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!