Proverbs 17:6

 If you’re a Grandparent and a Christian then you need to know that God has put greatness within you to be lavished on your Grandchildren.
        At a round-table discussion, various religious leaders tried to answer the question “When does life begin?”
    “At conception,” said the first.
    “No, no,” said the second. “It begins at birth.”
    “It’s in between,” said the third. “Life begins at 12 weeks when the fetus develops a functional heartbeat.”
    “I disagree with all of you,” said a Rabbi. “Life begins when your last child leaves home and takes the dog with him.” http://www.butlerwebs.com/jokes/parents.htm
    For those of us who are fortunate enough to be called Grandparents we would argue with all that theological opinion and assert that life begins when you’re a Grandparent because the Bible says so.

“Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.” Proverbs 16:31

“Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.” Proverbs 17:6

The Word of the Lord came to Joel: Joel 1:3  Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (NIV)

Every Grandparent can testify that if someone would have just told them that

grandchildren were so much fun, the choice would have been made to have them first!

Grandparents have one thing God doesn’t have: GRANDCHILDREN!!!!

Grandparents are the only ones who have time to play.

A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: ’We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.’ The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, ’I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!’

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

God intends for our grandchildren to be our crowning glory and for our children to be proud of us, their parents.

Grandparents are the only ones who have the time to stay.

Grandparents give grandchildren roots.
Grandchildren give grandparents renewal.

Ruth 4:13-17 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!
15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.
17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” (NIV)

Margaret Mead, the noted anthropologist, has said a lot of controversial things, but you will find no authorities debating her statement in her article Grandparents and Educators. In it she said, “Somehow we have to get the older people, grandparents, widows and widowers, spinsters and bachelors, back close to children if we are to restore a sense of community, a knowledged of the past, and a sense of future to today’s children.”

Rootless people are the result, at least in part, of being ripped away from the influence of their grandparents. Grandparents can be just that, parents who are grand. They do not have to be the disciplinarians of life, and so they are more  free to be the teachers of values. They have opportunities to talk and share in ways that parents often do not have, or do not take advantage of, because they do not see from the same perspective as do grandparents. Leo Tolstoy said, from birth to the 5th year is an eternity, but from 5 to old age is a step. It is a gift to be there for the one to 5 period of their life in order to be the place of refuge and an oasis in the hard land of growing up.

The grandchild- grandparent relationship is a two way street. The child has as great an impact on the adult as the adult on the child.

Ruth 4:15  He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. (NIV)
      In verse 15 the women say of baby Obed, “He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.” There is something about a grandchild that can change the whole psychology of life, and bring hope and joy to the forefront. Your children may have kept you poor, but their children will make you rich. They renew your spirit, and give you a whole new role in the world of loving, lifting, and laughing.

Grandparents are the only ones who have the time to pray

Proverbs 13:22
22 A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children… (NIV)

Are you leaving an inheritance of faith for your grandchildren?

“We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD. We will tell of His power and the mighty miracles He did. For He issued His decree to Jacob; He gave His law 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—that they in turn might teach their children. So each generation can set its hope anew on God, remembering His glorious miracles and obeying His commands.” (New Living Translation) Psalm 78:4-7  


2 Timothy 1:5  I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. (NIV)

“God sometimes works in a physical family, as He did here, establishing Jesus’ faith in one family member so it can be passed along to others. Sometimes God uses the child in a more obvious way than He uses the parents or grandparents, as happened with Timothy. The faith of God can be nurtured, seasoned and matured as it passes through grandparents and parents to a child. It’s not only an honor for a parent or grandparent to serve in this way but a high calling.” – (italics mine)

Godly grandparents have such a powerful impact on the lives of grandchildren that one is not far from the mark to say that the church and the Sunday School, and all other arms of the kingdom of God are supplements to the influence of grandparents. They change the course of history, and no matter how rotten a generation becomes, there is always hope for renewal because the next generation can be turned toward righteousness by the grandparents. Eight year old Ann Johnson wrote this poem which expresses the influence of millions of grandparents on their grandchildren.

My grandma likes to play with God,
    They have a kind of game.
      She plants the garden full of seeds,
          He sends the sun and rain.

She likes to sit and talk with God,
    And knows He is right there.
      She prays about the whole wide world,
          Then leaves us in His care.

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