When Your Kids Don't Know Their Grandparents Well

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. Jobs move people. Housing prices move people. Nobody sat down and planned it this way, and here we are anyway.Some things get lost in the spread. 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.This episode opens with Dale Russell, whose granddaughter was two years old and lived five hours away. He did the thing everybody recommends and hopped on a video call, and she lost interest almost immediately. A toddler has no use for making conversation with a face on a screen. She would wander off after a minute, leaving him holding a phone and watching the top of her head. Five hours was too far for a quick visit, and Dale could see where it was headed. At that rate he would be a nice man who showed up a couple times a year.Psalm 145:4 puts a name on what that distance costs: "Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power." Look at the verb. Tell. One generation tells the next, spoken out loud, from somebody who was there to somebody who wasn't. That kind of telling takes a person in the room and enough time for the story to come up on its own. The best of it happens sideways, in the car or standing at the sink drying dishes.So if distance is what you have, use what you have. Video calls do more than they seem to do in the moment, and a visit twice a year that everybody plans around will accomplish more than four visits nobody prepared for. 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 thirty-minute call about the weather. Bart shares his own version of this, the calls with his grandkids that get one-word answers and a shrug. Dale found his way through by changing what the two of them did together on the call. He read her picture books over live video, and the ones he reached for most were Bible stories.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:What gets lost between generations when families live far apartWhy Psalm 145:4 describes faith being handed down out loud, in personOne change that turns a video call into something a young child will stay forChristian grandparents have one thing above all to hand down, and that is their faith. The miles change how it happens. They don't have to stop it.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/321Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.