Dreams for Your Grandchild (eBook)

The Hidden Power of a Catholic Grandparent

Allen R. Hunt (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018 | 1. Auflage
200 Seiten
Beacon Publishing (Verlag)
9781635820164 (ISBN)

Infos

Every Catholic grandparent dreams of having grandchildren who grow up to be healthy, happy, and, most of all, vibrant in their faith. But with so many influences competing for our grandkids, we might begin to doubt that such a thing is possible. We might wonder how much of an impact we really have. I'm worried about my grandchildren. They don't go to Mass. Is there anything I can do? Do I, as a grandparent, truly have the power to make a difference in my grandkids' lives? Allen Hunt answers these questions with a confident 'Yes.'

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Every Catholic grandparent dreams of having grandchildren who grow up to be healthy, happy, and, most of all, vibrant in their faith. But with so many influences competing for our grandkids, we might begin to doubt that such a thing is possible. We might wonder how much of an impact we really have. I'm worried about my grandchildren. They don't go to Mass. Is there anything I can do? Do I, as a grandparent, truly have the power to make a difference in my grandkids' lives? Allen Hunt answers these questions with a confident "e;Yes."e; In this clear, easy-to-read book, the popular speaker and author shows that a grandparent can be one of the greatest influences on a child's spiritual life, and he offers concrete ways to help grandparents make the most of this opportunity. With an abundance of key ideas, reflection questions, action steps, prayers, and tools, he charts a course that grandparents will find easy and natural to follow in order to enhance their relationship with their grandchildren and introduce them to a vibrant faith life. To any grandparent who has ever felt helpless in the face of a changing and often toxic world, Dreams for Your Grandchild offers the encouragement and the direction you've been looking for, whether your grandchildren are toddlers or teens. Perfect for grandparents or grandparents-to-be, this book celebrates the richness of family life and brings generations together.

Textauszug

1. YOUR DREAMS

Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

—Joshua 24:15

I hear it every time.

Last year, I spoke in twenty-five states. In parishes, arenas, schools, funeral homes, business seminars, and fund-raising galas. And in almost every setting, the same question popped up.

The Number One Question I Get Asked

It usually happens like this.

An older man walks up alongside me and whispers, “Can I ask you something in private?” We find a room or a hallway and stand in a quiet place for just a moment.

I see the pain in his face and ask, “How may I help you?”

“I am worried about my grandchildren. They don’t go to Mass. What can I do?”

“Tell me about your family,” I say.

First, I see the pain. Then, I hear it.

“They are all just so busy. My kids work. My grandchildren play soccer, and spend lots of time on their computers and phones. They are all so busy doing so many things. And they tell me they just don’t have time to go to Mass. I’m worried. I don’t think my daughter and her husband are interested in Catholicism at all. And they are not teaching my grandchildren anything about it.”

The grandfather feels the pain and asks, “Is it my fault? Did I do something wrong? I tried really hard, and now they don’t go to Mass at all. And my grandchildren are getting nothing. I’m worried.”

Like this man, grandparents can feel like they missed their opportunity. Their own children are grown now and have lost some or all interest in the Church.

Then the grandfather asks, “What can I do about it?”

I respond, “Well done! You’re asking exactly the right question.”

What can I do about it? Is this your question? Are you worried about your grandchild(ren)? Are you concerned their future will not include the Catholic faith, or any faith at all? Does it pain you to see all the obstacles the world places in the path of your grandchild and the Church?

I have good news. That pain you’re feeling is a gift from God.

In this book, I will show you why God gives you that pain and what you can do about it. You can use it for good. It’s a gift. In fact, it’s a vocation. God made you to be a grandparent.

If you are a new grandparent, God is giving you a new vocation. If you are a seasoned grandparent, God invites you to get really clear on what your role means and why He gave you this vocation in the first place.

Like you, I have been observing and am deeply worried about the culture where our grandchildren will grow—and are growing—up. In many ways, it is a toxic place. We know there is something wrong but no one seems able to fix it. The saturation of sexual messages. The instability. The widespread violence. The lack of respect for other human beings. Illegitimacy. Abused children. Neglect. The cruelty and isolation often created by social media. The hostility toward, and even mockery of, our Church and our Catholic faith.

I imagine you worry like I do. Watching children grow up today feels a lot like watching a James Bond movie in which the bad guy has kidnapped a girl and is waiting to kill her at the end of a slow-moving conveyor belt. At times, it feels like your grandchildren have been placed on the culture’s conveyor belt. That belt empties into a huge wood chipper where lives, relationships, and futures are churned up and spit out. And your gut is telling you to do something to prevent that from happening to your grandchild-fast, before the bad guy wins.

That is why I wrote this book. This book is for you, and for me.

This book is for us because the battle for our grandchildren has already begun. Whoever wants them the most will get them. This is a fight you can win.

Don’t Waste Your Pain

If you are feeling that pain as you watch your grandchildren growing up separated from the Catholic Church, please know it is sending an important message. If it hurts you to watch our culture growing ever more toxic, please know that pain is good. Yes, it is a good thing that it’s painful. That pain in your soul exists because there is a lot at stake. It is the first step on your journey.

What is your pain telling you? First, it is God getting your attention. C. S. Lewis used to say that pain is God’s megaphone to get our attention in the middle of all the noise of our lives. God whispers to us in our pleasures. He shouts to us in our pain.

Remember Jonah and the whale. Jonah wants to go another direction from where God wants him to go. When God wants to get Jonah’s attention, He sends him on a cruise in the belly of a whale. After three days in that belly, at the bottom of the sea, Jonah finally says, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord” (Jonah 2:7). Finally, God has Jonah’s attention—in the pain.

Second, that pain means you have a choice: to do something or to do nothing. God is nudging you. He is calling you through that uncomfortable pain in your soul. He is inviting you out of the pain and into something deeper and truer. Trust Him.

God can bring purpose out of the pain you are feeling. He not only can, but He will. God hopes to use that pain to do significant things in your life and in the lives of the people around you.

Very simply, God is nudging you forward. He is calling you into action. You have a role to play.

God allows pain for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes the pain results from dumb choices we make—for instance, when we put our hand on the burner of a hot stove. Sometimes God allows pain so that you and I will learn to depend on Him and trust Him more deeply. Sometimes we learn something very deep through our pain. If you never had a problem, you would never realize just how much you need God. Without pain, you and I might think we were self-sufficient. Sometimes God allows pain because He wants to give you or me a task. He often allows pain in my life to give me the opportunity to serve other people. Pain makes us humble and sensitive to the needs of others and also to the nudging of God.

God never wastes a hurt—but you can waste it if you do not learn from it or share it. God invites you to use your pain to help someone else. He wants to redeem your pain.

St. John Paul II said, “Don’t waste your suffering.” In other words, put your suffering to work for your own salvation, for your family, and for the kingdom of God. Suffering offered to Christ is precious to our Lord. Don’t waste it. Offer it up with Christ for the salvation of your grandchildren’s souls.

Your calling is emerging from God. He nudges you in your pain to do something. To dream big. To serve bigger.

Don’t waste your pain. Use it.

Grandparent Dreams

Dream. That’s what grandparents do. Grandparents dream deep dreams for their families. Grandfathers hold longings and desires for the grandchildren who carry their names. Grandmothers harbor hopes for the future of their families and the faith of their grandchildren.

Grandparents dream and hope. It’s what they do; it’s just who they are.

Grandmothers and grandfathers hope for:

• healthy bodies and futures for their grandchildren

• excellent education of their grandchildren’s minds to think and create like God intends

• thriving marriages and relationships for the family’s generations to come

• vibrant faith inspired by the beauty and genius of Catholicism

• all their family to come to happiness with Jesus in this life and in the world to come

These grandparent dreams come from God. He planted them in you.

Yet, too many just haven’t thought about their vocation as grandparents very much. Few grandparents I meet are intentional about what they really want and what they will actually do for their grandchildren. They just kind of let it happen.

Worse, the temptation is to focus on the wrong things, to have misplaced priorities. Ask yourself: If you had the choice between your grandchild having a great career and your grandchild having a great faith, which would you choose? What does your answer to that question teach you about yourself?

God dreams for more. After all, a lot is at stake: your family.

Your Deepest Desires

You may want to pass the torch. The teachings of Catholicism have shaped every part of your life. You grew up in a Catholic home and a Catholic family. You and your siblings attended Catholic school. Your...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.9.2018
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-13: 9781635820164 / 9781635820164