Raising Grandparents.

“What will your children’s grandchildren say about them on the day of their burial?”

It’s heavy, I know. Dark, even. But maybe this is the question we need to ask ourselves—especially those of us in the Modern West.

Not “Do they have what it takes to play professional ball,” and not “How much money can they make with this degree?” Maybe we need to be asking something more—and parenting with that question in mind.

Good memories aren’t remembered in the future without an effort to cultivate them in the present. Likewise, positive character traits—kindness, perseverance, honesty, gentleness, self-control, empathy, the pursuit of justice and truth, sincerity, compassion—need to be intentionally nurtured in childhood and adolescence. Parenting “backwards” helps us to consider what kinds of adults we hope our children will be, and work towards developing those characteristics in our day to day parenting: it’s not a guarantee our children will fulfill all our hopes and dreams (which is a tall order and deeply unrealistic)—but it’s a heck of an attitude to have about parenting.

It’s the kind of question that takes into consideration legacy, and eternity. The kind of question that understands we’re parenting on a timeline of human history, and our childrens’ lives are an intricate part of that human timeline.

And it begs an answer:
What kind of grandparents are you raising?

{Psalm 90:12}