The Influence of a Grandmother

Being a grandparent has so many blessings!

• I have an older, gentler way of seeing these little ones! (My children probably wonder who I’ve turned into!
• I have more time to just sit and play or read stories.
• I’m not as uptight as when I was parenting – maybe because the ultimate responsibilities of my grandsons’ well-being is not on my shoulders.
• Big things are little things. They don’t want to eat? “Okay., you can eat later.” Not sleepy? “Let’s take a drive!” That broke? “It’s just stuff!”

But I do realize that while I can play the day away with my grandsons, I do have a HUGE responsibility as their Gigi –

I must point my grandchildren to God!

It’s not my right to “spoil them then send them home,” but to have fun with them all the while I am showing a life that points them to Christ. We see this in Timothy’s grandmother, Lois in II Timothy 1:5. The faith that Lois had in God was passed to her daughter, Eunice and also to her grandson, Timothy!

Today I want to encourage you about one simple way you can do that with your young grandchildren. This is doable if they are local and you see them weekly, but also if you only spend vacation times together. As a matter of fact, part of this could be done using Zoom or an app like Maro Polo. What if you planned out a one hour teaching time, full of Bible truths in story form, activities and crafts to support the lesson, and maybe even a snack that continued the idea of what you’re teaching that day.

I’ve done this very thing with my neighbor children for years and now it’s time to pour into my twin grandsons! As a jumping off point for you, here’s what I do each week:

1. Decide the lesson to be taught and then realize what the theme for day will be. Search the Internet for lesson ideas (make sure it’s doctrinally sound and not just “fluff.”). Some of my go-to’s are Ministry to Children, Happy Home Fairy and Hands on Bible Teacher. I also search Pinterest. Last week I taught about Day 5 of Creation. The main idea was God made the fish and birds on Day 5.
   
2. I look in those places for songs, fun games and activities to go along with the lesson to reinforce the main idea. Last week we sang God is so good (“God made the birds” was one verse!). I got flannel fish and birds and let the boys put them on the flannel board either up in the sky or down in the water. They added pages to their notebooks, and they painted a wooden whale and owl. I added a magnetic strip on the back so they could put it on the fridge.
   
3. I come up with a little snack that would help to continue the theme. This week I made “fish” crackers and cheese for their snack. They may not look like fish to you, but that’s the blessing of teaching an imaginative child!!!

As we went about our morning together, I just kept repeating our songs about Day 5 of creation. When we went outside, we looked for birds in the sky and I asked them Who made that bird and on what day of creation.

There is every level of lesson and activity out there and God’s Word is relevant to each child and each age. Just teach your grandchildren.
Make it fun.
Be creative.
Teach them God’s Word.

You will be exhausted and maybe even unsure if you got anything into their little heads, but we just obey and leave the results to God.

Some other little suggestions/helps:

• If you live away from your grandchildren, you could do the story on an app on your phone or computer.

• If you have teens you could do a Bible study with them. Here is a list of great resources for teens!
• If you don’t have any children or grandchildren, look around for your neighbor children that could use a woman to teach them! Here’s a post about my weekly time with my neighbors. You can also see how I planned and scheduled our time together.
  
  The influence of a grandmother is so vital. We will often be able to speak things into our grandchildren’s lives that they would not accept from their parents.

Let’s be a “Lois” and pray for a “Timothy” to be nurtured at our knees.

I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have about how you’ve nurtured your grandchildren in the Lord!

Refresh the life of your grandchildren,