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Tag: Lori Hatcher

  • 10 of the Greatest Things about Being a Grandparent

    10 of the Greatest Things about Being a Grandparent

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    Many of us have walked with the Lord most of our lives and have decades of faith stories to pass along to our grandchildren. Not only can we share how we came to faith in Christ, but we can also tell them how God answered our prayers, provided for our needs, and rescued us from impossible situations.

    My grands love to hear my husband and me tell how God provided money for us to go to college, gave us a computer when ours died, and sent a trucker to rescue us from the side of the road when our car broke down.

    Children need to hear that faith is real and relevant. Our lives provide the perfect backdrop for contemporary faith stories that connect an abstract God to real people. What a privilege to share our faith with the next generation.

    10. Praying for Our Grandchildren

    One of the greatest privileges and one the greatest responsibilities Christian grandparents have is the honor of praying for future generations. When I was pregnant with my children, we began praying for their health, growth, and safety. We prayed God would save them early in life, keep them pure, and provide godly spouses. Now we pray the same things for our grandchildren.  

    Each morning we ask God to protect them physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We ask Him to call them to Himself at a young age and grow their faith. We ask God to make them mighty men and women of God. As they’ve grow older, they’ve begun to share their own prayer requests with us.

    We pray with them and follow up to see how God answered.

    In Exodus 20:6, God promises to show “love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” As Christian grandparents, we can pray for God to continue the legacy of faith He began in us and extend it for a thousand generations, raising up mighty men and women within our family.

    When my friends went on and on about the joy of grandparenting, I thought to myself, It can’t be that great. Now that I have four grandchildren, I know better. Grandparenting comes with all the privileges I mentioned here and a hundred more. For these, we can thank God, the giver of all good gifts.

    Photo Credit: ©Pexels/Eduardo-Braga

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    Lori Hatcher

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  • 10 Things Your Adult Children Wish You’d Say to Your Grandkids

    10 Things Your Adult Children Wish You’d Say to Your Grandkids

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    When I was expecting my first child, I gave my mom a gift—a photo album big enough to hold lots of pictures of the baby. On the cover, it said, Grandma’s Brag Book.

    If you ask today’s grandparents about their grandkids, they’re more likely to whip out their iPhone and start scrolling. Regardless of what means they use, grandparents love to brag on their grandchildren’s accomplishments.

    It’s wonderful to recognize and celebrate their achievements, but we must be careful to remind our grandchildren that who they are is much more important than what they do.

    To reinforce this, commend them for kind deeds, thoughtful gestures, and unselfish acts. Praise them in public and in private when you “catch” them doing something that honors God or others.

    When they attempt something and fail, acknowledge their efforts, and talk about the life lessons they learned in the process.

    4. “There are rules at Grandma’s house.”

    Many grandparents admit they struggle to find the balance between being too strict and too lenient with their grandchildren.

    Some have so many rules that a visit to their house is as much fun as a trip to an art museum. Others have no rules, looking the other way while their precious cherubs run wild and wreak havoc.

    Most understand that special privileges, food, and activities are part of what make visits to grandma’s house so fun. At the same time, children need to learn proper behavior in different settings.

    Your adult children will thank you when you explain and enforce reasonable expectations, because it reinforces what they’re (hopefully) training their children to do.

    If they’re teaching the kids to clean up after themselves, and you let them pull every game out of the closet and not put any away, you undermine their training. If rules at home don’t allow them to jump on the furniture, and you allow them to use your couch as a trampoline, you make Mom and Dad’s job that much harder.

    At our house we have a few basic rules: Clean up your mess. Treat Gigi and Papa’s things respectfully. Be thankful and kind.

    This helps ensure that the grandkids understand that the world is full of rules that are for their own good, instead of thinking of Mom and Dad’s as the boring place and Gigi and Papa’s as the fun place.

    Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Comstock

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    Lori Hatcher

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