A Grandparents' Influence

So close to Christmas, and all, it gets me to thinking about extended family and the importance of those relationships. I am thinking about grandparents, in particular. A pair of long-time friends just announced their imminent grandparenthood to me yesterday. And it gets me to thinking about what a great opportunity this is to influence another generation! Relationships between grandparents and grandchildren can be easier-going than those between parents and children. It is in that relaxed atmosphere, emotionally speaking, that the mind is most receptive to learning.

I think about the deep influence that Walter and Helen Toner had on our lives.  Walter and Helen were my husband, Steve's, grandparents on his mother's side. Steve and I married so young that they became my grandparents, as well. We lived near them when we first got married and we often went over to their house on Saturday nights to play board games. We were young, poor college students and that was about all the entertainment we could afford on a Saturday night!

Walter and Helen were old-school in every way. They had met at a Christian Endeavor Society meeting. They were hard-core members of the Womens' Christian Temperance Union and fought against the "demon liquor". They taught children's Sunday School classes together at the First Church of God here in Fresno for over 50 years. And they worked tirelessly volunteering at The Fresno Rescue Mission and Evangel Home. They home-canned the food they grew in their back yard. When Steve and I got married, he had lived with his grandparents over the summer so he could work in Fresno. He canned tomatoes with his grandparents and brought about 12 dozen quart jars of canned tomatoes into our newly-formed home.

The apple didn't fall from the tree before it got turned into applesauce and put in a jar. Steve and I have spent most of our adult lives teaching childrens' and youth ministries in some capacity or another, we grow all kinds of fruit in our yard and turn it into home-canned jams and jellies, we have a vegetable garden in our back yard, we fight against substance abuse of all sorts through our volunteer work at The Fresno Rescue Mission and Rescue The Children.

So, to all you grandparents out there this Christmas, I say, "Pass it on." Life and love and strong values. Those things will outlive you!

The Apostle Paul made this observation about the passing-on of family faith in his apprentice, Timothy:

"For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you,which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well." 1 Timothy 1:5 (New American Standard Version)

--Posted by Mama O.