Generational influence: A story of love from a grandmother and grand daughter Part II
Grandma Jane
Throughout my youth, the influence of my grandparents was shaping my character without me even knowing. However, In time as many young men and women do, I found myself looking for answers in the wrong places. I started to involve myself with a more…secular crowd. I found myself partying, never doing anything that I couldn’t turn back from, but doing enough to turn a few heads in those I respected most. After many years of this and eventually, life became so impossible, I started to question if there was really an option to dig myself out. I was doing this, and often it didn’t make me feel as good as I thought it would, my marriage was struggling and I was starting to feel as though darkness itself was inevitable. That earlier influence was deep inside me though and I turned to God for guidance. He showed me, Psalm 50:15 “Call on me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.”
My grandparents had shown me I could trust in God and His Word. I promised God to share this with my children and others. I was given the opportunity to make good on this when I received a blessing from a man I once invited to church. He said, “ I found God and a church home because you invited me to church, thank you.” This simple act of invitation started a whole new generational influence as now his children are followers of Christ.
In Deuteronomy 6:6-7 we learn, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
The Godly influence of my granddaughter Kristen has helped me grow even more as we talk and share many things. We are one in love, one in God, a bond that will forever be unbroken.
Kristen’s
My grandmother Jane, no matter what she was going through, would put aside her life and take me to church every Sunday I wanted to go. Growing up I would look forward to that Sunday spent with grandma and the influential women she surrounded us with. We would pick up my great-grandmother and go to church together. Once at the church, we were always greeted with love, warm smiles, and hugs from family and friends.
1 John 4:7 says Let us love one another: for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
The love could always be felt in that church.
From a young age, I have seen and experienced the blessing of a praying grandmother and the love of Godly women. From the constant prayers and Bible teachings, I got myself involved with vacation bible school and a program with puppets where we would go to nursing homes, hospitals, and rescue missions to put on shows for people. Through these experiences I got to witness these women leading and showing so much compassion to others it amazed me. Throughout my life, my relationship with God has changed. The one constant is the foundation my grandmother helped establish like a rock in my life, God will always be there when you’re ready. God blessed me with women like her who nudge me back to Him when I’m too far into myself. Her influence brought me around other God-fearing women and showed me what it meant to have the heart of Jesus.
Every opportunity is a learning experience and a way to look for God in our situation. Her faith, consistency, compassion, and love always drove me to want to know the God she loved. Learning through her eyes has given me the advantage of learning empathy and compassion and how to love others as Jesus would want us to. I am grateful for her and how she has fought alongside me in my life and kept God active in our family; God has always been the head of her life and the heart of the family.
Choose God because as we have experienced, choosing Him has the opportunity to influence generations to come.
Have a blessed week!
Kristen and Jane
