I am a Mama Bear, but my three girls are grown. They’ve made me Nana to ten (so far), eight biologically and two by adoption. I pray my grandchildren will trust Jesus as Savior and face life’s challenges with bold and unshakeable faith. But changes in the spiritual climate, cultural language, and technological amenities of my grandkids’ era have produced a world alien to me as a grandparent. It’s a challenge to communicate truths about what Jesus has done in my life, what Scripture means and how it applies to current life, and how Christianity’s answers are relevant to the issues my grandkids face.
But we Nana Bears don’t give up when it comes to our cubs. We will fight for them in prayer and in our words. To know how to pray and what to say will require sacrifice on our part. We might even need to learn a thing or two. But that’s part of embracing God’s call to us to disciple our grandchildren. Are you up for it? Here are three steps you can take to start building the bedrock of your grandchildren’s faith. We are called to disciple our grandkids. Are you up to the task? Here are three ways you can begin sharing the Christian faith with your grandkids today. Share on X
1. Become a confident contender for the faith.
If you want to talk with your grandkids about faith issues, you need to know what the issues are, how they present themselves in the lives of your grandchildren, and how to respond with truth. What’s that I hear? You can’t learn things anymore? Your memory isn’t what it used to be? Look. I get it. At least once a day I walk into my pantry to get something, then stand there blankly surveying my shelves because I can’t remember what it was. Short-term memory fails us more as we age, but if you are reading this post, it’s a good sign that you can still learn. While you can’t learn everything, you can learn something.
Action: Invite your grandchild to read a kids’ apologetics book with you. Some great authors who write to kids about evidence for the truth of Christianity include Elizabeth Urbanowicz, Frank Turek and Hanna Sims, J. Warner Wallace and Susie Wallace, JD Camorlinga, and Lee Strobel. They all have great books or interactive workbooks you can read and work through with your grandkids. Read together in person, on the phone, or by long-distance video call (you may need to buy two copies!).
If you want to prepare before talking with your grandchild, read an apologetics book from our resource list such as Mama Bear Apologetics or one of Natasha Crain’s books like Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side. However you do it, take one action to prepare yourself to be a confident contender who passes on the truths of the Christian faith to your grandchildren.
2. Become a memorial stone stacker.
In Joshua 4, Israel’s new leader led God’s people on dry ground across the Jordan River into the Promised Land as God miraculously pushed back flooding waters with an east wind. Once across, Joshua stacked up memorial stones in the dry riverbed. Once the waters returned, the stacked stones jutting out of the water bore witness that God loved and provided for His people. As aging brings aches and ailments, we can avoid complaining by recounting to our grandchildren examples of God’s goodness and power displayed in our lives.
Action: Tell your grandkids about a time when God intervened in your or your family’s life unmistakably. Explain what the event teaches about the nature of God. In a later conversation, ask them to retell the story so it gets embedded in their long-term memory. As you think of more memories, write them down, and share them with your grandkids. When they experience suffering, they will recall how God has shown faithfulness and love to their family in the past and be assured He will bring them through whatever crises they face.
3. Become a biblical truth tracker.
I recently looked through old letters my mom had saved, each recording a piece of our family’s messy love story. The stories are monuments to human weaknesses and God’s greatness. The Bible records God’s work throughout history, often through messy stories like our own. Despite human failure, nothing could stop His loving plan of redemption. How about writing down truths you’ve learned from Scripture for your grandkids to read and learn from long after you’ve gone?
Action: Purchase a journaling Bible with wide margins for note-taking. Write notes for a year or more, then give it to a grandchild on a special occasion, such as an 18th birthday. What kinds of notes should you take? Write devotional, Bible study, and sermon insights. Write personal prayers and encouragements, addressing your grandchild by name. Write personal experiences in which scriptural truths became real to you. Write evidence supporting Scripture’s truth claims. Explain the meanings of words, phrases, sentences, and passages.
Putting It All Together
Does the action list look intimidating? No worries. Pray about one thing you can do to invest in the spiritual lives of your grandchildren. Here are a few things to consider. Becoming a confident contender for the faith requires time, study, and purchasing a book or two. Becoming a memorial stone stacker takes time to think through what you will say and when, and getting a notebook for writing down new memories as they come to mind. Becoming a biblical truth tracker takes time, purchasing a journaling Bible your grandchild would like, and taking notes during your devotionals and Bible studies, as well as during sermons.
Is the sacrifice worth it? The time, money, and effort invested in the spiritual lives of our grandchildren yield benefits that far outweigh any entertainment gadget we could buy them. We’re impacting their eternity. Share on X
By Tricia Scribner
A autora convidada provavelmente é excelente no que faz. Ela provavelmente é mãe, mas talvez não. Ela certamente tem coisas interessantes a dizer; caso contrário, não teria recebido o convite para ser autora convidada. Gostamos da autora convidada. Ela é nossa amiga.
GA,
While I appreciate the sincerity and care for the well-being of your family – even the Pharisees did the same – I wondering in some sense re the approach….
So much seems like you are going to do the work – instead of allowing God to reveal Himself to them as individual. That you are desperately working to indoctrinate them into a mold that you have been indoctrinated into….
Is that really reflecting the high call in Christ??
At what point is God HImself relevant in a person’s life rather than you having them all wrapped up with the neat little bow that is made in the image of the religious expression you find somehow meaningful and satisfying….
Greg,
Thank you for your thoughts! I agree that indoctrination without relationship or revelation is pointless. So is trying to make someone fit into a mold. (I for sure never did!) I am so glad that we agree on that! That being said, our goal is to help our kids think through issues. If there is anything we have learned from the “youth exodus” statistics (the number of kids who walk away from the faith and never return), it’s that just presenting kids with “believe this, do that” is not effective. Growing up with a Christian upbringing does not in any way guarantee that the kids will believe what you teach them when they become adults. All we can do as parents and guardians and mentors is present truth as best we know it, and then provide the REASONS for why we believe that what we are teaching is true. (Not “true for me” or “what works,” but for reals, legit truth.)
If what we are teaching is true, there will be good reasons to believe so. If what a person is teaching is not true, they often resort to fear tactics to keep kids from questioning. That is absolutely what we are AGAINST here at Mama Bear! We aim to present God as we’ve learned about Him, because that is what God has called us to do with our kids and grandkids (Deuteronomy 6) And then we allow the Holy Spirit to meet them on a personal level. There is no nice neat bow (again, we agree!) There is no mold outside of God’s teachings, moral commands etc. for what a Christian should look like, what personality they should have, what style they should have. There is so much freedom in Christ within basic boundaries!
I know that there are a lot of Christian groups who do not take this approach, and that is partly why we do what we do. We may not be perfect, but we aim for critical thinking, not indoctrination.
I love that you are so concerned about the hearts of our kids and how fear-based teaching has affected people. We stand arm-in-arm with you on that. But for anyone who has read our books, that is not what we do.
And just out of curiosity, since you brought it up, what “mold” do you think is reflected in our ministry or this blog that you think we are trying to indoctrinate kids into? That’s an honest question. If we are doing something wrong, I’d like the chance to correct it. Thank you again for your engagement!
Hillary,
You are obviously diving into some deep waters.
First, to get some clarification, I understood this as an Alisha Childers’ blog… Am I off base? Is this your blog? I am fine with that as well – but at least I want to understand who I am interacting with. Thanks for the clarification.
As to the issues – they are HUGE. I see significant infection by evangelical ideology throughout this site – anti-Christ infection. A true follower of Christ is not involved in half the sort of fear mongering/hang-wringing that I see here.
AT THE SAME TIME – at least in terms of how you have personally interacted with me, I see at least some level of a genuinely sincere very hum;an effort – and an avoidance of the frequent belligerence that infects so many evangelicals. Needless to say, I find this positive.
Without going on, let’s try this one item – re the statement in “About”
“Christianity is increasingly under attack, and your children need to be able to defend their faith against those who would try to undermine…”
“Christianity” is increasingly under attack – where is this is coming from?? I see no such thing any where in the United States (I assume you are citizen of the same) except in the pathologically persecution complexed indoctrinated minds of gullible religious people…. Does that really fulfill the high call in Christ??
The greatest attack on anything remotely resembling “Christianity” would likely have been by the so called “reformers” e.g. Calvin, Luther et. al. on the Anabaptists…. I would encourage actually spending a few hours studying REAL attacks – rank oppression – brutality – murder – nearly sorts of genocide – by individuals who are essentially the forebears of the modern white American evangelical community….
You asked for a chance to correct – I am providing a starting place. Get rid of the phoney, anti-Christ fear-mongering and persecution complex!!
Sincerely
In Jesus of Nazareth – a man – attested to by God!
I’m a grandmother from London England and I’m really excited to learn ways I can interact with my grandchildren in the ways of God.
Welome Sarah! We love our grandmama bears!