gratitude: grandparents

     

I wasn’t privileged to have relationships with all four of my grandparents, but I have come to see just how far-reaching that generation’s influence can be. My two grandfathers were never part of my life — my dad’s father, on the left, died when I was maybe 7 years old, and my mom’s father, on the right, passed away 3 years before I was born — so I only got to know my two grandmothers. Even then, my dad’s mother also passed away before my teen years, leaving me to know only one grandmother throughout most of my life. Unfortunately, she was a difficult woman to love, so I never really came to appreciate how important and influential grandparents can be for a child. Since my sisters have become mothers, I’ve learned what a truly special relationship can be formed between kids and their grandparents, and at the same time I’ve seen a lot of grandparent influence in my own life despite having little memory of my own. I look at photos and see resemblances to my own parents. I hear similarities in their voices and I recognize phrases that were once used by my grandparents. They influenced our spiritual lives and shared enough love that my own parents knew how to love us. Even the things that my mom set out specifically to change when she became a parent were influenced by her own mother and father. My life has been infused with the influence of grandparents despite not having deeply intimate relationships with them. And it excites me so much to think that my niece and nephews will have a rich history upon which to draw in their own lives. If I have been blessed by limited relationships, how much more so for our kids who continue to be touched by grandparents speaking Truth and love into their daily lives. I’m so thankful to be witness to it.