher our Brandons and Meghans across the threshold of adulthood. We can best do this when we realize that these youth, who much of the time are carefree and happy, are also suffering through the most trying years of life—from puberty to young maturity. We gently criticize their behavior when we must. We set guidelines and expressions when they’re entrusted to our care. Even as we wouldn’t question another adult’s toupée or hairdo, we avoid personal remarks about our emerging adult-teens whose souls may have been torn and trampled already in the school gauntlet or by conflicts at home. But most of all, we support, we listen, we pray, and we love.

THINGS GRANDPARENTS BRING

1.     Unqualified support

a.     Acceptance

b.     Encouragement

c.     Presence

d.     Finances

2.     Undistracted time and attention

To quote Eric Wiggen again:

Young people who visit their grandparents, with few exceptions, do so because they want—often very badly—the companionship of their elders. The same grandmother who beat me at checkers when I was nine became a friend in whom I could confide when I was 19. She wrote me letters, long and full of family news. When I came home from college, we talked. And you know what? Grandma wanted to listen to me! I soon found that she was fascinated with what I had to say, and she had more time to listen to me than my parents. For your teen or single young-adult grandchildren, perhaps the most important “entertainment” you can give them is to listen when they talk.

3.     Unending prayer

James 5:16 (NLT) Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Psalms 103:17-18 (NLT) But the love of the LORD remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!

4.     Unconditional love

Proverbs 17:17 (MSG) Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT) Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

SOME PROBLEM AREAS:

1.     Broken relationships

2.     Distance

3.     Blended families

4.     Being parents again

Dr. James Dobson again: “Grandparents today are not only needed in a supportive role to their daughters and sons, a surprising number of them have been given full custody of their grandchildren. They raised their children many years ago and thought their parenting job was done. Then when they should have been simply supplementary to the main event, they are faced with one of two very difficult choices: either accept the responsibility of raising another generation of kids, or watch them suffer from inadequate care or placement in a foster home.”

Joe McGee: One Thing Every Grandparent Needs To Do

There are so many things that grandparents do, but this is the most important thing that any grandparent could do:

Share what God has done for you and your family with your grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 4:9 (MSG) Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.

Psalms 78:5-7 (NLT) For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

Share your testimony and your stories with your grandchildren. This is a heritage they need to know about.  Your stories of answered prayer, stories of victory through trials, and stories of God’s faithfulness will help encourage your entire family. Once you’ve told them, keep on telling them.

Proverbs 13:22 (NLT) Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren…,

MINISTRY TIME “The Blessing Song” Dennis Jernigan