Real Treasure in Grandma

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  

1 Corinthians 13:1

We have all heard grandma stories to death, but this is not one of those saccharine trips down sweet granny lane.

But hopefully, this may be a wakeup call to any grandparents, aunts, uncles, or anyone involved in the lives of young children who can make a real difference.

This story just happens to be centered around a grandma.

I can’t identify her in this devotion because she doesn’t like attention. She’s very humble and quiet. When she visits someone, you might not even notice when she arrives if you’re not in the same room.

Most often, she quickly greets her grandkids, not making them wait to be noticed. It isn’t simply that she is just another child, because she is respected as an adult. But there is a sense that she can relate to all of the kids in her life. They know she hears them. She sees them, too. She does not disregard anyone simply because of their youth.

I have never met another adult who relates to every age group as well as this grandmom. She maintains high expectations, avoids baby talk, and expects each child to aim for their full potential socially and intellectually.

My friend is patient but does not tolerate misbehavior. Without saying a word, she commands respect without ever having to demand it.

This woman loves every child she calls a grand, including those who are not her biological grandchildren. Even the step-grands are hers to love, and she makes no equivocation. They span a wide age range, from toddler to young adult.

If you asked her what she wants for these young people, it would be for them to find daily purpose because God made them, and her greatest desire is that they all love Jesus and serve Him.

Now she would be the first person to tell you she is not perfect. For that reason, she would tell her grands not to look to her primarily for any answer, but to look to God’s Word to measure the truth about His rules for daily living and stick to them, and to know that God’s Word and His law that will never change.

Believers need to implement this loving way of life in all interactions with others, especially with other believers and our own families.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Now that is treasure worth having!

These are meaningful thoughts from our Lord about the sacrifice of love. The sacrifice of His love that should be lived out loud in the lives of ever believer.

The grandmom in our devotion today is living proof that it can be done. And when we obey God His might and power can keep godly families strong in this world.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

Share the Gospel in your world!

How beautiful are the feet of those who share the Gospel of peace!

Isaiah 52:7