Remember Your Ultimate Goal

 

Today I'm writing about loving our grandchildren and how to help them learn to love God and others with their all. From the moment we first saw our grandchildren, we knew we would absolutely love them forever! If you are anything like me, you always tell them you love them each time you see them and you show it by the way you live. When our grandchildren hear - and most importantly see how much we love them, they will grow up believing it is true and able to trust in your love for them. These things matter.

Along with being certain our grandchildren know how much we love them, we must be certain to help them understand how much God loves them with a faithful, never-ending love. We also have to help them learn to respond to all this love by making the choice to love God and others with their all. If we love God and others with our all, we will not be people who harm others in any way - by our words or deeds. If we love God and others with our all, we will be active and involved in helping others with our words and deeds. If we love God and others with our all, we will have true joy.

I believe loving God and others with our all is essential, because when we do, everything else will fall into place. So, how do we do this and how do we help our grandchildren do this? The first step is for us to understand and fully believe the truth about how God loves us. When we really understand a believe He loves us, how will we not love Him back?

Just look at what the Bible tells us about God's great love for us . . .

• Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
• Jeremiah 31:3 - I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. 
• Isaiah 54:10 - For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
• Psalm 103:11 - For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him
• Lamentations 3:22, 23 - The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
• John 3:16, 17 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
• Romans 5:8 - But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• 1 John 4:7 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

I could go on and on with verses which tell us how much God loves us and how His great love never ends, but the truth is found in these verses . . . God loves us! The Bible is true and in it we see over and over, from cover to cover the message of how God loves us. 

So, consider sharing this truth in an intentional and purposeful way with your grandchildren - you could . . . 

• Pick a verse or passage from above, or one you love, which talks about how much God loves us. Write it on sticky notes and post them around your home at eye level for your grandchildren to see when they are at your home.
• Send some sticky notes home with your grandchildren (mail to grandchildren who live far from you) and have them put them around their home in places they will be able to see them. 
• If you have grandchildren who do not yet read, draw pictures on sticky notes (stick figures are fine) and help your young grandchildren learn what the pictures mean; give them sticky notes to use as well.
• Snail mail a card with the verse you chose to your grandchildren - yes, snail mail. Include a card (you could print out these cards if you like) and a small treat to brighten their day.
• Talk about the verse, what it means and work together to memorize it.
• Make the verse into a Scripture blessing/prayer and pray it at meals, before bed on sleepovers and before your grandchildren leave your home.
• Choose a new verse on which you all are able to focus each week throughout the summer.
• Share examples of how God has shown His great love for you to you - and encourage them to share how He has done the same for them.
• Watch for how God shows His love to you over the summer - take time to write your "Faith History" into a journal, on rocks, make posters - make and keep a record to remind you, your grandchildren and generations not yet born how God loves you!

These are just a few ideas of how you could be intentional and purposeful in how you discover, see, and share God's love for you and your grandchildren over the summer. Make it a focus of the summer - and set the pattern for life.

If we know and believe God loves us it will make a difference in our lives for all of our lives. Start at the beginning - God loves us and He loves our grandchildren. This is the truth and it changes all of our lives.

#grandmas #handingdownconfidentfaith #itmatterswhatwedo #grandparentingonpurpose