For grandparents, perhaps there has never been a better time to support and serve your children and grandchildren.
I don’t know if there has ever been a better time for us to support and serve our children and grandchildren. As the culture grows more tumultuous, our grandchildren are confused, scared, and overwhelmed during these tough times. And let’s face it—we are too. But our additional life experience might help us in supporting grandchildren during tough times like the current pandemic and be able to believe that “this too shall pass.”
I’m not suggesting that we have answers that nobody else has, or that we have no fears. Rather, we are in a unique position to help our younger loved ones navigate the confusion and fear and help them lighten the load. We’ve been in similar situations before and we’ve found ways to cope. In many cases, we’ve been strengthened physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Romans 5:3-5 tells us that “…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Have you learned to persevere through tough times?
Have you seen how God can use pain and suffering to deepen your faith and increase your reliance on Him?
Maybe you, like I, have experienced a hope that transcends the difficult things that life in this world can throw at us. Worldly hope is a “maybe.” As in, I anticipate that things may get better. But biblical hope, grounded in faith in God, provides the certainty that something better is coming.
This is the time for supporting grandchildren during tough times by modeling and encouraging hope.
Beyond leading your families to trust in God’s divine sovereignty, there are some practical things you can do right now to support and serve your children and grandchildren.
While our children and grandchildren struggle with real life concerns and feel anxious, perhaps we can help them turn their focus. We can guide them to answers that will never be found on the evening news or in an online chat room. Let’s remind them that we have the certain hope of a life that will be free from confusion, fear, and anxiety. That hope can be found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can empathize with their pain — that’s important — and provide a glimpse of relief and calmer days ahead.
I’m grateful to be a part of my younger family members’ lives. For now, I want to express that gratitude through ways I can support and serve them. A few weeks ago, I was talking with one of my daughters about her fears about the 2020 pandemic.
I related to her mounting anxiety. But then I gently reminded her that God loves and cares about all of us. We talked about other difficult situations we faced in our family and how God met us in that pain and helped us through. I anticipate more opportunities for supporting grandchildren during tough times through conversations like these, and that I’ll continue to serve and support, primarily through listening and offering words of hope. I encourage you to do the same.
Joannie DeBrito draws from more than 30 years of diverse experience as a parent educator, family life educator, school social worker, administrator, and licensed mental health professional. Joannie is a regular contributor to Focus on the Family.
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