How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Impress God's Word Upon Our Grandchildren!

I have been writing about how our "job" is not finished just because our children are grown. If we have grandchildren we still have a very important job to do. We are part of what Deuteronomy 6 is talking about. We are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren.

I looked at the first step in doing this; being people of the Word who have God's words, "upon our heart". You will find what I had to say about this at the following link.

Today I want to look at the next step . . .

Deuteronomy 6 says -

Let these words, "be on your heart. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget  the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the Lord  your God, serve him only."

We have to - 

• Impress them upon our grandchildren - this means there is action involved. We are not able to just sit back and say we have already, "done our job". We have to be engaged!

The word "impress" means; "To make a mark or design on; to imprint." You are not able to, "impress, make a mark or imprint" in this way by just sitting still. You have to be intentional to do this. It requires action and a choice. 

And, God's Word is what we are instructed to, "impress" upon our grandchildren. If we want to impress God's words upon our grandchildren, we have to be actively focused on doing so. It won't happen just by happenstance. The world is very focused on impressing it's "values" - or lack thereof - upon our grandchildren. If we just sit back and, "hope for the best", we are likely to see our grandchildren wander away from the Lord.

The price is high for not handing down a heritage of faith; too high for me. So how are we able to "impress" God's Words on our grandchildren? Consider the following . . . 

• Again, if we want our grandchildren to love God's Word and be "people of the Word", they have to see we are. Share with our grandchildren what we are learning from God's Word.
• Read God's Word with our grandchildren.
• Ask our grandchildren what they are learning from God's Word.
• Be focused on pointing your grandchildren to God's Word when they face challenges.
• And most importantly, be focused on living God's Word in your day-in-day-out life.

These are just a few ideas of how we are able to impress God's Word upon our grandchildren, because when we do this, we are handing down a heritage of faith!

What do you do to impress God's Word upon your grandchildren?

#grandmas #handingdownthefaith #itmatterswhatwedo #grandparentingonpurpose