Jesus wanted to serve God's purposes, while
The Pharisees wanted to serve their own version of things.There is no shortage of personal agendas in the world. When we zero in on God's agenda, we have a chance to filter out some of the confusion and temptation. We have a reason for putting the right purpose out in front (Philippians 3):
...I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.Does God have a Jesus role for us as grandparents?
I think the answer is to learn to love with God's mature love. The biblical journey, from Genesis to Revelation, is the maturing of a raucous, rowdy earth into a stellar and permanent (re)union with God, where he (re)claims that which he designed us once to be. Our contribution is acknowledging Jesus and thus learning to fit into God's frame of love.
Then our agenda as grandparents can move into these hallmarks of maturity:
Embracing parent rules and expectations and living within them.
Embracing the other grandparents and celebrating their value and uniqueness.
Embracing the love and joy of Jesus and living it out in our demeanor and decisions.When we live like this, our every embrace of these incredible little blessings known as grandchildren feeds their strength and marinates them with love for all they face in the world.
The greatest face we can wear in front of our grandchildren is mature love. Then they have seen a glimpse of Christ.
Lord, help my love mature. Help me to embrace where I'm tempted to whine and compare. Help me to set aside what I think to rather serve within the frame of the parents. Help me encourage their journey and support them with time, energy and popsicles. Help me to respectfully love every other member of the extended family that you have woven. Help me become the best I can be so that my part of the fabric of adults in these kids' lives will lend its uniqueness and strength. Thank you for the genius of the roles of grandparents and grandchildren. It is so clearly another layer of your love.
Comments are welcome at feedyourstrength@gmail.com.
