Next Sunday, September 8, is national Grandparents Day. I was getting ready to do a Grandparent's Day chapel for our Christian Day School and I believe God gave me some special thoughts that I want to share. Let me address some thoughts to children, to parents and to grandparents.
First let's look at grandparents from the kids’ point of
view. Why are grandparents so
special? Kids sometimes seem to
appreciate grandma and grandpa more than they do mom and dad. Why is that?
Well, mom and dad have a job to do.
Their job is to bring you up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. That
means they have to teach you right from wrong.
They have to discipline and correct you when you disobey. That’s a tough
job, so sometimes they have to be tough with you. But they’re working hard at it and doing their
best. They're seeking to show you God’s
holiness and righteousness, His good and perfect will for your life. So, kids, be thankful for mom and dad too!
For Grandma and grandpa, however, that job’s mostly done (at
least much of the time it is). They did
that job for your mom and dad. That’s why
you have such great parents today! It’s because
of your grandma and grandpa. But now,
grandma and grandpa have a different role in your life.
Their role now is to show you another side of God, not His
holiness or righteousness, but His love and joy. Did you know that God delights
in you? I think of the passage in
Zephaniah. “The Lord your God is with
you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you
with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) Or perhaps a verse like this: “For the Lord
takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the
saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.” (Psalm 149:4-5) Did you ever sing for joy on your bed after
spending a wonderful day with grandma and grandpa? That’s a gift from God through your
grandparents.
Through the prophet Jeremiah God says, “I will enjoy doing
good to them.” (Jeremiah 32:41) That’s
the way grandma and grandpa are. They
enjoy doing good to you. That’s their
job. Their job is to be a living
illustration of God’s delight in loving you and doing good things for you. So when grandma dances with you and grandpa
plays games with you, they are helping you feel how much God loves you. They don’t have to be tough with you (unless
maybe you have a complete meltdown).
How many of you have had grandma or grandpa dance over you
with joy or sing happy songs with you?
When they do that, they’re doing the job God gave them to do, that is,
to show you His love. You know how it
is. Grandma and grandpa say yes to
treats, while mom and dad make you eat your veggies. Grandma and grandpa play games while mom and
dad have other important work to do. That’s
what makes grandparents so great!
Now let’s consider grandparents from the parents’ point of
view. Why do you parent’s appreciate your
kids’ grandparents so much? Hey, free
babysitting, right? But seriously, when
your own parents finally become your kids’ grandparents, you appreciate them so much more
because you finally get it. Until you
become a parent yourself, you can’t possibly appreciate everything your parents
did for you. But once you become a
parent you finally begin to understand all the things your parents did for
you. You begin to comprehend the
sacrifices they made and the effort they put forth. You finally begin to appreciate how hard it
is to be a good parent, and that makes you value grandma and grandpa a whole
lot more than you ever did before.
Finally let’s consider grandkids from grandma and grandpa’s
point of view. Why are grandkids so much
better than kids? Well, first of all,
they’re payback to your kids, right? But seriously, why are grandchildren such
a great blessing to grandparents? I
believe part of it has to do with where we are in life as grandparents. We’re at a stage where we have a lot more
wisdom garnered from our life experience, and a lot more perspective about
life’s ups and downs, so I think we’re in a better position to appreciate and
enjoy our grandchildren more than we ever did our own children.
But why do we love being with our grandkids so much? I think, at least in part, it’s because we
don’t have to be tough with them, at least not most of the time. That’s not our job. That’s mom and dad’s job. As I said before, we get to show them the other
side of God’s character, His loving side.
We get to demonstrate His unconditional love for them, and we get to
show them that God takes great joy in them, that He delights in doing good to
them.
But even more than that, I think the reason grandparents
love grandchildren so much is that they give us a special gift from God. They give us a chance to be kids again. We get to laugh and play and sing and dance
and eat ice cream and do all kinds of things that we didn’t have as much
opportunity to do when the full responsibility of parenting our own kids
weighed heavily on our shoulders. Is
there a more joyful or carefree time in life than childhood? I don’t think so. But when we’re spending time with our
grandchildren we get to celebrate the joy of childhood all over again. We can forget about our aches and pains and
the infirmities of aging for just a few minutes and be fun and carefree all
over again. It’s like having a second
childhood. That’s a gift from God
through our grandchildren.
That’s why grandparents are so special and why being a
grandparent is so special. We need to
say a special thankyou to God for grandparents and grandchildren. We need
to say a special thank you to our grandparents for the love they show us from our Heavenly Father. And we need to thank our grandchildren for the special joy they bring to us. I believe grandparents and grandchildren are extraordinary gifts of God's grace!
