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What readers have to say about their grandparents
A Port in the Storm
My grandmother was the one who took me to church at a young age and introduced me to Jesus. She was the one who raised me during the early years after my parents divorced. She was the one who prayed for me as I grew up, going between parents and providing a port in the storm when things got too tense with my parents. Had it not been for my godly grandmother, I shudder to think how my life would have turned out. Even though as an adult, I have often failed, her example to me has been my beacon and I thank God for her. To me, she was the epitome of Jesus in the earth. She truly expressed his love for me through her life.
Holly Ruddy
Huber Heights, OH
In Love with Jesus
Both my mother and grandmother were in love with Jesus. They showed it in their everyday lives. Seeing this 'love in action' made Jesus real to me and created the salt and light to see him and his love for me.
I can remember both of them in very practical ways demonstrating his reality in their lives. They both sacrificed time to share him with those the Lord put in their path. I still remember to this day my Mom sharing her testimony with others. She did it sweetly and sincerely.
My dear grandmother always had time for her grandchildren. When she was 65 years old, she took an 8-year-old grandson to finish rearing. She was still working, but she took him in and sacrificed time and effort for this child.
I can remember how she created occasions and events, and made them memorable by going the extra mile to make it special. Every Saturday night, which I would go and spend with Grandma, she would review and put the finishing touches on her Sunday School lesson. I particularly remember one about following the leading of Jesus. As she wrote out the lesson, she drew little brown footprints on the page. We laughed when I asked her why she was using peanuts to illustrate her lesson. But she made it clear that Jesus was to lead and we were to lean on, and trust in, him.
Because of the influence and godly lives of my mother and grandmother, I saw the reality and practicality of a risen and living Lord. When I was 11 years old, I gave my heart to this wonderful Savior, who so lovingly lead me to himself through their lives. How I thank my Lord for them! Both of them are in glory now, forever with the Lord Jesus whom they loved and so faithfully served.
Karon Damewood
Beltsville, MD
Grandpa's Bible School
My Grandfather was a man of strong faith and had no problems sharing it with his grandchildren. Each year we all gathered in a sort of family reunion at the outer banks of North Carolina. Grandpa managed to gather the grandkids each day (the oldest being about 8) and tell us Bible stories.
One year each day we had "Grandpa's Vacation Bible School," and at the end of the week we had memorized John 3:16. Grandpa gave each of us a little Bible in which he wrote why he presented it and what we had memorized. When he died, one of the memories that brought a smile to the grandchildren's faces was "Grandpa's Vacation Bible School" and several of us managed to dig up our bibles and bring them. We all managed to remember the verse that he taught us.
Becky Davidson
St. Louis, MO
A Spiritual Gardener
My country farm grandmother taught me the traditional work ethic of 'early to bed, early to rise' that has molded my success in juggling career, family, and friends. She also taught me how to make old-fashioned chicken and dumplings! Her vegetable garden was a produce market, and her flowers were the stuff that magazine photos are made of — right down to the little rose moss along the path leading to the farmhouse.
She made biscuits in the kitchen at 5:00 a.m. every day while singing hymns. She had a ceramic dish that always had a dollar's worth of quarters in it for each grandchild who came to visit. We sat on the front porch swing and ate watermelon fresh from the field. The ladies would come over to make a quilt from a frame hung right in the middle of the living room! Best of all, I remember the reverence in her voice as the pastor asked Granny Hunt if she would pray on Sunday mornings. I only hope I can measure up in my grandmothering.
Debbie Carroccio
Woodbury, Minnesota
Unconditional Love
This poem was written because of a beautiful lady that gave unconditional love to her children and grandchildren, a legacy of her faith that was passed from her mother. I had the honor and privilege to have the wisdom, knowledge and the love for God passed down from these two women. God blessed me with the love of a great-grandmother as well as a grandmother to shape my life. They truly were the lighthouses God sent me to ensure that I would one day grow to love him as much as they did, and to share with the grandchildren that will one day grace my own life. There lights continue to guide and show me the unconditional love that flows from God through them.
That Old Lighthouse
As I view the subsistence of my life, a melody appears,
to the reflections of a child and the sounds of time,
building to a place, I've become.
A face with tiny wrinkles, the hair a tint of gray.
Her eyes hold a gleam, to help a dreamer on their way.
My Grand Old Lighthouse to this day.
A hand firm but filled with love
a child could understand.
A gentleness of spirit to urge you into another day,
my first glimpse of Jesus,
in my Grand Old Lighthouse to this day.
The pains of a child become so real as
I look back through those eyes to see
how she wished to make all the hurt stop.
The point reached between Grandmother and child,
the place where each knows to look
at the peak of dawn and the destination She would choose
for each of her bundles of delight.
She still stands tall through years of strife,
to make me realize
Grandmother
you're that Grand Old Lighthouse in my life.
Donna Robbins
Niagara Falls, NY
Giving it All
Grandpa always wore overalls and a brown hat as he worked his chores on the farm, milking Babe the cow and feeding the animals and working in the fields. In the summertime his bald head would look so funny and bright against the deep tan of his face. He would whistle and sing and dance a jig as he came in the door through the back porch, which would startle my grandmother, and then we would all giggle.
When we visited the farm, we city grandkids were intrigued by the little things grandpa was so good to point out — the habits of the hogs and the structure of the chickens' nests and the cotton balls being formed on the plants. Every time he sang hymns in church, he would get a tear in his eye. Best of all was the time he donated his private funds to help my parents buy me a piano — it was a whopping $70, and the tightly wrapped wad of dollar bills smelled like the rafters of the barn where it had been stashed for as long as it had taken him to save it.
He cultivated our sense of humor, our outlook on life, and our curiosity as carefully as he worked his crops. Thank God for a sensitive, hardworking grandpa.
Debbie Carroccio
Woodbury, Minnesota
A Praying Grandmother
I became a Christian in my twenties. I had been exposed to religion, but never started a relationship with Jesus until I was 25.
One holiday, all of us gals were sitting around visiting, and I made the comment that somebody had to have been praying for me all of my life because God had protected me in so many ways and had brought me to himself. There were no evangelists out there, but there were definitely angels. My grandma raised her hand, smiled and said, "I've been praying for you."
Thank God for praying Grandmas and for praying moms. I am now a praying Mom, and I have seen God answer my prayers for my children on a regular basis.
Praise the Lord.
Valerie Armstrong
Norton, Kansas
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