By Larry McCall
Helping Our Grandchildren Cultivate A Grateful Heart “What do you say?” As grandparents, we may find ourselves often prompting our young grandchildren to say those two little words: “Thank you.” Perhaps you’ve taken them out to lunch and encouraged them to express appreciation to the server. Maybe you’re keeping them for the afternoon and a younger sibling decides to be generous and share the toys without argument. Whenever someone expresses a kindness, we want to help our grandchildren develop the habit of acknowledging their appreciation. Let’s be candid. While those two words aren’t hard to pronounce, most people—whether age four or sixtyfour—struggle to regularly express gratitude. They just don’t tend to flow naturally from our lips. Why is that? Well, it has something to do with our hearts. THE MOUTH/HEART CONNECTION Did you know that Jesus said that our mouths are connected to our hearts? In Luke 6:45, He teaches: “…out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” In other words, what does (or doesn’t) come out of us reveals what’s inside of us. That’s the great mouth-heart connection. Humbling to think about, isn’t it?
children and grandchildren? Just like us, they need God’s grace to transform their hearts from a bent toward selfishness to a bent toward gratitude. By God’s grace, their grateful hearts will overflow with grateful words. How might God use us grandparents to cultivate a heart of gratitude in the lives of our grandchildren? How can we be tools God can use in the process of transforming the hearts and words of our precious grandchildren?
It’s uncomfortable to think about some of the things that have come out of our mouths in moments of frustration, anger, or plain selfishness. What does that say about what’s going on inside? Ugly and selfish words come from ugly, selfish hearts. And, what’s true for us grandparents is true for our grandchildren as well. Anyone feel like joining me right now in singing “Oh, to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be”?
GRATITUDE IS CAUGHT Let’s remember Jesus’s maxim in Luke 6:40: “…everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Jesus wasn’t painting a picture of a classroom. He was talking about a trainee being shaped by the life of his or her mentor. For grandparents that means as our grandchildren are around us, over time, we rub off on them. In some measure, our attitudes and our demeanors will be reflected in their attitudes and demeanors.
A CALL TO GIVE THANKS God wants us to be grateful. He tells us to be grateful. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 clearly says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” How are we going to obey that directive? How are we going to model a lifestyle of genuine gratitude for our
If we are going to take Jesus’s words seriously, we need to do an attitude check. Here’s the question we grandparents need to ask ourselves: “Is my daily life marked by a negative, complaining demeanor, or do my grandkids know me as a joyfully grateful example in their lives?”
30 BOOM!
September 2021
RiverRegionBoom.com
If we want our grandchildren to grow into joyful, grateful adults we need to give some serious thought to cultivating gratitude in our own hearts. How does that happen? I Remember what we actually deserve. The weeds of selfish entitlement in our hearts must be uprooted by the truths of God’s Word: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked . . . and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1–3). I Reflect on God’s extravagant grace to us ill-deserving sinners: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4–5). A heart that regularly reflects on God’s grace will be overflowing with gratitude. I Recognize daily reminders of God’s grace: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2). By God’s grace, our grandchildren will see in our lives and hear from our lips hearts of gratitude. May that “gospel sweetness” be attractive to their young hearts as they desire also to live daily life with astonished gratitude. If we want to help our grandchildren cultivate hearts of gratitude, then we must
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