Something to Hold On To

You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV

The toughest part about teaching our grandchildren is that real learning is more easily caught than taught. My mother meant well when she tried to share with me her love of art and music by dragging me through The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and playing recordings of Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky at dinner. But my idea of real culture meant listening to “She Wore An Itsy-Bitsy Teennie Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” and checking out artwork in Mad magazine. We as grandparents, in this time when that polka-dot bikini might be worn by anybody and magazines have been replaced by online gaming and worse, it is a daunting task to know how to be an influence for Christ on our grandkids. Telling them how things used to be when we were young, tends to get them to roll their eyes, while politely pretending to listen until we are done. I have written them homeschool lessons, bought them books which I hoped they would like and even tried teaching them a smattering of Portuguese (my second language.) But none of these approaches has done more than to have left them the impression that Poppy is kind of strange.

On the other hand, when we have gone for long walks together (one kid at a time), something wonderful sometimes happens. On that special spur of the moment when we spot a gopher turtle rushing for his den, see an alligator slide beneath the surface of a pond or come upon an eagle’s nest, something inside them seems to click. In the same way, teaching our precious grandchildren about Jesus, happens more when we bow to pray in the restaurant, or sing a worship song while we ride in the car, than by a thousand prayers in church or a dozen “Christian concerts.” Those kind of moments are precious, but they are rare. It might seem more efficient to only stop and visit on important occasions, like Christmas, birthdays, or Sundays at church, But the best way to be around for the special moments, is to be there for all the ordinary ones as well. Being there when they lay down for naps, sitting with them while their folks go out for dinner or walking them down to the park, tells then that we love them, and that maybe – just maybe, what we tell them about Jesus is something that is worth holding onto!

Peter Caligiuri has been writing poetry since he was a teenager. Some of his short poems and devotionals have appeared in various periodicals such as Secret Place, Breakthrough Intercessor and The Upper Room. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education/English from Western Connecticut State College as well as having attended Elim Bible College. You can read more from Peter at Praise2Worship.

Image by Prakasit Khuansuwan from Pixabay