As a Louisiana gal with weekday preschool roots, I’ve never met a national holiday I didn’t like and wouldn’t leverage to put Jesus at the center.  National Grandparents Day is Sunday, September 12 and we’ll be celebrating and teaching the Biblical mandate found in Deuteronomy 6:20 to ‘teach your children and their children after them’ the decrees and commands God has given His people. National Grandparents Day always falls on the Sunday following Labor Day.

Before the pandemic quarantine we began a Grandparenting With A Purpose initiative in children’s ministry. With the average age of the first time grandparent in America being 47, this is a demographic and a remarkable moment of life children’s ministry can step into naturally. But, it was during the quarantine we got great traction with online through a Faith Grandparenting Facebook group offering specifically curated resources for grandparents to share their faith in Jesus with their grandchildren. We also offer in-person and Facebook Live workshops, one each spring and one each fall.

The pandemic has both separated grandparents from their grandchildren and has brought others geographically closer together. Many families have reset their priorities by relocating closer to grandparents or grandparents have moved closer to their grandchildren. Though the holiday is a secular holiday, it’s a natural invite for intergenerational worship and recognition. The Legacy Coalition, which provides weekly webinars to confidently equip Christian grandparents to intentionally share their faith notes, “National Grandparents Day is an important official marker of intergenerational relationships.”

To learn more about the history of National Grandparents Day, click here.

To ponder ideas to celebrate National Grandparents Day, check out…
The Legacy Coalition: Christian Grandparenting Ministry 
GrandparentsDay.org
The Legacy Project
Proper spelling and more

We are preparing a photo station and inviting the children to bring a grandparent or grandfriend to Sunday school on Sunday, September 12. We’ll open the Welcome Center early for the children to play games with their grandparents/grandfriends. They’ll attend a 10-minute small group time together, then all will gather in the large group to sing and dance and learn a bit. I will have a dedicated photographer to get all the shots. When the children return to their small group, the grandparents/grandfriends will come with me for a short, interactive lesson on Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78. We’ll then share how we can partner with them to confidently and intentionally share their faith in Jesus with their grands. This is what family does and we are family.

The Children’s Moment will be a ‘hands up’ blessing with copies of scriptures to pray for grandchildren (English and Spanish) found here along with other free resources found at GrandparentingWithAPurpose.com. 

Before you think, “What about the child who doesn’t bring a grandfriend?”, I’m thinking there is a small group or two of senior saints in your local church who would be thrilled to step in. After all, we are family!

“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” Psalm 78:4

Brooke McGlothlin is a co-founder of Million Praying Moms. Million Praying Moms is a community equipping parents to make prayer their first and best response to the challenges of parenting. Brooke has authored several books and resources and is known as a prayer mentor.

I was thrilled to be included on her launch team for Praying Mom because it was not about your typical book launch strategies, but rather prayer. Each day we were invited to specifically pray with a prompt through social media. After reading her other books and being involved in this prayer community I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her book. 

This book is gold.

Praying Mom is filled with multiple testimonies of parents on their knees, some on their faces, before the Lord who hears His own. The community of prayer warriors willing to share their challenges, their hopes, their disappointments, their holy habits, their tips, their vocabulary speaks to parents today. I say today because it wasn’t long ago we in the trenches needed to give testimony to God being real. Today, we need to give testimony to God being good. We know He is good in our heads, but sometimes we need to speak it regularly, repeatedly in prayer for our hearts to hear it, for our lives to live it. You can download a free chapter of Praying Mom at www.millionprayingmoms.com. 

Praying Mom is separated into two parts. Part one addresses seven challenges for the praying mom including “I have small children. I can’t even think, much less pray!” with a gentle breath prayer prompt in the Table of Contents, “Lord, teach me to pray in the moments of my day.” Part two offers scripture-inspired prayers for today’s Christian Mom which include specific scriptures followed by prayers to pray those scriptures right back to the Lord. Short succinct prayers for…
when you need hope
when your child needs help
when you need more joy
when you’re angry
when you’re worn-out and weary
when you’re afraid
when you need God to move
when  you need strength to make it
when you’re sad
when you need peace.

There are two appendices: The Wake-Up Prayer and The Way To Salvation. If it’s been a bit since you’ve shared with someone the way to salvation in Jesus, and you need a refresher, those three pages are worth the price of the book alone.

The prayers are all about praying scripture: declare the trust over your heart and mind, then ruthlessly apply it. “This means you might have to choose to believe God’s truth over what you can see, hear, taste, or touch over and over again until you believe it.” (pg 75) 

At the end of each short chapter is a call to action she calls Pray It Forward offering several things to remember and several cautions to overcome: Remind yourself that feelings aren’t facts. (pg 39)  Then the gold: Scripture Prayers. The scripture is first, followed by the prayer vocabulary to pray it back to the Lord. 

“There is an intimate link between God’s Word and prayer. We need both in order to be adequately prepared to face the world.”

Brooke McGlothlin, Praying Mom, pg 45

I have always had a limited vocabulary. Regularly meeting with prayer partners have helped me grow in the holy habit of prayer. There are two other well-worn, go-to books which have coached me into a deeper and more faithful prayer habit for my family and the families I serve: Stormie Omartian’s Power of a Praying Parent and A Diary of Private Prayer: John Baillie, updated and revised by Susanna Wright. I heard about the John Baillie classic from Priscilla Schirer about four years ago and is never far from my Bible.

My copy of Praying Mom is already written all over, pages folded, and been handled/wrestled. Praying Mom is a resource for today’s Christian parents written by a prayer warrior. Don’t we all need more prayer warriors to model and tell the stories of God’s goodness?

“So my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” Isaiah 55:11

Last week I traveled with my traveling bestie to Boston. We checked out the Monet exhibit with it’s ‘Boston stories’ and the power of visual narratives on display by the Paper Stories of Ekua Holmes at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, and enjoyed some downtown Concord shopping. We were surrounded by creativity, collage, children’s books, and Christian community. I didn’t know how empty my creativity bucket was until it started getting refilled.

The best part of the trip was the radically ordinary hospitality we experienced at two dear friends’ homes. Both hostesses, and their families, embraced our presence with great food and table-life filled with sacred conversations. 

Rosaria Butterfield, in The Gospel Comes With A House Key, writes that Christian hospitality is what loved her to Jesus when she was openly hostile to the good news of the gospel. Dinner times of table-life with ordinary food and conversations regularly, faithfully offered by a humble couple were the key to opening her mind and heart to living a life for Jesus. Today, she and her family open their home, spare room, table, and crockpot in ways that would make most of us shudder. She reminds me of just how good the good news is. 

Butterfield challenges her Christian readers to be ready to assume the posture of host, obeying God’s command to love our neighbor, or the posture of guest, graciously and humbly receiving nourishment and care from our brothers and sisters in Christ. “Ordinary hospitality works on the principle of tithing. God commands we are either returning 10% to our church or receiving aid from our church because we desperately need help. Both giving and receiving bless the church.” 

There was so much laughter, so many cups of tea, and multiple conversations around the gathering of God’s people and His Word. One conversation in particular I wish to share.

Sometimes mighty warriors stay with the stuff.

In 1 Samuel 25 we read how David’s men have a run in with Nabal, a Calebite. David sends a small group of ten young men to Nabal asking for favor, asking for help. Nabal is beyond salty, but ‘surly and mean in his dealings’. When the ten return and report to David, it doesn’t go well. David tells his Mighty Men to ‘strap on your sword’. ‘About 400 men went up with David, while 200 ‘STAY WITH THE SUPPLIES.’ The KJV reads, “abode by the stuff.” 

Abigail, Nabal’s wife, goes on to save the day, but of the 600 of David’s Mighty Men, 200 of them stay by the stuff. 

Who are the mighty ones who may not be ‘strapping on their swords’ yet use their swords staying by the stuff? It’s one thing to love on those who are on the front lines of the ministry you lead, but we all have the mighty with swords who ‘stay by the stuff’.  Finance Committees who have to make big decisions for the local church as a whole. Trustees who have to answer for a whole lot of ‘stuff’. Your church saints who can surround you and your kids in prayer. Do you have a prayer team? Are we only reaching out to the local church leadership when we want something, or also checking on them in the parking lot before and after services. 

Perhaps YOU are the mighty who are called to ‘abode by the stuff.’ While the denomination and the world is making so much noise, we are staying the course of making disciples of Jesus Christ in our local church, in our backyard, from our spare room, table and crockpot. Be not distracted nor consumed by the battles elsewhere, but rather strap on your sword and abode by the stuff well. 

I’m still processing and holding dear the experiences of last week. Thanks to the hospitality of our hosts, Mr. Bob is getting to taste some new recipes, which he is all-in for. He is our family’s #1 Mighty Man. He stays by the stuff. I can not do what I do and be who I am if it were not for Mr. Bob staying by our stuff. 

Who is staying by your stuff? How can you show your appreciation and gratitude this week for the mighty who stay by the stuff?

“It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.” 3 John 1:3

“The local church has adopted the language of our education system, but not the practices,” said Rev. Jeremy Bannister at the Discipleship Begins at Home online conference. He goes on to share that our school system has metrics to measure academic standards, regular conditioning for team sports, and accountability measures for every extracurricular commitment our families engage in, but not discipleship and followership of Jesus.

As leaders in the local church our job is to equip the saints to do the good work of following Jesus and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Parents and grandparents are on the front line. Parents and grandparents know their desired outcome: for their kids to love Jesus with their whole hearts for their whole lives. It’s up to us, the Christian education professionals, to give them the tools and the metrics of what is developmentally appropriate and be honest about what it’ll take.

Be honest that one hour of Sunday school will never be enough to learn the skills necessary to beat the devil and grow a robust faith over the other 167 hours of a week.

Be honest that most Sunday school curricula offers the basic foundation of God made you and Jesus loves you over and over and over again. Repeated every year. Year after year. This will not nurture a robust faith able to engage with a loud and angry culture coming at them through every means possible.

Be honest that some parents and grandparents haven’t been trained in their own discipleship with the same standards, commitment, and metrics to confidently know what will make a hill of beans by the time their child walks across the graduation stage for that 12-year diploma or takes on their first job with a Godly resilience.

Be honest that we can do our own discipleship better by modeling our own consistent holy habits of systematic Bible reading, tithing, serving the world for the greater good, engaging in robust conversation by asking good questions, and not forsaking gathering together in Christian community in ways beyond what our jobs require.

Be honest to ask ourselves, “If every disciple of Jesus is just like me, where will God’s kingdom be here on earth?”

This is the good news. There’s no time like the present to get started.

Prayerfully consider an accountability partner to begin reading the Bible in a systematic way. How can you teach from a textbook when you haven’t experienced it as a whole to be reasonable and applicable? 

Tip: Once a child begins reading chapter books, they can read a chapter of the Bible. Not as a study, but to read. Read to learn the whole Jesus story, to learn the language of our Creator, and to recognize the voice of our good shepherd. Read the book aloud. Find an easy-reader Bible and just read. If a full bible, begin in Luke because it’s a narrative. Dr. Luke wrote what he researched from eye witnesses.

The Next Generations Ministries offers a a fabulous Discipleship for Life edition of metrics for developmentally appropriate holy habit practices beginning at birth-one year old and every year following. Not in a legalistic, check off the box way, but a gentle reminder of what starting and continuing looks like for a disciple of Jesus. They also have a 5-year plan for students and adults who haven’t begun the Discipleship for Life edition for an intentional start or re-start. These resources were shared at the Discipleship Begins at Home conference. I’ve been able to roll some of these out easily and effectively.

Prayerfully consider along with your significant other how you can grow into regular, systematic tithing. 

Prayerfully consider who you’d like to spend time with (someone older and more spiritually mature) and invite him/her to co-lead a small group Bible study for the fall. There are three seasons for small group Bible study: fall, winter/spring, summer. You will grow in deeper relationships, sacred conversations, and Biblical wisdom in community with healthy accountability. If you’re a young-married, co-lead with another who has been married for a long time. If you’re a mom, find a mom further down the road and more mature in her walk to co-lead. If you’re a more-mature, find a younger to co-lead with.

Prayerfully consider offering parents and grandparents this fall a couple of metrics for daily (Bible reading, prayer), weekly (fellowship, giving), monthly (service) soul training to be experienced at home, along the road, at the table, with conversation prompts to grow a healthy confidence in discipleship. Offer a Parenting With A Purpose class to roll it out, then follow it up with, “How’s it going?”

So. How’s it going?

“May I stand before the throne of God able to say, “Lord Jesus, I did everything I could do to make sure my children are well-founded in the person of Christ.” – Rev. Jeremy Bannister, Discipleship Begins at Home Conference, http://www.TheNextGenerationMinistries.com 

When I downloaded Kevin Williams’ book, Irrational Kindness, I didn’t anticipate the fire it would ignite in me. Kevin is the franchise operator of three Chick-fil-As in my town. We knew each other years ago as parents and active members of our home church located in nearby Woodstock, Georgia.

I always knew him as joyful, reflective, kind, over-the-top generous, and Mr. Positivity. His book did not disappoint. He reads the stories on Audible of his successes, failures, family road trips, driven competition, and experiences through a faith-in-Jesus lens and laugh-out-loud ridiculousness. The book is an absolute delight. He shared of his grandparents, his family, his Chick-fil-A Canton team, and shines the light on so many people in a Forrest Gump kinda way that he is not the focus, only the thread of all of these experiences of irrational no-holding-back, all-in plays. I was so inspired I went directly to one of the restaurants and purchased almost 20 books to give away to kidmin champions and colleagues at my local church and in my kidmin network before I even finished listening to the Audible version. In true irrational kindness and super generous fashion, each book was personally signed and included two stickers along with a gift card for a free sandwich.

Irrational behavior is ‘one of the most difficult behaviors to deal with. When someone is being irrational, they don’t listen to reason, logic, or even common sense…And until that need is fulfilled, or they snap out of it, the irrational person can be unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous.’

I was so inspired, I called a friend who is accustomed to my ‘I’ve got an idea’ and the Irrational Taco Tour began to take shape.

Every local church I have ever known has a nearby, favorite place for Taco Tuesday. Inspired by Kevin, I look at the faithful disciples leading littles and their bigs in the local church as needing a shot of irrational behavior in their lives, so we’re headed their way.

We set up a Google form with some basic questions like name, church name, district in North Georgia, and the address of their local taco joint. There are 8 districts in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. We had 9 responses within the first 6 hours with all districts represented.

Yeah, we’re doing this! 

With a copy of Kevin’s book in hand, some moustaches, sombrero headbands, and who ever wants to road trip from our district or picked up along the way, we’ll meet over a table for tacos with encouragement, no-fluff, irrational challenges to live out the life of an irrational disciple who has a platform, a local church, and influence to push through, grow resilience muscles, and make some noise for Jesus in their hometown.

This I know. Everyone wants a story. “A crazy pursuit of an extraordinary life,” writes Kevin. A big story. An Esther, Shadrach, John, Daniel story. I want stories of irrational behavior with Jesus friends who behave irrationally to love littles and their bigs to Jesus. 

Kevin writes, “Failure becomes opportunity. Frustration becomes persistence. Deformity becomes strength. Being last becomes being first. Old age becomes a second wind. Uncertainty becomes a chance to dream. Problems we can’t control become an invitation to start looking up to a big God who controls everything.”

I hope I never snap out of it!

What is inspiring you to pursue an irrational, extraordinary life? What are you doing about it? Who are you inviting on the journey?

Our first stop? Los Mezquites Mexican Grill in Adairsville!

Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”