Entrusted with Their Hearts

Give your grandchildren a firm foundation of faith.

by STEPHANIE MURPHY

IN TODAY’S WORLD, our grandchildren need us to give them a firm foundation of faith. They are receiving many confusing and incongruent messages in our upside-down world. As grandparents, we play a unique and valuable role in the lives of our grandchildren. In addition to providing love and attention, we can also give them a heritage of faith that will help anchor their own faith in these changing times.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Although my grandparents were not strong believers, they gave me a biblical heritage by sending me to Sunday School each week.

At church, I had the influence of surrogate grandparents who influenced my life by how they lived out their faith. Even though many of us live at a distance from our grandchildren, we can still have an impact on their lives in important ways.

Here are seven ways we can give our grandchildren a firm foundation of faith:

1. Be close to God. The best thing we can do for our grandchildren is to be sure we are walking close to God. We don’t only want to pass along biblical knowledge to them, but we also need to be a living example of what it means to have a personal relationship with God.
2. Be close to your grandchildren. Even if at times it seems our grandkids are too busy, they need to have a close relationship with us. They need our love, attention, and support. We can show them they are the “apple of our eye” by delighting in them.
3. Tell them your stories. Yes, our stories are part of their heritage of faith. They may not act interested at the time, but they are soaking up our stories, and this gives them a sense of connection and stability. Talk to them about your faith, sharing what God has done for you through the years and your hope for eternity.
4. Share the gospel with them. Be sure they understand the plan of salvation and how to place their faith in Jesus to save them. Our deep love for our grandchildren provides a beautiful background for sharing God’s love with them.
5. Teach them to look to the Bible as their source of truth. We can strengthen our grandchildren’s foundation of faith by providing an explanation of the truth and wisdom that comes from God’s Word. They will face many falsehoods in our culture, and they need to know where to look to sort through the world’s deceptions.

God’s truth is timeless and is not the situational truth that culture embraces.

6. Help them to understand their identity in Christ. Today’s culture tries to convince our young people that their value is connected with things: money, talent, looks, popularity. These things are transient. Helping our grandchildren understand that their true identity is in Christ gives them a solid foundation on which to build their lives.
7. Give them hope. Things can look hopeless at times for young people who are growing up in such a time as this. They have their whole lives ahead of them, and yet they are faced with chaos and uncertainties that we did not have to deal with when we were growing up. It is important to help them understand their eternal destiny — a destiny that transcends this world.

Isaiah 5:20 states, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

As grandparents, we are entrusted with giving our grandchildren a firm foundation of faith. It is not an easy task. The time in which we live compels us to be intentional about the challenge before us as we continue to let our light shine and prayerfully seek God’s guidance.

STEPHANIE MURPHY, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and missionary. Her latest book, Rising Higher, is available in both English and Spanish at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Visit her devotional blog at stephanieannmurphy.com.

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This article originally appeared in Mature Living magazine (April 2022). For more articles like this, subscribe to Mature Living.