Encouragement for Grandparents

Reflections from OUR DAILY BREAD to support your grandparenting journey

“ Children’s children are a crown to the aged.”

PROVERBS 17:6

Encouragement for Grandparents

Reflections from OUR DAILY

BREAD

to support your grandparenting journey

EDITORIAL TEAM: Anne Cetas, Becky Knapp, Dave Branon, Tim Gustafson, Alyson Kieda, David Sper, Chris Wale.

Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica UK trademark number 1448790. ©️ 2024 Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved. • Printed in Europe.

Shining Bright for Our Grandchildren

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. DANIEL 12:3

If you are holding this booklet in your hands, you’re probably a grandparent—or about to become one. It is one of the most wonderful callings in life! All grandparents can bring something fresh and dynamic to their families; our grandchildren can sense it too. They run to us for love, hugs, games and a listening ear. As they grow older, they may seek our advice, sympathy and encouragement.

In all this, we have an incredible opportunity to share God’s love as we invest in our special relationship with them through the example we set, the conversations we have, the games we play, the Bible verses we share and the prayers we say. And we will find giving such time and love to our grandchildren is not just a special calling; it’s a wonderful blessing.

Yet to nurture our grandchildren well, we must also care for our own souls and spiritual health. There is so much energy we can spend chasing our little ones round, answering their questions and balancing the time we give to them, their parents and the rest of our family. It’s essential we keep ourselves rooted in the One who nurtures us.

These Our Daily Bread reflections are here to encourage you as you either step into this new role or take a moment to slow down and ponder it biblically. These articles are written by grandparents for grandparents, showing you again and again that God can and will use you as you share the love of Christ with your grandchildren, your children and your whole family.

We pray these stories and reflections will feed your soul, strengthen your spirit and make you “shine like the brightness of the heavens” as you lead your grandchildren to righteousness.

Your friends at Our Daily Bread Ministries

6 Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, ‘You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people sink. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, “The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children for ever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”

10 ‘Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.’

Grey Power

The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. [ PROVERBS 18:10 ]

Dutch artist Yoni Lefevre created a project called “Grey Power” to show the vitality of the ageing generation in the Netherlands. She asked local schoolchildren to sketch their grandparents. Lefevre wanted to show an “honest and pure view” of older people, and she believed children could help supply this. The youngsters’ drawings reflected a fresh and lively perspective of their elders—grandmas and grandpas were shown playing tennis, gardening, painting and more!

Caleb, of ancient Israel, was full of passion and energy to serve his Lord, even into his senior years. As a young man, he infiltrated the Promised Land before the Israelites conquered it. Caleb believed God would help his nation defeat the Canaanites, but the other spies disagreed (JOSHUA 14:8). Because of Caleb’s faith, God miraculously sustained his life for another forty-five years so he might survive the wilderness wanderings and enter the Promised Land.

When it was finally time to enter Canaan, eighty-five-year-old Caleb said, “I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out” (V. 11). With God’s help, Caleb successfully claimed his share of the land (NUMBERS 14:24).

God does not forget about us as we grow older. Although our bodies age and our health may fail, God’s Holy Spirit renews us inwardly each day (2 CORINTHIANS 4:16). He makes it possible for our lives to have significance at every stage and every age. JENNIFER BENSON SCHULDT

REFLECT: How does it encourage you to know that age and health provide no barriers for God’s plans, strength, love and purposes in your life?

PRAY: Heavenly Father, I know that my physical strength and health can fail. But I pray that You will continually renew me spiritually so I can serve You faithfully as long as I live.

Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

Isaiah 46:4

7 Verses Describing the Blessings of Ageing with God

1 Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding? Job 12:12

2 The glory of young men is their strength, grey hair the splendour of the old. Proverbs 20:29

3 Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. Psalm 71:18

4 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

Psalm 73:26

5 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 92:12-15

6 Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. Isaiah 46:4

7 We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am 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.

The Icing of Faith

I am 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. [ 2 TIMOTHY 1:5 ]

Hand in hand, my grandson and I skipped across the carpark to find a special party outfit. A preschooler now, he was excited about everything, and I was determined to ignite his happiness into joy. I’d just seen a coffee mug with the inscription, “Grandmas are mums with lots of icing.” Icing equals fun, glitter, joy! That’s my job description as his grandma, right? That . . . and more. In his second letter to his spiritual son Timothy, Paul calls out his sincere faith—and then credits its lineage both to Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice (2 TIMOTHY 1:5). These women lived out their faith in such a way that Timothy also came to believe in Jesus. Surely, Lois and Eunice loved Timothy and provided for his needs. But clearly, they did more. Paul points to the faith living in them as the source of the faith later living in Timothy.

My job as a grandmother includes the ‘icing’ moment of a party outfit. But even more, I’m called to the icing moments when I share my faith: bowing our heads over chicken nuggets. Noticing angelic cloud formations in the sky as God’s works of art. Chirping along with a song about Jesus on the radio. Let’s be wooed by the example of mums and grandmas like Eunice and Lois to let our faith become the icing in life so our grandchildren will want what we have.

ELISA MORGAN

REFLECT: How have you been influenced by the faith of others? How are you living out your faith so that your grandchildren might be influenced to imitate you?

PRAY: Dear God, may my joy and faith be obvious to my grandchildren. Please inspire them with the love of Christ they see in me.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in

the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

A Prayer for Your Grandchildren

Lord God, I thank You for being my Father and my grandchildren’s heavenly Father. You know them, love them and walk beside them. You are there when they rise or they fall; You hear every unspoken fear; You see every challenging moment of their day. You understand their hearts infinitely better than I do.

And so I release my grandchildren and their parents to Your care and Your plan. Lord, reign over them and their journey through life. Even when they must walk through heartaching valleys, help me to trust Your presence in their lives and Your ways which are beyond my understanding.

And I ask, Father, that You would help me to be a guide, friend and confidant to my grandchildren. May I speak with Your kindness and compassion. May I act with Your grace and understanding. May I display abundant love in the moments we spend together.

Even when I cannot see You transforming their hearts, give me the faith to believe that You are indeed at work for good in their lives. Lord, my grandchildren are Yours. Have Your way. Amen.

14 I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. 15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

Just Watch

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. [ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:1 ]

The young boy looked up at his grandfather and wondered aloud, “Grandpa, how do you live for Jesus?” The respected grandfather stooped down and quietly told the boy, “Just watch.”

As the years went by, the grandfather was an example to the boy of how to follow Jesus. He stayed rock-steady in living for Him. Yet the grandson often lived in a way that was not pleasing to God.

One day the young man visited his grandfather for what both knew would be the last time. As the older man lay dying, his grandson leaned over the bed and heard his grandpa whisper, “Did you watch?”

That was the turning point in the boy’s life. He understood that when his grandpa had said, “Just watch,” he meant, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 CORINTHIANS 11:1). He vowed that from then on he would live as his grandfather did—striving to please Jesus. He had watched, and now he knew how to live.

Are your grandchildren watching you? They need to see that it is possible to live for Jesus every day and in every way! Challenge them—and yourself. Challenge them to “Just watch.” Then show them the way.

DAVE BRANON

REFLECT: What do you think your life, attitude and words convey to your grandchildren about what Christ is like? How can you consciously seek to imitate Him in all that you do?

PRAY: Dear Lord Jesus, please transform me more into Your wonderful image each day. I can be so weak, impatient and selfish; may Your Spirit in me consume me with Your love. Make Yourself known through me I pray.

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6

5-minute Bible Study: 1 Corinthians 3:10-14

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.

FOR REFLECTION:

1 What sort of “building” do you think Paul is referring to in these verses (VV. 10-11)?

2 Six materials are listed in verse 12; what two categories do they fall into? Which ones would survive a fire?

3 What are the gold, silver and costly stones in your life? What about wood, hay or straw? What does this teach you about building your life?

4 How does verse 13 encourage you when you can’t see much progress in serving God?

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, thank You that no prayer, service, meditation or act of kindness is ever wasted. May I keep my hope on You, for one day You will reveal everything You were doing through me.

12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations –I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.

17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

18 ‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Honest to God

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. [ PSALM 32:5 ]

My three-year-old grandson’s day was off to a rotten start. He couldn’t find his favourite t-shirt. The shoes he wanted to wear were too hot. He fussed and fumed at his grandmother and then sat down to cry.

“Why are you so upset?” I asked. We talked for a while and after he calmed down, I gently inquired, “Have you been good for Grandma?” He looked thoughtfully at his shoes and responded,

“No, I was bad. I’m sorry.”

My heart went out to him. Instead of denying what he had done, he was honest. In the following moments we asked Jesus to forgive us when we do wrong and to help us do better.

In Isaiah 1, God confronts His people about wrongs they’d committed. Bribes and injustice were rampant in the courts, and orphans and widows were taken advantage of for material gain. Yet even then God responded mercifully, asking the people of Judah to confess what they’d done and turn from it: “Come now, let us settle the matter . . . . Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (ISAIAH 1:18).

God longs for us to be open with Him about our sins, and to teach our grandchildren to do the same. Rather than responding with a temper to their faults, God shows us what loving forgiveness looks like: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 JOHN 1:9).

Because our God is merciful, new beginnings await! JAMES BANKS

REFLECT: What might it look like to respond to our grandchildren with the compassion and grace of God when they get things wrong?

PRAY: Abba, Father, help me to turn away from the sin in my life and make a new beginning with You today. May my home be known as a place of grace and fresh starts.

Let your conversation be always full of grace.

Colossians 4:6

6 Verses about the Power of Our Words

1 The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. Psalm 37:30

2 The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18

3 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

4 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

5 The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. James 3:5

6 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15

8 Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.

9 Help us, God our Saviour, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.

10 Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’

Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.

11 May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.

12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbours seven times the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord.

13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you for ever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.

Passing on the Legacy

Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you for ever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise. [ PSALM 79:13 ]

My phone beeped, indicating an incoming text. My daughter wanted my grandmother’s recipe for Peppermint Ice Cream Pie. As I thumbed through the yellowed cards in my aged recipe box, my eyes spotted the unique handwriting of my grandmother—and several jotted notes in the small cursive of my mother. It occurred to me that with my daughter’s request, Peppermint Ice Cream Pie would make its entrance into a fourth generation within my family.

I wondered, What other family heirlooms might be handed down generation to generation? What about choices regarding faith? Besides the pie, would the faith of my grandmother—and my own—play out in the lives of my daughter and her children?

In Psalm 79, the psalmist bemoans a wayward Israel, which has lost its faith moorings. He begs God to rescue His people from the ungodly and to restore Jerusalem to safety. This done, he promises a restored—and ongoing—commitment to God’s ways. “Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise” (PSALM 79:13).

I eagerly shared the recipe, knowing my grandmother’s dessert legacy would enjoy a new layer in our family. And I prayed sincerely for the most lasting hand-me-down of all: the influence of our family’s faith on one generation to the next.

ELISA MORGAN

REFLECT: What are you passing down to the next generation relationally, practically and spiritually? Why not pray for God to use all these things to have a lasting impact for His glory in the lives of your grandchildren.

PRAY: My all-knowing, all-seeing God and Father, of all the things I pass down to my grandchildren, may a legacy of faith be seen in it all. May this legacy continue through them and to their children. In the mighty and compassionate name of Jesus.

SPENDING TIME Each Day With God

By the time we reach this stage in our lives, we often find ourselves living in an empty nest. Our house is filled with memories, but not the people who made them. It brings both joy and heartache. The temptation to seek out our family, especially our grandchildren, can then become an insistent urge within us. Even though we may have more free time, and though we will naturally want to fill that with seeing our loved ones, our priority still needs to be our daily time with God. By spending quality time with Him, He grows in us His “fruit of the Spirit”: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (GALATIANS 5:22-23). Which of us doesn’t need more of these in our lives?

Some of us may have a special place we go to get away from distractions so we can meditate on God’s Word and hear His voice. Others like to sit with an open Bible, pen, notepad and fresh pot of coffee. However we rest with the Lord, we will then find ourselves able to face the day refreshed, strengthened, at peace and ready for whatever challenges may come.

As grandparents, we have a larger family now looking to our wisdom, our experience and our example. Perhaps that reality is daunting. Perhaps you haven’t thought about it like that. Or maybe you’re not so sure you have such influence. Rest assured that God will be using you even if you cannot see it immediately; even if you don’t feel up to the challenge.

Our key role in all this is to ask ourselves this question: Am I doing what’s important in my day? Am I seeking my Lord before anyone else? The place and time may vary, but the fact that we meet with God every day shouldn’t. To keep up with the energy, movement, growth and needs of our grandchildren and their parents, we will need the strength of the Lord. We will need all nine elements of His fruit to be growing in us.

It has been said that growing old isn’t for wimps. Yet God has promised that we will be fruitful in every season of our lives if we follow His anti-ageing prescription and stay rooted in Him. Psalm 1 explains that delighting in God and meditating in His Word makes us like trees planted by water.

Think about what this striking image means for you. Does age diminish this tree? Does time decrease it’s stature or fruit? No! This tree’s branches are strong; its leaves are lush; its fruit is plentiful. No matter our age, the demands of our family or the quietness we may face at home, when we stay rooted in the Lord, our living water, we will bear His fruit for our family to benefit from and enjoy. In their relationship with us may they “taste and see that the Lord is good” (PSALM 34:8).

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Grandparenting is an exciting, unpredictable, demanding and richly rewarding calling! But if we are going to step into this role with the energy it requires, we must care for our own souls and spiritual health. It’s essential we keep ourselves rooted in the One who nurtures us.

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