Thinking Like a Grandparent…
“What are you talking about? The Bible doesn’t say anything about grandparenting.” Some have made this claim. Others have said, “We KNOW how to grandparent, pastor. We’ve been doing it for years. We take the grand kids to Magic Mountain every summer!”
Actually, the Bible has a great deal to say about grandparenting. Second only to parents they have the greatest influence in a child’s life. God’s Word calls us to more than fun and games with, the grand kids. We are to have a spiritual impact in their lives. To do so we must be intentional. Spiritual impact doesn’t happen automatically.
Tucked away in the Old Testament, Moses instructed parents and grandparents to teach a special curriculum. Here is what he wrote to the spiritual leaders in the home …
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has
commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to
possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all
His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that
your days may be prolonged” (Deuteronomy 6:1, 2).
There are three things Moses told the leaders of the home to do … (1) They were to learn God’s truth from Moses. (2) They were to practice the impact of this teaching in their own lives and then (3) teach God’s revelation of right and wrong to their children and grandchildren. The commandments, statutes and judgments of the Lord was the curriculum. (4) The instruction was designed to instill a lifetime of reverence and obedience to the truth of God.
One does not need to go very deep into the New Testament to find an example of these principles. Paul’s trusted associate Timothy, as best we can tell had no spiritual influence from his father (Acts 16:1). But his mother and grandmother stepped up and gave him a good working knowledge of the Scriptures (II Tim. 3:14, 15). His mother Lois and grandmother Eunice prepared Timothy for the influential role he would play in the early church with the Apostle Paul (II Tim 1:5). Timothy worked with him in a like-minded way in the furtherance of the gospel (Phil. 2:19-22).
We need to change the way we think about grandparenting.
