Lessons learned from grandparenting

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Tuesday's Grand Connection Thought
by Mary May Larmoyeux

I was reading some quotes about grandparents; here are a few of my favorites:

Grandmothers are just antique little girls. (Author Unknown)

Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild. (Welsh Proverb)

Grandparenting is a wonderful time of life. Finally we can have the ice cream without first eating the vegetables. (Lois Wyse)

Did you get a smile on your face as your read these quotes. I sure did.

Before our first grandchild was born, my friends warned me that there were no words to express the thrill of being a grandparent. Now I understand that it’s impossible to really describe the joy this antique little girl has when she plays tea party with her three-year-old granddaughter.

Before I had grands I thought I knew how to love. Now I know that the mistakes that I made as a parent had a purpose—to mold me into a grandparent who can love with more understanding and patience.

Before I had grandkids I believed children should eat their vegetables before dessert. But now I know the grands can sometimes eat their ice cream at Grandma's house before the veggies. After all, it’s up to their parents to see that they eat right. (smile)

What has grandparenting taught you?

Have a great week,
Mary
co-author of The Grand Connection: 365 Ways to Connect with Your Grandchild's Heart

© 2008 by Mary May Larmoyeux. All rights reserved.

Lessons Learned

Tuesday’s Thought

The names of those who left a comment during July or August were entered into a drawing for a copy of the book While They Were Sleeping: 12 Character Traits for Moms [Grandmoms] to Pray.

And the winner is ... Gayla Grace. Congrats, Gayla!


As I’m writing this, almost two million people have been evacuated from the Gulf in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav’s arrival this morning. Most are now breathing a sigh of relief as Gustav has been downgraded to a Category One.

Evacuating 1.9 million people in several days is no small feat. I think that everyone would say that the local, state, and federal governments learned a lot from what did not happen with Hurricane Katrina, and they applied what they learned.

As I thought about the hard lessons learned from Katrina, I thought about some hard lessons that I’ve learned in my life—to wait on God’s timing, to hold my tongue, to save that dollar today because we might need it tomorrow. Proverbs 28:26b (The Message) says, “Real survivors learn wisdom from others.”

As grandparents, we have an opportunity to share some of our life-lessons with our grands. They can learn from us so they don’t need to make the same mistakes.

One of Jim and my pastors tells a story of his uncle taking him to a toy store and telling him that he could have anything that he wanted. He could have had an electric train or gigantic erector set. Instead he chose a small trinket and wondered years later Why did I do that?

Our pastor wanted us to learn from his mistake - to realize that too often when God offers us so much, we settle for so little.

He is able,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
http://grandconnection.blogspot.com/