MOMMY (and Caregiver/Mentor) MONDAYS #24

Have you shown your children the importance of grandparents or grand-mentors?


I have learned, even more since I've had children, the value and importance of grandparents. I really appreciated mine when I was growing up. I had only my grandparents on my father's side, and they lived only 4 houses up from me, on the same side of the road, so I had access to them all of the time. What a blessing!


Even if your children have no natural grandparents living or don't have ones that have established or maintained a relationship with them, they can be adopted by grand-mentors. These are people who have chosen to love and invest in the life of your child.


My children's grandparents love them very much. And as you may already know, grandparents bring a pleasure and quality into our children's lives that we cannot. This relationship between them is special. I support that as much as possible.


I have raised my children in a manner to love, honor, and respect their grandparents. I've raised them to respect adults in general, but I wanted them to have a real appreciation for older citizens, especially their grandparents or older people they came into regular contact with. My mother taught us about the benefits of this when we were young. She just had a heart for older people (she still does), and so she passed that heart on to us. She spent hours in the company of older people, doing things with them, ministering to them and their needs, and just listening to them. We didn't totally or fully understand that then, but I certainly do now. My mother still goes out of her way to be available to the needs of elderly people. She has been greatly rewarded.


I love to hear the stories, tales, and experiences of older people. There is always richness there. And I love the older women who understand and live out the Titus model. They go out of their way to make sure that they impart their wisdom to the next generation. Our job is to then take that information home to our girls. This should always perpetuate itself.


Sunday, I was at church, and was looking in a room for one of my daughters. I peered in and she is talking to an 84 year old lady, with the biggest smile on her face, with so much joy--you could see and sense it, even from a distance. This daughter is only 9 years old. They were so engaged in conversation. This is a lady who decided a long time ago, that she loved us and that our family was worth her investing her time in. She thought she was being blessed by us, but really, we are so blessed by her. All of our children love her. She was in my wedding 2 years ago, and although she is not blood related, she was escorted by one of my boys down the aisle as the Honorary Grandmother. She is treated as such, and so, there is no difference. She tells everyone her role in our lives with pleasure. God has blessed us with such a gift and she has imparted things in our lives that will live on, even after she is gone.


This works out quite well because my children don't have their loving but distant natural grandparents around. We visit them several times a year, but they just simply don't have the privilege of being raised with grandparents near. Well, our grand-mentors make up for that. There are so many loving seniors who will be glad to have a relationship with your children, whether natural or in a local nursing or retirement home. There are so many opportunities awaiting them and your child. If you haven't already, won't you make an effort to help promote such a relationship? Your children will grow hearts of compassion and ones that seek after wisdom, and the older person will have freshness and joy added to their lives and so much to give to your child's.


Mom and Dad, there are just some relationships we can't copy or even come close to emulating, and that is one they share with God's seasoned people. I look forward to being a grandmother one day, if God says the same. I want to practice what I've been privy to. I want to give it all I've got, and I want to end well. What about you?