What Do You Want Your Grandchildren to Know About Your Grandparents?

“Hey Grandpa, can I come and see you and Grandma for a week this summer?”

Our grandson, Rick

It was one of our grandsons who called me from his college in Florida. Mrs. Ross and I were excited about the request even though we knew it meant that we would be paying for his airfare.

While we work out the date of his arrival and departure it dawned on me that one use of our time together could be that my wife and I could tell him about our grandparents and the legacy they have left for him. It is important because we are the only people on earth who can teach him what our grandparents taught us. So we are going to be intentional about that when he gets here in a few weeks.

Here is why it is important: Because he needs to know where he came from – not just his mom and dad and not just his grandparents, but beyond that. We believe that if he knows something about his ancestors it will help him discover his destiny and thus live out the meaning and purpose of his own life.

Now we must decide what we want him to know about our grandparents and then we must devise a way of telling him about them that will interest him and preserve their legacy in his heart and mind.

Let’s take those two issues one at a time.

First of all, what do we want him to know about our grandparents?

This powerful question will cause us to explore the recesses of our memories to recall the few encounters we had with our grandparents, most of them were when we were wee children, and then extrapolate from those memories the life-lessons worthy of passing on to our grandson.

At lunch today I asked Mrs. Ross what her earliest recollections were of her maternal grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma Brown. She immediately told me the story Grandpa Brown’s early death from emphysema. With a slight quiver in her voice she said, “Grandpa Brown smoked himself to death.” Then she expanded the story to tell about one of Grandpa Brown’s sons, her Uncle Bill. She recalled Uncle Bill saying to her, “I’m just like my father. I’m going to smoke myself to death.” And you know what? That is exactly what he did.

This is an example of the kind of story that can be shared with a college-age grandson who has already been tempted to try things much more harmful than cigarettes. Such a story from and about a family member personalizes the life lesson and burns it on the heart and in the mind of the listener.

Can you think of a story from your childhood about your grandparents that taught you something about life? Is there some way that your grandparents treated you or something that they taught you that makes you who you are today?

Both of my grandparents, especially my grandfathers, were the kind of men who wanted to convey life lessons to their grandchildren.

My maternal grandfather, Grandpa Filatreau, was a great letter writer. He was also a confirmed Democrat and was willing to render his opinion on all things political. He didn’t live far from Richard Nixon’s parent’s home in Whittier California.  He alleged he knew Richard Nixon as a boy and knew “that S.O.B. was a crook when he was a boy stealing money from his parent’s grocery store.” No one ever really believed his story, but it was so much fun to have him tell it that we didn’t bother to challenge him on its authenticity.

My Paternal grandfather, who homesteaded in Colorado about 100 years ago, was also a teacher of sorts. He wasn’t educated – I don’t think he went to school beyond the 6^th or 7^th grade, but later in life he did do quite a bit of writing and he had a Christian radio show about Bible prophecy, and he even wrote a little book titled, “Where Do We Go from Here?”

So, there are many stories I can tell my grandson about my grandparents, and since he is studying for the ministry, many will be quite meaningful to him because he has this same desire to teach and preach and share the Good News with others.

The other issue we are forced to deal with is HOW; how are we going to communicate these stories to our grandson in a way that will be memorable for him?

Because our time with him will be limited we must schedule a time to talk specifically about his great-grandparents.

The second thing we must do is get some photos out so he can see what they looked like.

The third thing will must do is share with him some of the letters my Grandpa Filatreau wrote and show him the little book Grandpa Sapp wrote.

Photographs and tangible items (such as Grandpa Sapp’s book) have a way of extending the story and focusing the lessons for a longer-term impact. Visual aids make stories come to life.

The fourth thing we must do is photograph him with those mementos and give him hard copies of the pictures.

The fifth thing, which would be the best thing of all, would be for us to video the entire session. That takes more work and creates its own unique set of challenges, but would be the most valuable thing of all because it could then be shared with the other grandchildren, some of whom are too young to appreciate their significance.

Now it’s your turn? What Do You Want Your Grandchildren to Know About Your Grandparents?

Start out by jotting down your thoughts, decide what you want to say, to whom do you want to say it, determine how you are going to do it, then do it!

Here’s a quote I saw somewhere that summarizes this whole effort:

“It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.”

If you are anything like me, you don’t want your grandchildren going wrong.