Getting started...again!

I first started this blog back in Feb. 2013. It is now Oct. 2013. I have had this project in mind this entire time, and felt guilty every night that I went to bed without working on it. I looked at all the verses that I was going to have to read and go through, and I let myself get overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. And I'm sure the devil was thrilled by that. But now he won't be so thrilled, because today I got my Bible back out and started again. Please join me.

I have The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible to help me, and I will be looking up the scriptures in my Holman Christian Standard Bible, and The Woman's Study Bible, New King James edition.

As I said in my first post, there aren't many references in the Bible to grandparents. There is actually only one. II Timothy 1:15 "clearly recalling your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also." This is Paul, writing to Timothy.

The first thing that strikes me here is that Lois, first as a mother, and then as a grandmother, is obviously living her faith and passing it on to her daughter, and then to her grandson. So, I need to be living and sharing my faith with my children and then with my grandchildren.

Since this was the only verse specifically about grandparents, I next went to the verses about mothers. There are 245 verses in the Bible containing the word "mother". Wow! So, let's begin. We already read one of them, in the verse above. Now let's start with more verses about mothers.

Genesis 2:24 "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." (Holman) To me, this verse is telling me that when my son took a wife, he left my home and began a new home with his wife. I am no longer the primary woman in his life. That is now my daughter-in-law. So my job here is to let go of my son and allow my daughter-in-law her rightful place.

Exodus 20:12 " Honor your father and mother, so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." This one, to me, is simple, and yet complex at the same time. God commands us to honor our parents. But what does that mean? I know it means to respect them. I also think it means to listen to them, even if we don't agree with them, or take the advice they are giving us. We need to remember that God gave us our parents to guide us. They have experience that we don't have. And many times they have wisdom that we don't have either.

To go along with this, I also believe that as we have kids of our own, we teach them to honor and respect us by showing honor and respect to our parents. We have to lead by example.

Exodus 20:15 "Whoever strikes his father or mother must be put to death."
Exodus 20:17 "Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death."  Okay, obviously I'm not telling you to put your children to death! Let's put this into context. In this part of Exodus, God has given Moses the laws for the Israelites and he is passing it on to  them. This is in a section about personal injury. I don't think that today we are supposed to take those verses literally. But I do think that we need to pay attention to them. Once again, God is commanding us to care for and respect (or honor) our parents. We are not to mistreat them or curse them. We need to not harm them. And once again, as our children see us live like this, they, in turn, will learn to live like this, and pass that down to their children.

So, as a grandparent, it is my duty to honor and respect my parents and model that for my children and grandchildren. It is my duty to live my faith so that my children, and then my grandchildren, can see it and develop faith in their lives.

That's all for today, but that's enough to start. My questions now, am I living my faith every day so that my children and grandchildren can see it? Am I honoring my parents and tending to their needs? Am I being the grandmother that God has called me to be? A lot to think and pray about.

God bless!

thank you, Aunt Diana!

I received a letter today from my Aunt Diana. She sent me some things that she has learned about being a grandparent, along with verses to go along with those observations. It is really great, not only because she shared things she has learned, but also because she gave me some scriptures and places to look that had not occured to me. The verse that just really stuck with me today was the last one she listed. Proverbs 17:6 "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers." My grandchildren are definitely as precious as a crown to me!

Today I am going to read thru all the verses I have found referring to mothers. I will share later what I learn. Have a blessed day!

learning new things

I am starting a new research project for myself and thought that I would also start a blog about it, in case anyone was interested. If not, that's fine. I think this will help me keep all my thoughts and findings in some sort of order all in one place, rather than the handful of notebooks I tend to carry around with me.

Allow me to give a little bit of background on this new project. About a year ago, I  began wondering exactly what my role as a grandparent was supposed to be. We had 8 grandchildren and moved to be closer to them so we could be more involved in their lives. I love spending time with them and getting to know them. Last week we were blessed with another grandson, giving us 7 grandsons and 2 granddaughters, with a 10th grandchild expected next month. And as I held Silas, the newest baby, and spent the past month with his siblings as we awaited his arrival, I again started to wonder exactly what God expected of me as a grandmother. So I decided to start doing some research.

I borrowed a copy of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and began to look up key words so I could find verses on my topic. I only found one verse that uses the term "grandmother", and none that used the terms "grandfather" or "grandparents".  But I also began to think that not only did I want to know what God expects of me as a grandparent, but also as a parent of adult children. So I looked up "father" and "mother" and found pages and pages of verses. So now I have a starting point. There are almost 5 1/2 pages of verses just for "father". So this is going to take me a little while to work thru, but I think in the end it will be worth it. I invite you to join me on this journey as I share what I find. If nothing else, please pray for me, that I will have understanding of what I read and that God will lead me where He wants me to go with this. And if you have any thoughts or suggestions on references, please feel free to comment and share them with me. I have written down some questions that I would eventually like to put into a survey to give to friends and family, to see what their thoughts are on this topic. But for now, I have several pages of verses to start reading.

Have a wonderful afternoon!