When Your Kids Don't Know Their Grandparents Well

Dale Russell had a problem a lot of grandparents

would recognize. His granddaughter was two years old

and lived five hours away. He'd do the thing everybody tells you

to do, hop on a video call, and she would lose interest almost

immediately. A toddler doesn't want to look at a face on a

screen and make conversation. She'd wander off after a minute.

He'd be left holding a phone, watching the top of her head

while she played with something on the floor. Five hours was too

far for a quick visit, and Dale could see the future. At this

rate, he'd be a nice man who showed up a couple of times a

year, and not much more. We'll come back to what Dale figured

out. But first,

welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. I

know that feeling from the grandparent's side of it.

There's a distance between me and some of my grandkids that a

phone call just doesn't handle. They're old enough to carry on a

conversation. Catherine and I will ask questions like, how was

your schoolwork today? What did you do today? They lived across

the street from us for years, so they know us very well. And they

also come to visit several times a year. But it's still not the

same as being able to see them whenever we like. A lot of

families are spread out now. grandparents live in one state,

parents in another. The grandkids grow up on a handful

of visits a year. And jobs move people. Housing prices move

people. Nobody sat down and planned it this way. Here we are

anyway. Some things get lost in the process. The stories your

parents could tell your children about where the family came from

and what God did for them back when things were tight. The

habits and small kindnesses grandkids pick up just from

being around older people who love the Lord. Those don't

transfer over a two-day Christmas visit with everybody

rushing. There's a verse that talks about this. Psalm 145, 4.

Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts and

let them proclaim your power. Look at that verb, tell. One

generation tells the next. It's spoken out loud from somebody

who was there to somebody who wasn't. David is describing a

parent or a grandparent saying, Let me tell you what God did for

us the year your daddy got sick. preserves our stories and keeps

the knowledge of God alive. It often happens informally in the

car or standing in the sink drying dishes. That's why the

distance costs what it costs. So if distance is what you have,

use what you have. Video calls do more than they seem to do in

the moment. A visit twice a year that everybody plans around and

protects on the calendar will accomplish more than four visits

nobody prepared for. And here's the piece most people

underestimate. What you say matters more than how long you

talk. A five-minute call where you tell your grandchild one

thing God did in your life will outlast a 30-minute call about

the weather and the ball game. The goal is to hand something

down. So Dale stopped trying to make a toddler hold still for a

chat. could move onto a screen. The answer was reading. He set

things up so he could read her a picture book over live video,

turning the pages while she watched and pointed. And the

books he reached for were mostly Bible stories, Noah and the Ark,

David and the Giant. He'd read and then the two of them would

talk about what happened. Dale breaks it down for us. Christian

grandparents have one thing above all to hand down, and

that's their faith. Five hours couldn't stop that. It's just

how he did it. The miles stayed the same. What changed was the

activity. Dale quit asking a two-year-old to hold up her end

of a conversation and gave her something to do with him instead.

And look at what he reached for. Bible stories. He went straight

to the thing Psalm 145 asks a grandparent or a parent to hand

down, and a screen turned out to be good enough for the job.

Here's today's challenge. Pick one person in your family who

lives far away, a grandchild or a grandparent if you're on the

other end of this, and set up one call this week and give it

an activity. Read a book out loud or show them what you're

cooking, and somewhere in the middle of it. Tell them the one

thing God has done for you that they've never heard. Just one

story will do each time. That's what it looks like for one

generation to tell the next. Father, thank you for our

families, including the ones stretched out over a lot of

miles. You know every household listening right now and exactly

how far apart they live. For the grandparents who feel like

strangers to their own grandchildren, give them a way

in and show them what to do. For the parents in the middle, give

them the energy to keep making these calls happen when nobody

else feels like it. And let the stories of what you have done

get told out loud in these families so the next generation

hears about them from somebody who is there. In Jesus' name,

amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has been an

encouragement to you, would you take a minute and leave a rating

and review? It helps more people find these devotions, and it

only takes a moment. I'd be so grateful. Thanks for joining me

on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the miles are

what they are, and the telling can still happen. Make the call

and tell the story. Come back next time for more encouragement

to help you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God

bless and have a great day.