Grandpa's Prayers
Three Ways to Engage God in the Work of Grand-parenting
A while ago one of my readers, a mother of two teenage daughters, told me “I pray that one day my husband and I will be able to love grandchildren. You and your wife are so inspiring and your stories are beautiful.” I thought to myself, “That mom is further along than I was at her age!”
When I was thirty-five years old, half my age now, our prayers for children were answered. After waiting seven years, my wife got pregnant with our son. Then two years later our daughter was conceived. Cooling down after a run (back in the days when I could run!) I distinctly remember telling God, “If you were to take me today I would consider myself to have lived a full life.” We had a boy and a girl. What else could we want?
It honestly never occurred to me to pray for grandchildren. Now with five precious souls I am more aware than ever of the need for prayer. Here are three go-to prayers I use over and over…
Help Me!
This is my simplest two-word prayer and I use it constantly. My grandchildren look to me for help so it is natural that I should look to God for help. When they are with me I need wisdom, strength and lots of love to make it through the day.
This may have been the prayer that Nehemiah used when he dared to appear before the king to ask permission to leave his post and help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
“What are you requesting?” asked the king.
“So I prayed to the God of heaven,” and then Nehemiah asked permission. Permission granted and the rest is history. But standing in the presence of the king, there was not time for a lengthy prayer, maybe just, “Help me!” Nehemiah was one of the great heroes of the Old Testament and, with the help of God, accomplished his mission of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The same prayer can help you in your child-building work.
The beautiful thing about this prayer is that it can be used “in the moment,” to empower and enlighten you in the eternal work of grand-parenting.
Make Me the Love of Jesus
If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that this is my favorite prayer. Before visiting someone in the hospital, before spending time with friends and especially before caring for my grandchildren, I pray “Make me the love of Jesus to them.” I remind myself that after I am gone, though they have memories of Grandpa, the most important thing is that they come to know and love Jesus. So I pray that God will translate my love for them into the love of Jesus.
Behind this little prayer is the wish that God would strip away everything in me that distracts from Jesus. They will carry in their memories plenty of things about me. They will remember my silly songs, my quirky sayings, my love for coffee and for them. That last one will only matter if it reflects the love of Jesus who alone can save them.
Show Them the Way
The proverb reminds us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the way of death.” That’s true for each of us, but those of us who have found our way have a duty to share it with our grandchildren.
Jesus said about himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The way that our grandchildren will follow, left to themselves, is the way of death. It is the way we all would choose if not re-directed. They are darlings but they are sinners just like us and need Jesus just like us.
My father used to say, “There are two ways to do everything: the right way and the wrong way. I’m going to show you the right way.” As we care for our grandchildren, we ought to remind ourselves that there are only two ways, actually three: their way, our way and God’s way. Sometimes these are the same, but we ought to be careful to follow in God’s way and lead them there.
The little video above features Evie, who is multi-tasking, drawing a picture while belting out a Sunday School song, “How Far Love Goes.”
“To the ends of the earth, you have been you have searched for the ones so far from home/Jesus, you paid the price, what a great sacrifice you have made to call us your own/You came down from the heavens so we could know, how deep, high high, how long and how wide and how far love goes.”
Sing it girl!
My prayer is that Jesus’ love would move from our hearts to theirs. In the end, nothing else matters.
Oh boy, Greg! This is a good one! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Very encouraging! We can apply this as we interact with adults as well! Ray