Learning, Loving, and Putting the GRAND in Grandparents. What is your legacy?

A few years back I wrote a story for the Colfax Record about grandparenting and interviewed people who had just become grandparents for the first time. When I asked a friend, Dena Saunders, what kind of a legacy she wanted to leave for the next generation it didn’t take long to respond.

“I want to be known as the Grandma who prays,”  she said. “If my grandkids have something that comes up in their lives I want them to know they can always ask me to pray with them and for them.”

I thought that was a sweet sentiment and obviously, it stuck with me. I didn’t have any grandkiddos at the time so I had imagined playing jacks, teaching them to bake cookies, and going to obscure sites like the Corn Palace or World’s Largest Ball of String. But Prayer hadn’t really crossed my mind until I held our first Grandbaby in my hands.

When I looked at the name on her little bassinet and saw that her middle name the same as mine I could barely even breathe. She was so tiny and light, yet I felt the weight of responsibility. I was a grandparent. My daughter never looked more beautiful. She was a mom and I knew, despite my shortcomings, she was going to be a wonderful mommy.

I had a front row seat watching the next generation make its own fresh beginnings. It did more than filled my heart to the brim, it spilled over with a love so pure I could have never imagined it.  So I prayed. Not just for our gently swaddled granddaughter, but for Emma and Thomas as they began their new chapter.

And when Augustine came along and I heard his cry ring out against the sterile walls I cried too. He was another Grand. Just as precious as the first. Seeing  Nathan, my firstborn, marvel at his firstborn was so surreal. I knew He and Roxanne were going to be great parents as well.

All I could think about was “Where.”

Where did the time go? It seemed like just a short chapter ago I was the one cradling him, counted his fingers and toes.

My role? To be a support to my kids as they raise their kids.  To be a Grandma who passes on a legacy beyond cookies and school yard games. To be a Grandma who prays with them and for them, in this new season we find ourselves in. I am sure I will fail miserably at some things, but that is just part of the learning process. I am in this for the long haul and loving it.

“And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season,”    Psalms 1:3 a

What do you want to leave as a lasting legacy for the next generation?