Some Thoughts from a Grateful Grandfather

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!