Equip Grandparents to Pass on a Heritage of Faith: Serve God & Do Not be Distracted by the World!

I've been writing all week about how grandparents are part of God's plan to pass on a heritage of faith to their grandchildren, and we need to move some of our "eggs" to another "basket" and focus on encouraging and equipping them to do so. Today as I finish looking at Deuteronomy 6, I want to think about what it means when it tells us to - 

Fear the Lord  your God, serve him only.

Yesterday I talked about how the people of Israel had trouble with remembering all the things God did for them; how He saved them, led them and provided for them. Over and over they forgot. I said; "We tend to do the same. We think the things we have are because of what we have done instead of remembering all we have are blessings from the hand of God. We forget God's goodness, but He says to be careful we do not forget. He wants us to remember and we need to remember. It is an important part of passing on a heritage of faith because if grandparents do not remember God and His many blessings, their grandchildren are unlikely to do it." 

We all so easily become distracted by the things in this world. We lose focus of what is truly most important and think things like earning more money, taking bigger and better vacations, owning a bigger and new home, driving new cars, etc. are important, when in truth, none of these things matter. Not really. If the grandparents in our ministries end up with all these things, but fail to pass on a heritage of faith to their grandchildren will they say, "Oh well. I had a great car, house and big bank account!"? No. Nothing, please allow me to repeat, NOTHING is more important than passing on a heritage of faith to their grandchildren.

If we are serious about focusing on encouraging and equipping the grandparents in our ministries so they are able to pass on a heritage of faith, we have to stay focused and help them stay focused on what is really important, so they do not become distracted by this world. We need to help them remember Who they serve. We can do this in the following ways . . . 

• Challenge them to focus on while being thankful for the blessings God gives them, they really need to focus on communicating to their grandchildren how unimportant "things" actually are and how knowing, loving and walking with God are far, far more important than any "thing" could ever be.
• Encourage them to be careful not to communicate new cars, lots of money, the newest tech or any other "things" are most important.
• Focus on helping them communicate to their grandchildren how exciting and amazing it is to know and walk with God - far, far more exciting and amazing than any "thing".
• Encourage them to make, "Journey Books" where they and their grandchildren write and/or draw what is happening in their lives to help them know and walk with God more closely. Review these pages frequently!
• Remind them to engage their grandchildren in serving God through service projects whether it is visiting an elderly neighbor, raising money for Bunnies through WorldHelp or gathering gently used toys and clothes to donate to the church clothes pantry.

These are just a few ideas of how we can encourage and equip grandparents to pass on a heritage of faith by knowing what is truly most important, so they are not distracted by the things in this world and remembering Who they serve!