The Most Important Thing I Can Do as a Grandma . . .

As a grandma there are many things I do for and with my grandsons. Of course I bake cookies . . . I do believe a grandma’s cookie jar should never be empty when the boys are in the house! We play games – from hide-and-seek when they were little (it always made me laugh when I’d count and then say; “Ready or not, here I come! Oh where, oh where could my sweet boys be?” and then they would say; “Under the table.”, or “In the closet!” or wherever they were, “hiding”!) to now playing chess with Josiah – he likes to play chess with me, because he nearly always wins!

We make crafts, we cook, we read books, we write our own stories and we do fun things like candy cane hunts. We also read God’s Word together, journal in our prayer/thankful journals, do science projects together and we pray together.

Make 2017 the Year Where You Pray Deeper!

Praying for our grandchildren (and children) is something we all know we need to do, but it is also something many of us struggle with. We may feel like our prayers do not even make it through the ceiling above us and do not know what to say or how to pray. Our lives are busy, so finding the time to pray can be a challenge which we may not overcome and then days go by without us spending time in prayer.

Yet, we know prayer is important. We know, especially in this day and age, we - and our grandchildren (and children) need all the prayer they can get. We want to be people who pray; and people who pray deeply, but are not sure how to be this kind of person.

Well, please allow me to help you. I understand these feelings about prayer and struggled many years to be a person who prayed. Then one Sunday I heard Dr. Ed Dobson preach about how the best way to pray is to pray Scripture. This made sense to me, so being a writer, I started at Genesis and worked my way through the Bible to Revelation. Whenever I came to a passage I could pray, I wrote it out as a personalized Scripture prayer and divided it into seven parts, so I would be able to pray the passage more deeply by praying each portion over a week's time. This allowed me to pray regularly and to pray Scripture more deeply by spending a week praying through each passage!

Let's Talk Grandparenting Ministry - Science, the Bible & Fun!

Stop and think for a moment about how a strong Grandparenting Ministry helps our Children's Ministry be much stronger as well; and as you do, think about what we want to see happen in this ministry with the grandparents in our church. Clearly, we want to engage them; help them see and understand how they still have a very important job to do. Their "job" is not over when their own children are grown. These years are not the time to just retire and recreate. There are very important things for them to do in passing on a heritage of faith!

Yes, we want to, and need to engage the grandparents in our churches, but we also have to equip them. We need to provide resources they can use which will help them feel able to pass on a heritage of faith. I've talked with many grandparents who tell me they want to pass on a heritage of faith, but they do not know how to do so; they do not know what to do.

Thursdays = Science, the Bible & Fun!

My husband and I are members at a large church (about 6000 people). Our church is in the middle of a major building and renovation project. Since April we have been meeting at a local college (Calvin College) on Sundays in their sports arena, as our own auditorium is being renovated (balcony removed, roof raised a few inches, back wall pushed back to make more room). We are hoping to return to our newly renovated auditorium in December.

The Children's Ministry area is also being made new with a new addition, but it will not be ready until August 2017. So, due to available space issues on Wednesdays (the old Children's Ministry area) they had to limit registration in our mid-week ministry this year. I knew this was going to be the "plan" while the new area was being built, so a year ago I wrote, Science, the Bible & Fun to use with my grandsons while the new children's area was being built. (My grandsons attend my church's mid-week ministry.)

Today is the first day of our Science, the Bible & Fun! We decided to have it on Thursday nights this year, so their poppa is picking them up from school and we will have supper together. After supper we will spend time discovering more about God through fun science projects, work on crafts or bake something tasty and most importantly, learn about real Bible people who chose to love, know and follow God. We will talk about how we can do the same and spend time learning to pray the Psalms back to God. The boys will learn how to keep a prayer journal . . . it is my prayer at the end of our year of Science, the Bible & Fun, they will be boys who are serious about talking to and with God!

So, tonight we will be having fun with a science project where we combine yeast, dish soap and peroxide . . . we will learn about obeying from this project. We will make our prayer journals, play some fun games and spend time talking about Jeremiah 29 and 33 and how God promises to listen to and answer our prayers! Over the coming months we will learn about Noah, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Jesus, Daniel, Caleb, John and the Judges - and have a lot of fun doing so!

As I mentioned, I wrote Science, the Bible & Fun to use with my grandsons, but it is available for you to use with your grandchildren/children, too! You'll find all the details at this link . . . check it out and try this free lesson, too! This is one tool you can use as a grandparent to pass faith to your grandchildren!

I'm Giving a Book Away Tomorrow - You Could Win!

I talk a lot about passing on a heritage of faith to our grandchildren, but you may be wondering how do you actually do this? You know it is important - even essential - for you to do this, but how do you pass on your faith whether you are a grandparent or a parent? Is this something you can actually do?

First of all, the answer is, yes! Passing on your faith is something you can actually do! The simple answer for "how" you do this, is you take a two prong approach to it . . . you plan times to specifically focus on passing on your faith and you work it into the day-in-day-out living of life by watching for those opportunities when you are able to connect life with your faith.

As for more info on how to do these things, take a look at my book;  It is Impossible to Spoil Grandchildren; and Other Important Facts for Grandparents & Parents, Too!. Along with, "sweet boy stories" (I am a grandma, after all!) in each chapter in this book I share specific ways you can pass your faith to your grandchildren!

Grandparent's Day & Another Giveaway!

Yesterday I announced a special Grandparent's Day giveaway of my book  Deeper In 4 Grandparents & Parents, Too! Praying the Scriptures for the Children You Love - Psalms Edition, - you'll find all the specifics about how you may enter the drawing at this link. Today I want to announce another giveaway for Grandparent's Day . . . my book; It is Impossible to Spoil Grandchildren; and Other Important Facts for Grandparents & Parents, Too!

In this book I share some important facts, such as, It is Impossible to Spoil Grandchildren, A Grandma's Lap is a Place for a Grandchild, Some Things are Just Obvious, and many more. Each chapter not only shares a "fact", but connects these facts with God's Word and how He models to us what it means to love well, so we will be able to do the same with our grandchildren/children.

Interspersed with fun "sweet boy stories", this book will have you laughing, recalling your own sweet grandchildren/children stories and most importantly, encourage you to pass faith to the children you love!

Since I wrote this book, I thought it might be nice for you to see what others say about it -

Grandparent's Day & a Giveaway!

September 11, 2016 is Grandparent's Day . . . a day set aside to, " honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children's children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer".

It is also the day for the observance of the Million Praying Grandparents, with the goal of, "mobilizing Christian grandparents worldwide to regularly and intentionally pray for their grandchildren, families, and the influences in their grandchildren’s lives." (You'll learn more about how you can become one of the million praying grandparents at this link.)

So, with Grandparent's Day just around the corner and the focus upon the Million Praying Grandparents, I thought it sounded like the perfect time to have a giveaway . . . I'm giving away one of my Deeper In 4 Grandparents & Parents, Too! Praying the Scriptures for the Children You Love - Psalms Edition!